10,900,000, bearing interest until repayment at the rate of 7 per cent per annum, each for such amount and in such form as the Corporation shall think proper, shall be issued by the Corporation to the subscribers to the loan; and the Chinese Envoy to Great Britain shall put his Official seal upon every Bond as evidence that the Chinese Government is bound thereby.

13. The Chinese Government hereby specially authorises the Corporation, as attorneys and Agents for the Chinese Government, the Tsung li Yamen and the Board of Revenue, to issue the said Bonds on the sole responsibility of the Chinese Government, and without the Corporation accepting any responsibility for payment of either interest or principal.

14.—Customs Bonds for the total amount of principal and interest of the loan each for such amount as shall suit the convenience of the Corporation, signed by the Commissioner of Customs for the Treaty Port upon which each Bond is chargeable and sealed by the Provincial Governor General or Governor within whose jurisdiction such Treaty Port is situated, and by the Chinese Superintendent of Customs at such Port, shall be handed to the Shanghai Branch of the Corporation on or before the 15th day of March 1895.

15. The Chinese Government hereby assigns to and charges in favor of the Corporation sufficient of the Customs Revenue at all or any of the Treaty ports, irrespective of the port upon which any Bond may be primarily chargeable, to meet and pay off all the Customs Bonds which have been handed to the Corporation as aforesaid. In the event of circumstances arising which should lead to the non-payment of a Customs Bond or Bonds on presentation the Chinese Government hereby authorises the Corporation or its Agents to proceed to collect at any Treaty port or ports Customs Revenue sufficient to meet such Bond or Bonds.

16. In the event of the money to meet

payment of interest or instalment of principal not being handed to the Corporation at their Branch in Shanghai at due date, the said Customs Bonds may be tendered, and shall be accepted, in payment of duties to the amount of the face values together with any interest in arrear up to or after the due date of the Bond. A Bond primarily chargeable to any one Custom House may be tendered, and shall be accepted, at any other Custom House.

17. Should the money to pay the interest on the loan and the instalments as they become due not be punctually provided as stipulated in the terms of this agreement, or under the said Customs Bonds, or from the Revenue of the Customs, then His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China and his successors and the Imperial Chinese Government shall remain liable for, and shall pay, the said interest and instalments immediately after the failure of the Customs to do so shall have occurred, together with interest thereon to the day of actual pay

ment.

18. The Chinese Government guarantees that the prior charges upon the Customs Revenue now outstanding do not exceed £700,000 Sterling and Tls. 500,000 besides loans issued by the Imperial Chinese Government at the present moment at Shanghai and Canton to the extent of about Tls. 2,000,000 at each place with interest thereon.

19. The said Customs Bonds shall be returned to the Customs authorities according to the amount of the loan from time to time repaid by instalments, as and when the money is received by the Corporation.

20. This agreement is made out in English and Chinese, and in the event of any question arising between the parties hereto as to the tone [? true] meaning thereof the same shall be determined by the text of the English thereof which shall be taken as the true text.

21. The terms of this agreement and its signature by the contracting parties shall be immediately after signature reported to the Throne by the Board of Revenue and Tsung li Yamen in a joint supplementary Memorial, and copies of that Memorial and of the Imperial Decree received in reply sanctioning this agreement shall be officially handed by the Tsung li Yamen to H. B. M. Minister in Peking for communication to the Corporation.

These presents have been written in duplicate and duly signed by both parties hereto, each retaining one.

NUMBER 1895/2.

GREAT BRITAIN (Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) AND CHINA.

Final Agreement for the Chinese Imperial Government six per cent Sterling loan of 1895.—January 26, 1895.

This Contract is made between the Tsung li Yamen, Peking, acting in conjunction with the Board of Revenue, on behalf of the Imperial Government of, China, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

1.-The Tsung li Yamen hereby authorises the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, acting as agent for the Imperial Government of China, either alone or associated with others selected by the Corporation, to borrow for the Impérial Government of China the sum of Three million pounds Sterling.

2. The rate of interest for the loan shall not exceed six per cent per annum, and shall be payable half yearly, on the thirtieth day of June and thirty first day of December of each year, on the amount of the loan from time to time remaining unredeemed.

3.—The term of the loan shall be twenty years and repayment of principal shall be made by fifteen equal annual drawings commencing on the thirty first day of December nineteen hundred, but the Imperial Government of China shall have the power and right of paying off the loan at par at any time during the aforesaid term of twenty years on giving six months' notice by advertisement in the “Times" newspaper, London.

4. All payments of interest and repayments of principal shall be made to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation by the Imperial Government of China, in accordance with the schedule to this Contract, and the Imperial Government of China shall hand to the Corporation at their Branch in S'hai funds sufficient to enable them to meet all such payments in Sterling twenty one days before they become due.

5.—The loan shall be issued to the public at a subscription price of not less than ninety five and a half per cent.

6. The Corporation, as Agent for the Imperial Government of China, shall issue to subscribers to the loan Sterling Bonds for the total amount of the loan, each for such amount as shall appear advisable in the discretion of the Corporation, and they shall be sealed by the Minister for China in London as evidence that the Imperial Chinese Government is bound thereby.

7. The Commission to be paid by the Imperial Chinese Government to the Corporation for floating and issuing the loan shall be two per cent clear on the total amount of the loan, that is to say shall be sixty thousand pounds Sterling, and shall be deducted by the Corporation from the proceeds of the loan.

8. All charges for underwriting, stamps, brokerage &c., incurred by the Corporation in connection with the floating and issue of the loan and estimated at

four and a half per cent on the total amount of the loan, shall be borne by the Imperial Chinese Government and shall be deducted by the Corporation from the proceeds of the loan.

9. This loan, subject to loans now remaining unredeemed, shall be charged on the Imperial Maritime Customs Revenue of China, and shall have priority, both regarding principal and interest, over all future loans charges and mortgages, so long as this loan, or any part thereof, shall be unredeemed. No loan, charge or mortgage shall be raised or created which shall take precedence of, or be on equality with this loan or which shall in any manner lessen or impair its security over the said Customs Revenue, so far as required for the annual service of this loan; and any future loan charge or mortgage charged on the said Customs Revenue shall be made subject to this loan, and it shall be so expressed in every agreement for any such future loan, charge or mortgage.

10. This loan shall be further secured by Customs Bonds for the total sterling amount of the loan and interest, issued by the Tsung li Yamen and the Board of Revenue, Peking, and countersigned by the Inspector General of Customs, and all such Customs Bonds shall contain the "priority clause" number nine of this contract. Such Customs Bonds shall be handed to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, in Tientsin, before payment by the Corporation to the Imperial Chinese Government of the proceeds of the loan.

11.—This loan shall be also further collaterally secured by deposit with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation of Sterling Customs Bonds, equal in value altogether to the total amount of the loan and interest, sealed by the Chinese Superintendents of Customs at Treaty ports and by the Governors General or Governors of the Provinces within which such Treaty ports are situated and countersigned by the Foreign Commissioners of Customs at such ports. Such Customs Bonds shall be handed to the Corporation at their Branch in Shanghai within three months from the date of signing this contract and, in the event of the money to meet a payment of interest or instalment of principal not being handed to the Corporation at their Branch in Shanghai at due. date, shall be available for payment of Imperial Maritime Customs duties at all or any of the Treaty ports of China irrespective of the port or ports upon which such Bonds may be primarily chargeable, or in such other manner as stated in the Bonds.

12. Should the loan be floated on better terms than those named herein the Imperial Chinese Government shall have the benefit of the difference, and the Corporation shall share in no economy or profits on the floating of the loan other than its commission of two per cent, clear, aforesaid.

13. The authority hereby given by the Tsung li Yamen to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to borrow money on behalf of the Imperial Government of China on the terms herein named shall remain in force for ten days from the receipt by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, in London of telegraphic advice of the signing of this contract, but the Corporation accepts no responsibility for success or failure in floating the loan.

14. Immediately upon being informed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation that initial arrangements can be made for floating the loan, and before the loan shall be issued to the public, the Board of Revenue and the Tsung li Yamen shall jointly memorialise the Throne and obtain the Imperial sanction for this contract with all the conditions herein specified, and copies of their Memorial and of the Imperial Decree sanctioning this contract shall be officially handed by the Tsung li Yamen to Her Britannic Majesty's Minister in Peking for communication to the Corporation.

Signed by the contracting parties in duplicate, one copy being retained by each party, this first day of the first month of the twenty first year of the Em