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Article VII. No accused or convicted person shall be surrendered if the offence in respect of which his surrender is demanded shall be deemed by the party upon which it is made to be a political offence, or to be an act connected with (connexe a) such an offence, or if he prove to the satisfaction of the Magistrate or of the Court before which he is brought on habeas corpus, or to the Secretary of State, that the requisition for his surrender has, in fact, been made with a view to try or to punish him for an offence of a political character. Article VIII. Warrants, depositions, or statements on oath issued or taken in the dominions of either of the two high contracting parties, and copies thereof, and certificates of or judicial documents stating the fact of conviction, shall be received in evidence in proceedings in the dominions of the other, if purporting to be signed or certified by a Judge, Magistrate, or officer of the country where they were issued or taken : Provided such warrants, depositions, statements, copies, certificates, and judicial documents are authenticated by the oath or solemn affirmation of some witness, or by being sealed with the official seal of the Minister of Justice, or some other Minister of State. Article IX. The surrender shall not take place if, since the commission of the acts charged, the accusation, or the conviction, exemption from prosecution or punishment has been acquired by lapse of time, according to the laws of the country where the accused shall have taken refuge. Article X. If the individual claimed by one of the two high contracting parties in pursuance of the present treaty should be also claimed by one or several other Powers, on account of other crimes committed upon their respective territories, his surrender shall be granted to that State whose demand is earliest in date ; unless any other arrangement should be made between the Governments which have claimed him, either on account of the gravity of the crimes committed, or for any other reasons. Article XI. If the individual claimed should be under process, or condemned by the Courts of the country where he has taken refuge, his surrender may be deferred until he shall have been set at liberty in due course of law. In case he should be proceeded against or detained in such country on account of obligations contracted towards private individuals, his surrender shall, nevertheless, take place, the injured party retaining his right to prosecute his claims before the competent authority. Article XII. Every article found in the possession of the individual claimed at the time of his arrest shall, if the competent authority so decide, be seized, in order to be delivered up with his person at the time when the surrender shall be made. Such delivery shall not be limited to the property or articles obtained by stealing or by fraudulent bankruptcy, but shall extend to everything that may serve as proof of the crime. It shall take place even when the surrender, after having been ordered, shall be prevented from taking place by reason of the escape or death of the individual claimed. The rights of third parties with regard to the said property or articles are, nevertheless, reserved. Article XIII. Each of the high contracting parties shall defray the expenses, occasioned by the arrest within its territories, the detention, and the conveyance to its frontier, of the persons whom it may consent to surrender in pursuance of the present treaty. Article XIV. The stipulations of the present treaty shall be applicable to the colonies and foreign possessions of the two high contracting parties. The requisition for the surrender of a fugitive criminal who has taken refuge in a colony or foreign possession of either party shall be made to the Governor or chief authority of such colony or possession by the chief Consular Officer of the other in such colony or possession; or, if the fugitive has escaped from a colony or foreign possession of the party on whose behalf the requisition is made, by the Governor or chief authority of such colony or possession. Such requisitions may be disposed of, subject always, as nearly as may be, to the provisions of this treaty, by the respective Governors or chief authorities, who, however, shall be at liberty either to grant the surrender or to refer the matter to their Government. His Britannic Majesty shall, however, be at liberty to make special arrangements in the British colonies and foreign possessions for the surrender of Belgian criminals who may there take refuge, on the basis, as nearly as may be, of the provisions of the present treaty. Article XV The present treaty shall come into operation ten days after its publication, in conformity with the laws of the respective countries. From the day when the present treaty shall come into force, the treaty of extradition between the two countries of the 20th May, 1876; the declaration between the British and Belgian Governments, dated the 23rd July, 1877, extending the treaty of the 20th May, 1876, to certain 2—A. 2.