in accordance with the terms of that convention. The following are the facts as recited by the court, and on which the opinion is based.
On the fourth of July, 1868, a convention between the United States and the republic of Mexico, providing for the adjustment of the claims of citizens of either country against the other, was concluded, and, on the first of February, 1869, proclaimed by the president of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the senate. By this convention (article 1)
'all claims on the part of corporations, companies, or private individuals, citizens of the United States, upon the government of the Mexican republic, arising from injuries to their persons or property by authorities of the Mexican republic, and all claims on the part of corporations, companies, or private individuals, citizens of the Mexican republic, upon the government of the United States, arising from injuries to their persons or property by authorities of the United States, which may have been presented to either government for its interposition with the other since the signature of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, * * * and which remain unsettled, as well as any other such claims which may be presented within' a specified time, were to 'be referred to two commissioners, one to be appointed by the president of the United Stat s, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, and one by the president of the Mexican republic.' Provision was then mado for the appointment of an umpire. Articles 2, 4, and 5, are as follows:
Art. 2. 'The commissioners shall then conjointly proceed to the investigation and decision of the claims which shall be presented to their notice, * * * but upon such evidence or information only as shall be furnished by or on behalf of their respective governments. They shall be bound to receive and peruse all written documents or statements which may be presented to them by or on behalf of their respective governments in support of or in answer to any claim, and to hear, if required, one person on each side, on behalf of each government, on each and every separate claim. Should they fail to agree in opinion upon any individual claim, they shall call to their assistance the umpire; * * * and such umpire, after having examined the evidence adduced for an against the claim, and after having heard, if required, one person on each side as aforesaid, and consulted with the commissioners, shall decide thereupon finally, and without appeal. * * * It shall be competent for each government to name one person to attend the commissioners as agent on its behalf, to present and support claims on its behalf, and to answer swer claims made upon it, and to represent it generally in all matters connected with the investigation and decisions thereof. The president of the United States * * * and the president of the Mexican republic hereby solemnly and sincerely engage to consider the decision of the commissioners conjointly, or of the umpire, as the case may be, as absolutely final and conclusive upon each claim decided upon by them or him respectively, and to give full effect to such decision without any objection, evasion, or delay whatsoever. * *
Art. 4. 'When decisions shall have been made by the commissioners and the arbiter in every case which shall have been laid before them, the total amount awarded in all the cases decided in favor of the citizens of the one party shall be deducted from the total amount awarded to the citizens of the other party, and the balance, to the amount of $300,000, shall be paid at the city of Mexico or at the city of Washington, * * * within twelve months from the close of the commission, to the government in favor of whose citizens the greater amount may have been awarded, without interest. * * * The residue of the said balance shall be paid in annual installments to an amount not exceeding $300,000 * * * in any one year until the whole shall have been paid.
Art. 5. 'The high contracting parties agree to consider the result of the proceedings of this commission as a full, perfect, and final settlement of every claim upon either government arising out of any transaction of a date prior to the exchange of the ratifications of the present convention; and further engage that every such claim, whether or not the same may have been presented to the notice of, made, preferred, or laid before, the said commission, shall, from and after the conclusion of the proceedings of the said commission, be considered and treated as finally settled, barred, and thenceforth inadmissible.' 15 St. 679.