The liberty of navigation and commerce shall extend to all sorts of merchandizes, excepting only those which are distinguished under the name of contraband, or merchandizes prohibited; (p. 082) and under this denomination of contraband and merchandizes prohibited, shall be comprehended only warlike stores and arms, as mortars, artillery, with their artifices and appurtenances, fusils, pistols, bombs, grenades, gunpowder, saltpetre, sulphur, match, bullets and balls, pikes, sabres, lances, halberts, casques, cuirasses, and other sorts of arms, as also soldiers, horses, saddles, and furniture for horses; all other effects and merchandizes, not before specified expressly, and even all sorts of naval matters, however proper they may be for the construction and equipment of vessels of war, or for the manufacture of one or another sort of machines of war, by land or sea, shall not be judged contraband, neither by the letter, nor according to any pretended interpretation whatever, ought they or can they be comprehended under the notion of effects prohibited or contraband: so that all effects and merchandizes, which are not expressly before named, may, without any exception, and in perfect liberty, be transported by the subjects and inhabitants of both allies, from and to places belonging to the enemy; excepting only the places which at the time shall be besieged, blocked, or invested; and those places only shall be held for such which are surrounded nearly by some of the belligerent powers. ARTICLE XXV. To the end that all dissention and quarrel may be avoided and prevented, it has been agreed, that in case that one of the two parties happens to be at war, the vessels belonging to the subjects or inhabitants of the other ally shall be provided with sea letters or passports, expressing the name, the property, and the burthen of the vessel, as also the name of abode of the master, or commander of the said vessel, to the end that thereby it may appear that the vessel really and truly belongs to the subjects or inhabitants of one of the parties; which passports shall be drawn and distributed, according to the form annexed to this treaty; each time that the vessel shall return, she should have such her passport renewed, or at least they ought not to be of more ancient date than two years, before the vessel has been returned to her own country.