considered as French, provided, in addition, that the owner or owners, the captain, and three fourths of the crews are French; and, in the same way, all vessels built in Mexico, or captured from the enemy by Mexican armaments and le gally condemned, and whose owner or owners, captain, and three fourths of the crews, are Mexicans (with the exceptions only resulting from extreme cases, and especially provided for by the laws,) are to be considered as Mexican vessels. It is, moreover, agreed, that every vessel, in order to traffic on the conditions above laid down, must be provided with a register, passport, or paper of security, whose form shall be reciprocally communicated; and which, being certified by a person lawfully authorized to deliver it, shall state the name, the occupation, and residence, in France or Mexico, of the proprietory; expressing whether there is one or more proprietors, indicating, if they are sole, or in what proportion, each of them hold the property; the name, dimensions, capacity, and, in a word, all the particulars of the vessel, which may serve to make her recognized, as well as to prove her country. Seeing at the same time, that, in the actual state of the marine of Mexico, it would not be possible for that country to profit by all the advantages of reciprocity established by Articles 4 and 5, if strict regard were paid to the literal meaning and immediate execution of that part of this present Article 6, which imports that to be consider ed as Mexican, a ship must be built in Mexico, it is provisionally agreed on, that every vessel of what build soever, which bona fide

belongs to one or more Mexicans, and whose Captains and threefourths of her crew, at least, are natives of Mexico, shall be reputed a Mexican vessel: France reserving to herself the right of claiming the principle of reciprocal restriction relative to the building in the respective countries, if the interests of its navigation should happen to suffer from the exception made to that principle in favour of Mexico.

7. Every merchant, every commander of a vessel, as well as all other Frenchmen, shall, in the Mexican States, be entirely free to manage the business of themselves, or to confide the management of it to whom they please, whether factor, agent, or interpreter. They shall in nowise be compelled to employ for that purpose any other persons than those employed by Mexicans, or to pay them any salary or any compensation higher than the latter shall pay in similar circumstances. They shall be equally at liberty, in respect of all their purchases, as of their sales, to establish and fix the price of effects, merchandise, and other matters, whether imported or destined for exportation, as they may see fit, acting always in conformity with the laws and customs of the country. Mexicans shall enjoy in France the same privileges under the same conditions. The natives of each of the two countries shall enjoy, in the territory of the other, a constant and complete protection of their persons and property; they shall have free and facile access to Courts of Justice for the vindication or defence of their rights, and shall be at liberty to employ advocates, attorneys, or agents of any class they think fit; in fine, they shall enjoy, in this re

spect, the same rights and privileges as are granted to citizens.

8. With respect to the right of inheriting personal property by will or otherwise, and that of disposing of personal property of every kind and denomination, by sale, gift, exchange, will, or any other way whatever; and, finally, in all that relates to the administration of justice, the natives of each of the two countries shall enjoy respectively, in the other, the same privileges, liberty, and rights, as citizens, and they shall not pay any higher duties or imposts than they do.

9. In all that relates to the police of the ports, the loading and unloading of vessels, the security of merchandise, goods and effects, the natives of the two countries shall be respectively subjected to the laws and statutes of the territory where they reside. They shall however be exempt from all compulsory military service either by land or by sea, nor shall they be subject to forced loans. Their property shall not besides be subjected to any other charges, requisitions, or imposts than those paid by citizens.

10. Consuls of each of the two countries may be established in the other, for the protection of commerce; but those agents shall not enter on their functions until after having received the authority of the territorial government. The latter shall preserve besides the right of determining the place where it may think fit to admit them, it being understood that on this point the two Governments shall oppose no restriction that is not common in their respective territories in all nations.

11. The respective Consuls

shall enjoy in the two countries the privileges generally attached to their charge, such as exemption from quartering of soldiers, and from all direct taxes, whether personal, moveable, or sumptuary, unless they be subjects of the country, or have become proprietors there, either as possessors of goods moveable or fixed, or finally have engaged in business, in all which cases they shall be subject to the same taxes, charges, and imposts as other individuals. These agents shall enjoy, moreover, all the other privileges, exemptions, and immunities that are granted in their place of residence to agents of the same rank of the most favoured nation.

12. The respective Consuls shall, on the decease of any of their fellow citizens-1, cross with their seals those placed either officially or at the request of parties intrusted by the competent local authorities on the moveable effects and papers of the deceased; and these duplicate seals shall not be broken but by concert with all the parties-2. attend the inventory made of the deceased's effects after the seals are broken-3. finally claim the transmission of the effects left, which shall not be refused unless in case of opposition from any existing creditor, national or foreign, administer and manage personally, or name under their own responsibility, an agent to administer and manage the said effects left without the intervention of any territorial authority.

13. Unless in case of stipulations to the contrary between the owners, freighters and insurers, the averages for damages which the vessels of the two countries shall sustain at sea, while in progress to

their respective ports, shall be regulated by the Consuls of their nation, unless always the citizens of the country where the Consul is resident are interested in these averages, for they must be regulated in that case, at least, so far as the citizens are concerned, by local authority.

14. All operations relating to the salvage of French vessels wrecked on the coast of Mexico, shall be regulated by the French Consuls, and reciprocally the Mexican Consuls shall direct the operations relating to the salvage of vessels of their nation, on the coast of France. The interposition of the local authorities shall, however, be used in each country in order to maintain order to guarantee the interests of the parties, if they are strangers to the crew shipwrecked, and to ensure the execution of the regulations for the entry and export of the merch andise saved.

15. The respective Consuls shall be exclusively charged with the internal police of the vessels of their nation, and the local authorities shall not interpose therein, in virtue of Article 9, which reserves to them the police of the ports only, in so far as the disorders that take place may be of a nature to trouble the public peace, either by land, or on board of other vessels.

16. The respective Consuls shall cause to be arrested, and conveyed, either on board or to their own country, sailors that desert any vessels of their nation. For this purpose, they shall address, in writing, the competent local authorities, and shall justify their interference by the exhibition of the registers of the vessel, or of the list of the crew, that the men they claim formed part of the said crew, and upon such a demand, so supported, the delivery of the parties shall not be refused. Moreover, all help and assistance' shall be given them in searching for, seizing, and arresting the said deserters, who shall be detained, and guarded in the prison of the country, on the requisition, and at the expense, of the Consuls, until those agents have found an occasion of getting them conveyed away. If, however, such an opportunity do not occur within three months, counting from the day of their arrest, the deserters shall be set at liberty; nor shall they be a second time arrested for the same cause.

17. The archives, and in general all the papers of the office of the respective Consulates, shall be inviolate; and, under no pretext shall they be seized nor inspected. by any local authority.

Fellow-citizeus of the Senate and

Chamber of Representatives, I was far from thinking, when I addressed my last message to you,

that I should now have the painful duty of referring to wounds which the internal events of the Republic opened in our hearts.

The order and progress with which Colombia was advancing in her political career, when the last ordinary session of the Congress commenced, announced to the people days of consolation and tranquillity, and impressed me with the agreeable idea of terminating the period of my administration, by leaving the Republic completely tranquil under the guarantee of its institutions, its external relations established, the sources of national prosperity opened, the funds and the administration of justice improved, education increasing, public credit consolidated, the magazines of war supplied, a competent maritime force equipped, and what is more, the Spanish Government disposed to concede to us peace; but Providence, which mocks the projects of man, to teach us to know our weakness, has permitted that the most melancholy and calamitous events should serve as a trial of our constancy and love of liberty. I proceed to exhibit to you this picture with the correctness and impartiality which my character and your representative duties demand; not to afflict you and dishearten you through your affliction, but that, knowing the evil, you may be able to apply a due remedy.. What ought to inspire you with confidence in attempting this, is, on the one hand, the firmness and efficacious co-operation of the Executive Power, and, on the other, the progress which various branches of the public administration have made, in spite of those agitations which were calculated to impede them.

Endeavours to bring about peace between Spain and the

American States were continuing to be made with the Cabinet of Madrid, by those Powers who, consulting their own interests, recognise our right to independence, when the event of Valencia, of the 30th of April, took place. The executive had succeeded in inducing the most respectable Governments to interest themselves in this object, and the principal argument on which they founded the claim to peace was the internal order and stability of our institutions. Unfortunately, this basis has lost all its force, and the negotiations have been suspended. The Government of His Catholic Majesty, re-inspired with the hopes of conquest, or at least of invasion, which had long seemed dead, when the commotion of Venezuela resounded in its ears, conceived the idea of involving us in a civil war but the Executive, without withholding from the restoration of constitutional order all the attention which its duty imposed, took care to prepare the means of external defence as far as circumstances would permit, and relied tranquilly on the national spirit and the well known valour of the army. The carrying into effect the hostile views of the enemy's Government, is now less probable, since its domestic affairs absorb all its attention-since it has lost the fortified posts of Ulloa, Callao, and Chiloe-and since the forces which it assembled in the island of Cuba are reduced. However, in any event the Colombians well know how to defend and preserve their independence, with the same glory with which they acquired it.

Our relations of friendship with all the States of America,

far from having sustained any diminution, are acquiring that augmentation on which their welfare and felicity depend. The great American Assembly contributed efficaciously to perfect the alliance of the Republic with some, and to define clearly our political and commercial connexions with others. This Assembly met at Panama on the 22d of June, and was attended by the Representatives of Central America, Peru, the United Mexican States, and Colombia, and laid open the great volume of the destiny of America. The American Congress occupied but a few days in its first session, but its labours are of immense importance. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs will soon present to you the treaty of union, league, and confederation, between the States that assembled, to which the rest of South America may unite itself-the convention which fixes the contingent which each confederated State is to furnish for the common defence and the agreement with respect to the mode of employing and directing the contingents thus furnished-the convention which regulates the aunual meeting of the Assembly in time of warand different declarations founded on the treaties which Colombia had entered upon, and concluded with the Governments of the States represented at the Congress at Panama. The assembly transferred its sittings to Tacubaya, in the United Mexican States, to which the executive readily gave its consent, desirous to respond to this mark of confidence and friendship, and to the proofs of interest and fraternity, which the

federal government of that republic had exhibited towards us. At Tacubaya there assembled, in addition, the Representatives of Rio de la Plata, of the new Republic of Bolivia, of the Emperor of Brazil, and the Ministers of the United States of North America, whose philanthropic Government having accepted the invitation which we made to it, took a corresponding interest in this impor tant object. Probably, Great Britain and the Netherlands will, on a future occasion, send their Commissioners, invested with the same powers as those that went to Panama. The Provisional Government of Peru has passed an Act, recognizing the Republic of Bolivia, but the province of Rio de la Plata appears to have refused to pass a similar one. The executive of Colombia has been pained at this circumstance, and it trusts in the prudence and wisdom of the Magistrates, in whose charge are the destinies of both States, that they will hearken solely to the common interest, the national wish, and the necessity of peace. The Government of the United Provinces of Central America has received the Plenipotentiary of the Republic, with the ordinary formalities, and, as, among other instructions, he was charged with the duty of exchanging the ratifications of the treaty of union, league, and perpetual confederation, concluded in that capital on the 15th of March, 1825, he has performed that duty, notwithstanding the variations made by the Government of Central America, in one of the articles, impeded the punctual observance of the treaty. The