any such subject shall be party, contracted in the said islands before the passing of this Act, under authority of any warrant, licence, or other written permission of the Lord High Commissioner of the said islands, at whatever hour, in whatever place, or by whatever ceremony the same may have been solemnized, shall be deemed to be as valid in law, and cognizable in like manner, as if the same had been solemnized within Her Majesty's dominions with a due observance of all forms required by the law: provided always, that this enactment shall not extend to render valid any marriage which before the passing of this Act has been declared invalid by any court of competent jurisdiction, or any right dependent on the validity or invalidity thereof, or any marriage where either of the parties has afterwards during the life of the other lawfully intermarried with any other person.

II. All marriages between subjects of Her Majesty, or to which such subjects shall be party, which shall be contracted in the said islands after the passing of this Act, under authority of any licence granted by the said Lord High Commissioner, or by any officer authorized by him to grant such licences, shall be deemed to be valid and cognizable as aforesaid, provided the same shall have been solemnized in manner hereinafter mentioned, that is to say:

(1.) Every such marriage shall be solemnized, with open doors, in the place specified in such licence, being either some Christian place of worship or the Palace of the Lord High Commissioner at Corfu, or the residence of the resident of the Lord High Commissioner in any other of the said islands.

(2.) Every such marriage shall be solemnized between the hours and within the period specified in such licence, and in the presence of two or more witnesses, and of the officiating minister, or, if there be no officiating minister, of the secretary of the Lord High Commissioner, or of such resident as aforesaid.

(3.) The ceremony of marriage, if solemnized in any Christian place of worship, shall be such as may be required or permitted by the persons entitled to regulate the use of the said place of worship; and, if solemnized in any other place, may be such as the parties thereto may think fit to adopt: provided only, that if such marriage shall not be solemnized according to the rites of the United Churches of England and Ireland, then, in some part of the ceremony, and in the presence of the two witnesses, and, as the case may be, of the said secretary or resident or officiating minister, each of the parties shall make the following declaration:

"I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impedi ment why I, A. B., may not be joined in lawful matrimony to C. D.":

And shall say to each other:

"I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, A. B., do take thee, C. D., to be my lawful wedded wife [or husband]."

III. Immediately after the solemnization of any marriage under the provisions of this Act, a certificate of the same shall, in the presence of the two witnesses, be signed in triplicate by the parties thereto, and, as the case may be, by the said officiating minister, secretary, or resident; and one copy of such certificate shall be delivered to the parties to the marriage, and the other copies shall be transmitted to the Lord High Commissioner, and shall be registered in such manner as he shall appoint; and a copy of such registry, purporting to be certified under the hand and official seal of the said secretary, shall be received as evidence in the law of the marriage to which it relates, without its being necessary for any person signing such copy or registry to attend in person to prove the same.

IV. In the month of January in every year the said Lord High Commissioner, or any officer authorized by him, shall make and transmit to one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, to be transmitted by him to the Registrar-General, a true copy, certified under the hand of the Lord High Commissioner or that of the officer authorized by him, of all the entries of marriages during the preceding year in the register-book kept by the said Lord High Commissioner; and if there shall have been no marriage registered during the preceding year, the Lord High Commissioner, or such authorized officer, shall transmit a certificate of such fact to Her Majesty's Secretary of State, to be transmitted by him to the Registrar-General.

V. The Registrar-General shall cause indexes of all the said certified copies of marriage registers to be made and kept in the General Register Office; and every person shall be entitled, on payment of the fees hereinafter mentioned, to search the said indexes between the hours of 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon of every day except Sundays, Christmas Day, and Good Friday, and to have a certified copy of any entry in the said certified copies of the registers; and for every search of the said indexes shall be paid the sum of 18., and for every such certified copy the sum of 2s. 6d., and no more, shall be paid to the Registrar-General, or such other officer as shall be appointed for that purpose on his account, in addition to the stamp duty of 1d. imposed by an Act of the present session, cap. 15.

VI. The Registrar-General shall cause to be sealed or stamped, with the seal of the General Register Office, all such certified copies of marriage entries given in the said office; and all certified copies of entries purporting to be sealed or stamped with the seal of the said Register Office shall be received as evidence of the marriage

to which the same relates, without any further or other proof of such entry; and no certified copy, purporting to be given in the said office, shall be of any force or effect which is not sealed or stamped as aforesaid.

VII. The Lord High Commissioner may, by writing under his hand and seal, to be promulgated in such manner as he shall think fit, make regulations respecting the form of the licence and certificate herein before mentioned, and respecting the conditions of issuing the said licence, and respecting the fees payable on the issuing of such licence, and on the solemnization of any marriage and respecting the disposal of such fees, and respecting the registration of such marriages according to the laws of the Ionian Islands, and respecting all other matters requisite for carrying into execution the provisions of this Act; provided that no marriage shall be deemed to be invalid in consequence of the infraction or non-observance of such regulations.

VIII. If any marriage shall be had under the provisions of this Act by means of any wilfully false notice, oath, affirmation, or declaration made by either party to such marriage as to any matter to which a notice, oath, affirmation, or declaration is required by this Act, or by any such regulations as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty's Attorney-General or Solicitor-General to sue for the forfeiture of all estate and interest in any property accruing to the offending party by such marriages, and the proceedings thereupon and the consequences thereof shall be the same as are provided by law in the like case with regard to marriages solemnized by licence in England according to the rites of the Church of England.

IX. Any person who, for the purpose of procuring, preventing, or delaying any marriage, shall knowingly and wilfully make or sign any false oath, affirmation, declaration, or notice authorized or required by this Act, or by any such regulations as aforesaid, shall suffer the penalties of perjury, and such offender may be tried in any county or place in the United Kingdom, in the same manner, and be dealt with in all respects, as if the offence had been committed in such county or place.

X. In any and every action or suit for forfeiture, and upon every or any prosecution for perjury as aforesaid, the declaration or certificate of the Lord High Commissioner, or of his secretary, or of any such resident as aforesaid, under their respective hands and official seals, shall be received as evidence in the law of all facts and matters stated in such declaration or certificate, without its being necessary for such Lord High Commissioner, secretary, or resident to attend in person to prove the same.

XI. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to render

invalid any marriage heretofore or hereafter solemnized within the said islands, which marriage was or shall be valid according to the laws of the said islands.

XII. The terms "Lord High Commissioner," "Resident of the Lord High Commissioner," and "Secretary of the Lord High Commissioner," shall include respectively any person lawfully acting in any of such capacities.

ACT of the British Parliament, "to amend an Act passed in the 6th Year of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, intituled ‘An Act to enable Her Majesty to provide for the Government of her Settlements on the Coast of Africa and in the Falkland Islands.''

[23 & 24 Vict. cap. 121.]

[August 28, 1860.]

WHEREAS by an Act passed in the 6th year of Her Majesty Queen Victoria [cap. 13.],* intituled "An Act to enable Her Majesty to provide for the Government of her settlements on the Coast of Africa and in the Falkland Islands," provision was made for the Government of such settlements which were then or might thereafter be made by any of Her Majesty's subjects resorting to the said Coast or in the said Islands: And whereas divers of Her Majesty's subjects occupied or may hereafter occupy other places, being possessions of Her Majesty, but in which no Government has been established by authority of Her Majesty: and whereas it is necessary that provision should be made for the civil Government of such places, and for the administration of justice therein: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I. The provisions of the said Act shall extend to all possessions of Her Majesty not having been acquired by cession or conquest, nor (except in virtue of this Act) being within the jurisdiction of the legislative authority of any of Her Majesty's possessions abroad.

II. It shall be lawful for Her Majesty by any Order or Orders in Council to authorize and require the Supreme or other principal Court of Judicature in any of her possessions to be specified in such Order (subject always to such conditions and limitations as in the said Order or Orders shall be mentioned) to take cognizance of all or any suits, actions, or prosecutions for treason or felony, which may arise in respect of any Act or matter occurring within any possession * Vol. XXXI. Page 1211. 2 Y

[1859-60. L.]

of Her Majesty to which this or the said herein before recited Act shall extend, and by such Order or Orders to make regulations respecting the attendance of witnesses in any such suit, action, or prosecution, and the mode of enforcing such attendance, and respecting the custody and conveyance of any person charged with the commission of any such crime within such last-mentioned possessions, and respecting such other matters as may be requisite for the due trial of such person by such court as aforesaid, and every such Order shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament as soon as conveniently may be after the making thereof.

TREATY of Peace and Union between the Argentine Confederation and the Government of Buenos Ayres.—Signed at San José de Flores, November 10, 1859.

[Ratifications exchanged at San José de Flores, November 18, 1859.]

THE Government of Buenos Ayres and his Excellency the President of the Argentine Confederation, Captain General of the National Army in campaign, having accepted the official mediation in favour of the internal peace of the Argentine Confederation, offered by the Government of Paraguay, worthily represented by his Excellency Brigadier-General Don Francisco Solano Lopez, Minister Secretary of State in the Department of War and Marine of said Republic, decided to put an end to the deplorable disunion in which the Argentine Republic has remained since 1852, and to resolve definitively the question which has kept the province of Buenos Ayres separated from the group which constituted and constitute the Argentine Republic, which, federally united, recognize as the fundamental law the Constitution sanctioned by the Constituent Congress on the 1st May, 1853,* agreed to name Commissioners on both sides, fully authorized to discuss, in presence of the mediator, tranquillity, and solely inspired by a desire for peace and the preservation of the rights of both parties, all and each of the points hitherto in dispute between Buenos Ayres and the Confederate Provinces, until they should arrive at a plan for perfect and perpetual reconciliation, the immediate and definitive incorporation of Buenos Ayres with the Argentine Confederation being resolved upon beforehand, without prejudice of any kind to the rights of local sovereignty acknowledged as inherent to the Confederate Provinces, and declared by the National Constitution itself; to which effect they named-on the part of the Government of Buenos * Vol. XLII. Page 779.