VIII. In order to establish private printing-presses in the Republic, the permission of the Supreme Government must be first obtained, the owner or manager giving a security of 2,000 dollars by which he pledges himself to comply with the regulations which the Government of the Republic may impose.

IX. The inhabitants of the Republic, whatsoever their origin may be, shall, for all kinds of causes, recognize no other tribunals than those established by our own laws; consequently the establishment of foreign tribunals under any form whatever is hereby prohibited.

X. The traffic of slaves or of Negroes, even with the title and under the pretext of colonists, is hereby prohibited.

XI. The laws and decrees sanctioned by the Sovereign Congress of 25th November, 1842, are ratified.

XII. This present law may be reformed or have additions made to it, as experience may require, but for this it will be necessary :

1. That the consent and approbation of the majority of the National Congress be obtained.

2. That the matters proposed to be reformed are fully proved to need amendment.

3. That moreover the Executive Power do express its opinion, together with the reasons thereof, in order that the expediency or necessity of the reform, or of any material addition, may be determined upon.

4. The necessity of the reform being sanctioned, a general Congress shall be convoked, with special powers for confirming the reform with all the due formalities.

5. The reform being confirmed, it shall be passed to the Executive Power either for publication, or in order that the latter may bring forward its objections against the measure. In the case of its being returned with objections, the votes of the majority of the Congress in its favour shall constitute its ultimate sanction.

XIII and last Article. Any one who shall form attempts against, or shall afford the means of forming attempts against the independence of the Republic, or against the present fundamental law, shall be punished, even to the extent of death, according to the gravity of the offence.

Given in the Hall of Sessions of the National Congress of the Republic of Paraguay on the 13th of March, 1844.

JUAN MANUEL ALVAREZ,

Vice-President of the National Congress.

FERNANDO PATINO, Secretary to the National Congress.

Assumption, March 16, 1844.

Let this Law be published in the usual form.

LOPEZ.

BENITO MARTINEZ VARELA, Government Secretary ad interim.

DECREE of the Government of the Province of Corrientes, respecting the conduct of the War against Buenos Ayres.Corrientes, October 7, 1844.

COUNTRY! LIBERTY! CONSTITUTION!

(Translation.)

THE Government of Corrientes, true to those principles of justice and civilization which compelled it to take up arms against the Governor of Buenos Ayres, that violator of all the rights of humanity, has at all times endeavoured not to belie those principles by its acts.

The respect due to nations obliged it to exhibit, in detail, the reasons on which its declaration of war, in February, 1839, was founded, not only in that declaration itself, but also in other documents which have been successively published. Since that period the Government of Corrientes has continued to give unequivocal proofs of the legitimate manner in which it was anxious to carry on the war. That atrocious act of barbarism, the slaughter of disarmed and unresisting prisoners, perpetrated in every corner of the Republic by the tyrant's myrmidons, whenever fortune smiled upon his arms, the province of Corrientes, in the midst even of its most glorious triumphs, replied to in a tone of the greatest moderation, by extending its outstretched arms to embrace those brothers whom terror alone had forced into the battle-field. To the massacre of worthy citizens and of individuals of every class, and of both sexes, assassinated in the very bosom of their families by the satellites of the despot, the province of Corrientes has responded by displaying the greatest forbearance even towards the declared enemies of its cause; the depredations and confiscations inflicted upon those who sympathized with the cause which Corrientes defends, or who had dared to drop a tear of compassion for a father, or a son, a relative or a friend who had been declared an outlaw (salvage) for no other reason than that of possessing property wherewith to glut the cupidity of the spoiler, Corrientes has returned by evincing the greatest respect for the property of enemies, even to the extreme of making no distinction between the latter and its friends.

The Government of Corrientes has, on several occasions, endeavoured to re-establish commercial relations, by allowing its coasting vessels to trade at foreign ports; but this measure, the object of which was to mitigate, in some degree, the calamities of war, has been met by the Governor of Buenos Ayres with the basest and most insulting treatment of the citizens of Corrientes, with the absolute detention of their vessels, and the complete confiscation of their investments.

This conduct of the Government of Corrientes, emanating as it does from the political faith it professes and from the respect which it owes both to God and to man, has been interpreted by the sacrilegious violator of all such ties into weakness and want of energy, but when

he found, to his disappointment, that his arms were impotent when measured with ours, when he saw that the scythe of death and extermination with which he mowed down his fellow-men, leaving a frightful desert, and causing lamentation and mourning throughout all the provinces of the Republic, would prove but a blunt weapon against the valiant breasts of its sons, he then, urged on by his implacable and desperate hatred, determined to erase this province from out the map of nations, by dooming its inhabitants to the lingering death of consumption; for which purpose he refused to admit into his ports any produce or productions thereof whatsoever, not only destroying capital of every description, but also an immense. amount of neutral property invested therein, aggravating this injustice by the unheard-of cruelty of sending back the cargoes without so much as allowing the crews of the vessels to purchase the most necessary provisions; arrogating, morcover, thereby, an exclusive right over the navigation of the rivers Paranà and Uruguay, to the manifest injury of those of the Empire of the Brazils and of the Republic of Paraguay.

The Governor and Captain-General of this province deems that he would not make a suitable return for the confidence with which his countrymen have honoured him, by placing him at the head of affairs, if his public administrative acts did not partake of that energy and moral courage which are as indispensable in the Cabinet as the martial spirit displayed by them is in the field of honour; wherefore, in the exercise of the unquestionable right with which the laws of war and of self-preservation invest him, he has resolved and decreed:

ART. I. All vessels under the flag of Buenos Ayres, or of the provinces which are under the sway of the Governor of that province, and with which the province of Corrientes is at open and declared war, whether detained in its ports or navigating the waters of the Paraná and Uruguay, are good prizes, and incur confiscation from the moment that they are captured.

II. The property of subjects of the Government of Buenos Ayres, or of the provinces which are under its sway, is equally lawful prize, and incurs confiscation.

III. The property of subjects of neutral nations, under the enemy's flag, legally proved to be such before the competent tribunal, instituted for the purpose, shall be free and protected.

IV. The right of visiting merchant-vessels which trade on the Uruguay shall only be exercised in the canals of navigation, coasts, and islands, adjacent to the territory of the province, and not in the ports, coasts, and islands adjacent to the territory of the Brazils.

V. To those which trade on the River Paraná the visit extends from the confluence of the River Paraguay throughout its entire course downwards.

VI. All merchant-vessels despatched from neutral ports, and outward-bound, shall be free.

VII. All articles of war, or enemy's property in neutral vessels, destined to an enemy's port shall be confiscated.

VIII. Let the present decree be communicated by the Department of War and Foreign Affairs to the Governments of the conterminous Powers, and also to the Envoys and Consuls of the different nations resident at Buenos Ayres; let it be published in the usual form, and forwarded to the Official Register.

Corrientes, October 7, 1844.

GREGORIO VALDES.

JOSE INOSENCIO MARQUEZ.

JOAQUIN MADARIAGA.

DECREE of the President of Paraguay, closing the Ports of the Republic to the Province of Corrientes.-Assumption, October 14, 1844.

(Translation.)

THE President of the Republic of Paraguay,-considering that the most excellent the Government of Corrientes suddenly and unexpectedly adopted the measure of preventing the passage of the merchant-vessels which navigate to and from that city, for the purpose of trading with this Republic; that, notwithstanding the relations of friendship and the obligations imposed by the Treaty of Commerce, binding as they do, that province to this Republic, the Government of Corrientes has not though fit to make any communication to that of the Republic, either previously or subsequently to having taken a measure so materially affecting the interests of the subjects of the Republic; considering that, when, in consequence of these proceedings, the supreme Government, which was, moreover, ignorant whether such embargo did or did not comprise the vessels and cargoes of the inhabitants of the Republic, required from the Government of Corrientes the necessary explanations upon this subject, in order to deliberate thereon, the latter regardless of the respect and deference due from one Government to another, restricted itself to the mere promise that such explanations should be given as soon as the special reasons, which, it said, now prevented its compliance, should cease to exist; considering that when pressed to satisfy so reasonable a demand, on the ground that any delay in giving the required explanations was highly derogatory to the dignity of the Republic, the Government of Corrientes, instead of complying, gave, as its only answer, the decree, dated the 7th instant, a copy of which was inclosed in the note of the same date, forwarded by it as an explanation of the circumstances which originated the requisition of the supreme Government contained in the notes of the 16th and 24th of the

preceding September; considering that in the aforesaid note of the 7th instant, the Government of Corrientes has not only allowed itself the liberty of accusing this Government of being at one time hostile to it, and at another of favouring and abetting the acts of the enemies of that Province, but has also employed the arrogant phrase of "a people inured to war never reckons the number of its enemies to enter the lists against them;" considering, finally-that it is the duty of every Government to maintain the respect due to the nation it represents, and never to submit to any proceeding which offends its dignity and its honour-resolves and decrees:

ART. I. The ports of the Republic are for the present, and until otherwise decreed, closed to the province of Corrientes.

II. Merchant-vessels from Corrientes now in the ports of the Republic may withdraw with their property within 12 days subsequent to the publication of this decree.

III. Merchants from the lower provinces, as well as those of other nations, may return when and how they deem fit, in consequence of the above-mentioned decree of the Government of Corrientes.

Let the above be communicated to those whom it may concern; let it be published in the usual form, and deposited in the National Archives.

Assumption, October 14, 1844. CARLOS ANTONIO LOPEZ. ANDRES GUILLE, Secretary of Government.

CORRESPONDENCE respecting the operations of the Commission for running and tracing the Boundary Line, between the British Possessions in North America and The United States, under the VIth Article of the Treaty, signed at Washington, August 9, 1842.*-1843, 1845.†

No. 1.-The Earl of Aberdeen to Lieutenant-Colonel Bucknall Estcourt. SIR, Foreign Office, March 31, 1843. I TRANSMIT to you a commission which the Queen has been graciously pleased to grant to you under the Royal Signet and Sign Manual, constituting and appointing you the Commissioner on the part of Her Majesty, to meet a Commissioner to be appointed by the President of The United States, and with such Commissioner to run and trace those parts of the boundary line between the British possessions in North America and The United States, described in the Ist Article of the Treaty of the 9th of August, 1842,* which will be required to be run and ascertained, and to mark the said line by proper monuments on the land. I am, &c. Lieut.-Colonel Bucknall Estcourt.

* Vol. XXX. Page 360.

ABERDEEN.

+ Laid before Parliament, 1845.