parallel, but as he is in England I do not think it at all necessary that

he should re-cross the Atlantic for that object. I consider, therefore, that his assistance will be no longer required. As the work proceeds, I propose, in proportion as the services of the officers and men cease to be necessary, to discharge them, and to send them to England.

I have already explained to your Lordship that the heavy cutting which fell almost exclusively on us last season having been completed to Hall's Stream, and the cutting which remains to be done having been undertaken by the Americans, our expenses will henceforward be restricted to the surveying and placing the monuments in conjunction with the Americans.

Permit me here to express, for my companions as well as for myself, our deep acknowledgments for the gratifying terms in which your Lordship has been pleased to communicate the approval of Her Majesty's Government in the exertions of the Commission last season. That portion of your Lordship's despatch which related to this subject I had the satisfaction to make known to the officers and men employed by the Commission, in obedience to the directions of your Lordship; and I am very sure that all have esteemed the marked approbation expressed by your Lordship, as a great reward for what they have done, and as an incitement to further exertion.

The Earl of Aberdeen, K.T.

I have, &c.

J. B. BUCKNALL ESTCOURT.

No. 21.-The Earl of Aberdeen to Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt. SIR, Foreign Office, April 3, 1845.

I HAVE received your despatch of the 25th February, in which, with reference to my despatch of the 3rd of January, you inform me that you can dispense with the further services of Captain Broughton; and that, although you consider the assistance of Mr. Featherstonhaugh in continuing the survey of the boundary line to be still necessary, you propose to relieve the public from the expense of his continued employment under the Commission at as early a moment as a due regard for the good of the service will admit.

You further state that you propose, in proportion as the labours of the officers and men under your orders shall be no longer required, to discharge them and send thern to England.

I entirely concur in these views, and approve your intentions; and I feel it to be unnecessary for me any further to urge the observance of as strict an economy in the conduct of your operations as may be compatible with the efficient performance of the service intrusted to you.

I have notified to Captain Broughton that he will not be required to return to America; and that his duties and pay under this department will have ceased on the 31st of March.

You will understand that, in case no appropriation, or an insufficient appropriation, should have been made by Congress for the prosecution of the boundary proceedings on the part of The United States' Commission, you are to continue alone the surveying and marking out of the boundary line without intermission, in the same manner as you were instructed to do last year.

Lieut.-Colonel Estcourt.

I am, &c.

ABERDEEN.

No. 22.-The Earl of Aberdeen to Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt. SIR, Foreign Office, April 18, 1845.

I HAVE recently received a despatch from Mr. Pakenham communicating to me a correspondence which, in consequence of a letter from you containing highly useful suggestions for the conduct of the remaining boundary operations, he had held with The United States' Government relative to those matters.

Her Majesty's Government entirely approve your having spontaneously taken a step so well calculated to accelerate the termination of the labours of the Boundary Commission, which they much desire to bring to a close at the earliest practicable period.

Lieut.-Colonel Estcourt.

I am,

&c.

ABERDEEN.

No. 23.-The Earl of Aberdeen to Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt. SIR, Foreign Office, May 19, 1845. THERE appears to be some reason to doubt whether, considering the quantity of work which the American portion of the Boundary Commission will still have to execute on the line of the 45th parallel of north latitude, as laid down in the Treaty of Washington, the appropriation of 75,000 dollars made by Congress in their last session, for continuing the boundary operations, will suffice for enabling The United States' Commission to bring those operations to a close during the present season.

Her Majesty's Government are, however, most anxious to complete the boundary proceedings, and to dissolve the Commission before the expiration of the current year.

In case, therefore, you should, in process of time, have good reason to suppose that the funds voted by Congress will be found insufficient for their intended object, I should not object to your proposing to your American colleague to take upon yourself a given portion of the cutting or other work, which would properly fall to the Americans, on a written engagement being entered into with you by Mr. Albert Smith, that the sums thus expended by you in executing that part of the work should be considered reimbursable to Great Britain, and that they should be submitted to The United States' Government as such by Mr. Smith.

Should this mode appear to you, on due consideration, in any way objectionable or insufficient; or should any other scheme for accomplishing the same end strike you as preferable, so great a value do Her Majesty's Government attach to the completion of the whole of the boundary work before the termination of the present year, that they are willing to leave in your hands a full discretion, and I hereby grant to you a full discretion to adopt whatever other mode of attaining the great object in view may appear to you to be best, whether by advancing a moderate sum on promissory bonds to be given to you by Mr. Smith, he undertaking the work, or by any other method by which security of reimbursement may be attained.

Lieut.-Colonel Estcourt.

I am, &c.

ABERDEEN.

No. 24.-Lieut.-Colonel Estcourt to Mr. Addington.-(Rec. July 30.) (Extract.) St. John's, July 9, 1845.

You will be glad to hear, and so still more will Lord Aberdeen, that the whole cutting of the line will be finished to-morrow, 10th July. There remains, therefore, to finish now the survey, and the erecting the iron posts.

Mr. Wilkinson is about the Metjarmette Portage, surveying the highlands. He has just come up from the Valley of the St. John, where everything is done.

Mr. Scott has finished the erecting of the monuments from the Metjarmette to Arnold's River. Mr. Wilkinson will survey that. Two American parties are in the highlands, surveying and erecting monuments west of Arnold's River. Hall's Stream has been surveyed and marked. The survey is going on on the 45th.

Captain Robinson removes from Montreal to Lake Memphramagog this week. Lieutenant Pipon from S. Regis about the end of next week. Major Graham is at Rouse's Point. The Americans have a surveying party on the 45th; just now they are about Missisqui Bay. Mr. Featherstonhaugh is near Stanstead also surveying the 45th. We have another surveying party just now attached to Lieutenant Pipon, in addition to his astronomy, in the neighbourhood of S. Regis; but I mean to send Mr. Scott to take charge of it, he being now released from the highlands. Two months more work of one sort or another in the field remains to be done. H. U. Addington, Esq.

J. B. BUCKNÁLL ESTCOURT.

LAW of New Granada, regulating the Coasting Trade.-Bogotá, May 25, 1844.

(Translation.)

THE Senate and Chambers of Representatives of New Granada, in Congress assembled,

DECREE:

ART. I. By coasting-trade (cabotaje) is understood that which is carried on between ports of the Republic open for imports and exports, or for exports only, and by trade of the coast (comercio costanero) that which is carried on by the several points or places on the coast between each other, and with the above-mentioned open ports.

II. The coasting-trade and trade of the coast (el comercio de cabotaje i el costanero) cannot be carried on except by national vessels; foreign vessels are therefore prohibited from conveying merchandise or any sort of effects whatever from one port or place of the Republic to another. But this prohibition does not prevent a foreign vessel from unloading part of its cargo in one port and going afterwards to discharge the rest in another; nor after having taken in merchandise or national effects in one, from proceeding to complete its cargo at another.

§ The foregoing prohibition does not comprise gold and silver coin, which foreign vessels are allowed to take for the purpose of buying the whole or the complement of their cargoes.

III. The vessels which convey effects or merchandise from one port of the Republic to another, for the purpose of importing them, must provide themselves with a permit, to be issued by the collectors of Customs, and certifying that the foreign goods which are being so conveyed have paid or given security for the import duties.

IV. When the foreign goods that may be on board are not meant to be imported into any port of the Republic, but are intended to be conveyed to a foreign port, a certificate must be produced from the heads of the Custom-House of the port from which the vessel had last sailed, stating the quantity and quality of the goods, as well as the manifest which the master, owner, or consignee of the vessel had made upon bringing the vessel into the port, where said certificate may have been given, that such goods were being conveyed to a foreign port.

V. The vessels that carry on the trade of the coast, whenever they convey merchandise or commercial effects of foreign origin or production, must also take a permit for them, which will be issued at the ports in the terms of Article III; and where there is no CustomHouse, by the tax-gatherer of the parochial district; but when they only convey effects or productions of the country no permit will bo required.

VI. In order to unload a national vessel, which comes from some port of the Republic, the previous permission of the chief of the Custom-House is required. If the cargo should consist of national. effects or productions, they must be examined by the chief of the Preventive Service, but if it consists of foreign goods, the collectors. of Customs must examine and search them.

VII. To ascertain that the vessels which carry on the trade of the coast do not convey foreign goods without a permit, it is the duty

of the officers of the Coast-Guard to visit them, and to be present at their unloading. Where there is no Coast-Guard the collectors of Taxes have the same power, whether the vessel come from an open port, or from some point or place not so qualified.

VIII. When it appears that a vessel engaged in the coastingtrade, or trade of the coast, has on board commercial effects of foreign origin or production, and has neither the permit nor the certificate to which the IVth Article refers, or has more packages or merchandise than appear in the permit or certificate, the parcels or merchandise which have no permit or certificate, and that are not comprised in the one and the other shall be confiscated; and the master of the vessel shall incur a fine in proportion to the value of the confiscated effects, as estimated. But should the effects without permit or certificate, be comprised in the baggage of a passenger, or in any closed parcel, and with permit, but that the said permit does not include all the effects which the parcel actually contains, the fine shall then fall on the owner of the goods, or on the importer or consignee.

§ Exception is made in the case where effects are picked up at sea, or recovered from a wreck, and the master or commander makes declaration thereof to the first clerk of the Custom-House, with whom he may meet, or to the collector of Taxes, and full and satisfactory proof be given to the collectors of Customs.

IX. When a foreign vessel is engaged in the coasting-trade, or trade of the coast, all the goods or merchandise she may have on board, in contravention of this law, shall be confiscated, and the master shall moreover pay a fine from 200 dollars to 1000 dollars.

§ Should the master not have wherewith to pay the fine, the judge may grant him sufficient time for the payment, upon adequate security, and if this measure should not answer, the fine shall be changed into imprisonment, at the rate of one day for every dollar he ought to have paid.

X. The vessels engaged in the coasting-trade, or trade of the coast, are subject to the regulations of the law of importation regarding confiscation and penalties against the defrauders of duties and violators of the provisions contained in the laws and regulations of the Custom-House.

XI. The Law of the 18th May, 1843, is repealed.

JUAN DE LA CRUZ, President of the Senate.
MIGUEL S. URIBE, President of the Chamber
of Representatives.

Given at Bogotá this 18th of May, 1844.
Let it be executed and published.

Bogotá, May 25th, 1844.

JUAN C. ORdonez.

(L.S.)

P. A. HERRAN.