as regards states of common origin I think we ought to go still further onward-I think a fitness and even a necessity exists for binding ourselves by means of Treaties which may serve to draw closer the bonds which ought to unite us.

Owing to the difficult circumstances that this country has passed through since it began to figure as an independent nation, the bad practice had been introduced that every injury sustained by a foreigner in his person or in his property, should immediately give rise to a diplomatic claim.

Foreigners who, by the liberality of our institutions and of our customs, enjoy all the civil rights which in other countries are reserved for natives, did not address themselves to the competent tribunals to obtain justice, but in every case applied to the Representative of their nation, in order that the matter should be treated diplomatically.

Such a proceeding could not be tolerated without forgetting the principles which regulate relations between nation and nation. Foreigners in no case have a claim to more rights or guarantees than the natives of the country themselves have. For the establishment of those principles which obtain among all civilized nations I should state that my Government has not met with any opposition among the enlightened diplomatic Agents of the various nations.

Argentine Republic.

The union of the Argentines has been the means of facilitating our relations with that brother-people, to which we are united by so many bonds.

My wishes are most cordial that the Argentines, always inspired with the thought of May, may surmount the difficulties that yet surround them.

The Argentine Government has suggested to me the propriety of signing a Treaty of Extradition. The suggestion once accepted, I will not enter upon the Treaty without the previous knowledge of the Honourable Chamber of Senators in the form prescribed by the fundamental law.

Republic of Paraguay.

I see with the most lively interest the progressive march of that sister Republic whose Government has to contend with all the obstacles bequeathed to it by those which preceded it.

I hope that our relations, very limited at present, will go on increasing, to the interest of both one and the other.

Empire of Brazil.

The respect of all foreign rights-the general basis of my policy,

has served to remove many difficulties, and to place our relations with Brazil upon a footing of reciprocal confidence.

It may be said that the difficulties to which the Treaty of Exchange of Territory gave rise have vanished. Those relative to the Treaty of Modifications of 1857 have been satisfactorily over

come.

I do not enter now into details in this respect, because you will have all that are necessary both in the report of the honourable Permanent Committee, and also in the memoir of the department concerned.

The legation of the Republic in Brazil has been withdrawn, without such a measure in any way signifying an alteration of friendly relations, or an opposition to any legitimate means of removing difficulties that have arisen or that may arise. I caused this to be explicitly declared.

The questions pending with Brazil are few, and very easy to be arranged; good faith and loyalty mediating, as is to be expected on both sides. They are confined to the following:-the Convention concluded respecting injuries by war, which was rejected by the honourable Chamber of Senators in the former period; the arrangement of the debt which we recognize as owing to Brazil; and the reciprocal claims respecting injuries received by Orientals and Brazilians, in their persons or their properties.

Brazil, in presence of the stipulations of the Treaty of loan between the Republic and the Empire, cannot persist in maintaining that the account of the public debt should remain open for an indefinite time; nor can she disown that the concessions granted, from most special circumstances, and which cannot occur again, to England and France, ought not to, and cannot, serve as a precedent for other cases.

With regard to the debt, it will be arranged, do not doubt it, with the same good faith and loyalty with which I have arranged with many creditors of the State, and I am ready to arrange with all the others. All shall be submitted in due time to your consideration.

The memoir of the Ministry will inform you as to the state of our reciprocal claims.

France and England.

The sole question pending with England and France is the one relating to the Convention respecting injuries by war.

From the very commencement of my administration, I occupied myself actively in carrying forward that protracted business in which I could no longer recede, taking into consideration the situation in which I found it. There was still a discussion on

certain difficulties, when the unforeseen decease of the English Commissioner, at the beginning of July, there being no one who could replace him, entirely paralyzed the labours of the Mixed Commission.

Being desirous, nevertheless, to manifest my desire that this affair should arrive at a termination, I accepted the suggestion to lay aside the Convention, and to draw up a new project of arrangement, which will be submitted to you.

Various propositions have been exchanged hereon, but we have not yet arrived at a conclusion reciprocally acceptable.

Spain.

The best understanding exists with our old mother-country. Our relations, founded on reciprocal interests, become closer every day; and I have the pleasure of assuring you that the difficulties which formerly existed respecting certificates of nationality, enlistments, &c., have entirely ceased.

Portugal.

The Legation of His Most Faithful Majesty has asked for explanations respecting the conditions for the ratification of the pending Treaty. You will find them in the memoir of the Department for Foreign Affairs.

Sardinia.

The Convention of May, 1841, for the transmission of correspondence between the two countries, is no longer on a level with the reciprocal requirements. I caused its cessation to be notified, in conformity with what is laid down in the Convention itself. For the rest, our relations with that important country are becoming more active every day, with reciprocal benefit.

Hanseatic Cities.

The Free Cities of Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburgh, have made known their desire to conclude a Treaty of Commerce with the Republic, upon the same bases as those which served for the one concluded with the Zollverein States. The suggestion having been acceded to, an account will be in due season given to the Honourable Chamber of Senators, in conformity with what is laid down in the Constitution of the Republic.

There is an absolute necessity for Consular regulations. Those now in existence are not only altogether deficient, but were given by incompetent authority. The project relating thereto will be presented to you.

Interior.

Favoured by the quiet that the country enjoys, we have been able to continue the arrangement and reformation of the different branches of the Administration. The efforts made in this direction have been crowned in general with a happy result, notwithstanding that enough yet remains to be done for the attainment of complete success.

I trust that by dint of earnest desire and perseverance, all the difficulties will gradually be surmounted until we arrive at that desired end.

Although as friendly as any one to public liberties and to the rights of the citizen, I have not been able, nevertheless, to look impassively on the licentiousness of some publications, in which, on the pretext of pleading the interests of a party, there was an incitement to disorder and to a renewal of civil war. I have taken means to put a curb upon such a pernicious irregularity, as far as I have been permitted to do so by the limits assigned to me by the fundamental law. Charged by that law with the preservation of internal order, I will not hesitate to employ the energetic and vigorous action of my authority, if that order should come to be seriously threatened, by such or any other means.

I continue to look on the amnesty which I submitted to you in the past year as a beneficial and a just measure; and I again recommend it to you. In seeking to reconcile all Orientals with the order at present existing, I reckon with certainty on being able to repress, as soon as it appears, the criminal boldness of any who should attempt to interrupt it.

The elections that took place last year, although contested with warmth in some places, have been in all exempt from violence and coercion. There has been the most perfect liberty at them; but extremely satisfactory as that result may be, the irregular and blameable proceedings by which they were accompanied in some departments, as you will have seen in examining the elections, are nevertheless to be lamented.

The bad habits acquired, and the obscurity and faultiness of the laws in the matter of elections, have combined to bring about such disagreeable occurrences, the repetition of which it is necessary to avert by means of a law that may be of general application, without giving room for arbitrariness and false interpretations.

Municipal institutions, necessary in all parts for attention to local interests, are even more so in Republics, where they form the great practical school of the people, and where by their means the people acquire the habits, spirit, and disposition suitable to a Republican life.

The Constitution, which has established what was fitting for the general government of the nation and the particular government of the departments, has provided nothing with respect to the regimen of municipalities or the administration of localities, leaving it to the decision of subsequent legislatures to determine the mode and form of organizing that natural institution, as it also did with respect to other important matters.

I consider that the provision for so great and generally recognized a want should not be longer deferred, and I have consequently determined to draw up a project of law which I shall afterwards submit to your consideration.

The Economico-Administrative Committees are not as yet in the exercise of their constitutional attributions as they ought to be. Neglected in the origin, and subsequently charged with various functions as the necessity of doing so became felt, without, however, being subjected to a general law established for them all and suited to the character with which the Constitution invests them, the result has been a confusion which it is of much importance to put an end to by passing an organic law submitting them to a common regulation within the orbit assigned to their proper functions.

The laws and decrees in force do not suffice for properly determining the attributions of political chiefs and their substitutes. It would be very proper to enter on the correction of this defect, more especially if municipalities should be established, and if it be resolved that the Economico-Administrative Committees should enter on their functions as they ought, in which case a law must necessarily be passed upon the matter. Anticipating this, a project of law with reference thereto will be transmitted to you, conjointly with others relating to those bodies.

It has not been possible to raise the Urban Companies in all parts to the numbers indicated by the law, owing to the difficulty of finding persons who would voluntarily dedicate themselves to that service. Created as an auxiliary police force, they may be called on to do military service for the defence of the towns, affording them protection from attempts at anarchy.

The postal service has met with great improvements by the two means of communication, by rivers and by land. Thanks to the regular, prompt, and frequent communication that it has established between the chief centres of population in the country and with various points in foreign parts, distances have been infinitely shortened, the benefits resulting therefrom being incalculable.

This branch, as well, requires a law that may sanction what exists in practice, and give authority for other improvements that it may be fitting to introduce.