provisions of this Act, and he shall fix the compensation and provide for the payment thereof of all such officers, agents, and assistants as he may find it necessary to employ to carry out the provisions hereof: Provided, however, that as soon as a civil government for Porto Rico shall have been organized in accordance with the provisions of this Act, and notice thereof shall have been given to the President, he shall make proclamation thereof, and thereafter all collections of duties and taxes in Porto Rico under the provisions of this Act shall be paid into the Treasury of Porto Rico, to be expended as required by law for the government and benefit thereof instead of being paid into the Treasury of the United States.

Sec. 5. That on and after the day when this Act shall go into effect all goods, wares, and merchandize previously imported from Porto Rico, for which no entry has been made, and all goods, wares, and merchandize previously entered without payment of duty and under bond for warehousing, transportation, or any other purpose, for which no permit of delivery to the importer or his agent has been issued, shall be subjected to the duties imposed by this Act, and to no other duty, upon the entry or the withdrawal thereof: Provided that when duties are based upon the weight of merchandize deposited in any public or private bonded warehouse said duties shall be levied and collected upon the weight of such merchandize at the time of its entry.

General Provisions.

Sec. 6. That the capital of Porto Rico shall be at the city of San Juan and the seat of Government shall be maintained there.

Sec. 7. That all inhabitants continuing to reside therein who were Spanish subjects on the 11th day of April, 1899, and then resided in Porto Rico, and their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the protection of the United States, except such as shall have elected to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on or before the 11th day of April, 1900, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Peace between the United States and Spain entered into on the 11th day of April, 1899;* and they, together with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of "The people of Porto Rico," with governmental powers as herein. after conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such.

Sec. 8. That the laws and ordinances of Porto Rico now in force shall continue in full force and effect, except as altered, Treaty signed December 10, 1898; ratifications exchanged April 11, 1899. See Vol. XC, page 382,

amended, or modified hereinafter, or as altered or modified by military Orders and Decrees in force when this Act shall take effect, and so far as the same are not inconsistent or in conflict with the statutory laws of the United States not locally inapplicable, or the provisions hereof, until altered, amended, or repealed by the legislative authority hereinafter provided for Porto Rico or by Act of Congress of the United States: Provided that so much of the law which was in force at the time of the cession, April 11th, 1899, forbidding the marriage of priests, ministers, or followers of any faith because of vows they may have taken, being paragraph 4, Article 83, Chapter 3, Civil Code, and which was continued by the order of the Secretary of Justice of Porto Rico, dated March 17th, 1899, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States' Volunteers, is hereby repealed and annulled, and all persons lawfully married in Porto Rico shall have all the rights and remedies conferred by law upon parties to either civil or religious marriages; and provided further, that paragraph 1, Article 105, Section 4, divorce, Civil Code, and paragraph 2, Section 19, of the Order of the Minister of Justice of Porto Rico, dated March 17th, 1899, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States' Volunteers, be, and the same hereby are, so amended as to read: Adultery on the part of either the husband or the wife."

Sec. 9. That the Commissioner of Navigation shall make such regulations, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, as he may deem expedient for the nationalization of all vessels owned by the inhabitants of Porto Rico on the 11th day of April, 1899, and which continued to be so owned up to the date of such nationalization, and for the admission of the same to all the benefits of the coasting trade of the United States; and the coasting trade between Porto Rico and the United States shall be regulated in accordance with the provisions of law applicable to such trade between any two great coasting districts of the United States.

Sec. 10. That quarantine stations shall be established at such places in Porto Rico as the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States shall direct, and the quarantine regulations relating to the importation of diseases from other countries shall be under the control of the Government of the United States.

Sec. 11. That for the purpose of retiring the Porto Rican coins now in circulation in Porto Rico and substituting therefor the coins of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to redeem, on presentation in Porto Rico, all the silver coins of Porto Rico known as the peso and all other silver and copper Porto Rican coins now in circulation in Porto Rico, not including any such coins that may be imported into Porto Rico

after the 1st day of February, 1900, at the present established rate of 60 cents in the coins of the United States for 1 peso of Porto Rican coin, and for all minor or subsidiary coins the same rate of exchange shall be applied. The Porto Rican coins so purchased or redeemed shall be recoined at the expense of the United States, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, into such coins of the United States now authorized by law as he may direct; and from and after three months after the date when this Act shall take effect no coins shall be a legal tender, in payment of debts thereafter contracted, for any amount in Porto Rico, except those of the United States; and whatever sum may be required to carry out the provisions hereof, and to pay all expenses that may be incurred in connection therewith, is hereby appropriated, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to establish such regulations and employ such agencies as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes hereof: Provided, however, that all debts owing on the date when this Act shall take effect shall be payable in the coins of Porto Rico now in circulation, or in the coins of the United States at the rate of exchange above named.

Sec. 12. That all expenses that may be incurred on account of the Government of Porto Rico for salaries of officials and the conduct of their offices and departments, and all expenses and obligations contracted for the internal improvement or development of the island, not, however, including defences, barracks, harbours, lighthouses, buoys, and other works undertaken by the United States, shall be paid by the Treasurer of Porto Rico out of the revenues in his custody.

Sec. 13. That all property which may have been acquired in Porto Rico by the United States under the cession of Spain in said Treaty of Peace in any public bridges, road houses, water powers, highways, unnavigable streams, and the beds thereof, subterranean waters, mines, or minerals under the surface of private lands, and all property which at the time of the cession belonged, under the laws of Spain then in force, to the various Harbour Works Boards of Porto Rico, and all the harbour shores, docks, slips, and reclaimed lands, but not including harbour areas or navigable waters, is hereby placed under the control of the Govern ment established by this Act to be administered for the benefit of the people of Porto Rico; and the Legislative Assembly hereby created shall have authority, subject to the limitations imposed upon all its acts, to legislate with respect to all such matters as it may deem advisable.

Sec. 14. That the statutory laws of the United States not locally inapplicable, except as hereinbefore or hereinafter otherwise provided, shall have the same force and effect in Porto Rico as

the United States, except the internal revenue laws, which, in view of the provisions of section 3, shall not have force and effect in Porto Rico.

Sec. 15. That the Legislative Authority hereinafter provided shall have power by due enactment to amend, alter, modify, or repeal any law or ordinance, civil or criminal, continued in force by this Act, as it may from time to time see fit.

Sec. 16. That all judicial process shall run in the name of "United States of America, ss. the President of the United States," and all criminal or penal prosecutions in the local Courts shall be conducted in the name and by the authority of "The people of Porto Rico;" and all officials authorized by this Act shall before entering upon the duties of their respective offices take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Porto Rico.

The Governor.

Sec. 17. That the official title of the chief executive officer shall be "The Governor of Porto Rico." He shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; he shall hold his office for a term of four years and until his successor is chosen and qualified unless sooner removed by the President; he shall reside in Porto Rico during his official incumbency, and shall maintain his office at the seat of Government; he may grant pardons and reprieves, and remit fines and forfeitures for offences against the laws of Porto Rico, and respites for offences against the laws of the United States, until the decision of the President can be ascertained; he shall commission all officers that he may be authorized to appoint, and may veto any legislation enacted, as hereinafter provided; he shall be the Commander-inchief of the Militia, and shall at all times faithfully executet he laws, and he shall in that behalf have all the powers of governors of the territories of the United States that are not locally inapplicable; and he shall annually, and at such other times as he may be required, make official report of the transactions of the Government in Porto Rico, through the Secretary of State, to the President of the United States: Provided that the President may, in his discretion, delegate and assign to him such executive duties and functions as may iu pursuance with law be so delegated and assigned.

The Executive Council.

Sec. 18. That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for the period of four years, unless sooner removed by the President, a Secretary, an Attorney-General, a Treasurer, an Auditor, a Commissioner of the

Interior, and a Commissioner of Education, each of whom shall reside in Porto Rico during his official incumbency and have the powers and duties hereinafter provided for them, respectively, and who, together with five other persons of good repute, to be also appointed by the President for a like term of four years, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall constitute an Executive Council, at least five of whom shall be native inhabitants of Porto Rico, and, in addition to the legislative duties hereinafter imposed upon them as a body, shall exercise such powers and perform such duties as are hereinafter provided for them, respectively, and who shall have power to employ all necessary deputies and assistants for the proper discharge of their duties as such officials and as such Executive Council.

Sec. 19. That the Secretary shall record and preserve minutes of the proceedings of the Executive Council and the laws enacted by the Legislative Assembly and all acts and proceedings of the Governor, and shall promulgate all Proclamations and Orders of the Governor and all laws enacted by the Legislative Assembly. He shall, within sixty days after the end of each Session of the Legislative Assembly, transmit to the President, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Secretary of State of the United States one copy each of the laws and journals of such Session.

Sec. 20. That in case of the death, removal, resignation, or disability of the Governor, or his temporary absence from Porto Rico, the Secretary shall exercise all the powers and perform all the duties of the Governor during such vacancy, disability, or absence

Sec. 21. That the Attorney-General shall have all the powers and discharge all the duties provided by law for an Attorney of a territory of the United States in so far as the same are not locally inapplicable; and he shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law, and make such reports, through the Governor, to the Attorney-General of the United States as he may require, which shall annually be transmitted to Congress.

Sec. 22. That the Treasurer shall give bond, approved as to form by the Attorney-General of Porto Rico, in such sum as the Executive Council may require, not less, however, than the sum of 100,000 dollars, with surety approved by the Governor; and be shall collect and be the custodian of the public funds, and shall disburse the same when appropriated by law, on warrants signed by the Auditor and countersigned by the Governor, and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law, and make, through the Governor, such reports to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States as he may require, which shall annually be transmitted to Congress.