than 19,000,000 of acres had been sold. The amount paid into the Treasury by the purchasers of the lands sold is not yet equal to the sums paid for the whole, but leaves a small balance to be refunded; the proceeds of the sales of the lands have long been pledged to the creditors of the Nation; a pledge from which we have reason to hope that they will in a very few years be redeemed. The system upon which this great National interest has been managed, was the result of long, anxious, and persevering deliberation; matured and modified by the progress of our population, and the lessons of experience: it has been hitherto eminently successful; more than nine-tenths of the lands still remain the common property of the Union, the appropria tion and disposal of which are sacred trusts in the hands of Congress. Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed under extended credits, which, in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the value of lands, and of their produce, became oppressively burdensome to the purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the Nation to wring from its own Citizens the reasonable profits of their industry and enterprise, by holding them to the rigorous import of disastrous engagements. In March, 1821, a debt of 22,000,000 of dollars, due by purchasers of public lands, had accumulated, which they were unable to pay. An Act of Congress, of the 2d of March, 1821, came to their relief, and has been succeeded by others, the latest being the Act of the 4th May, 1826, the indulgent provisions of which expired on the 4th of July last. The effect of these laws has been to reduce the debt from the purchasers, to a remaining balance of about 4,300,000 dollars due; more than three-fifths of which are for lands within the State of Alabama. I recommend to Congress the revival and continuance for a further term, of the beneficent accommodations to the public debtors, of that statute; and submit to their consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the remission, under proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of partial payments on account of purchases of the public lands, so far as to allow of their application to other payments.

There are various other subjects of deep interest to the whole Union, which have heretofore been recommended to the consideration of Congress, as well by my Predecessors as, under the impression of the duties devolving upon me, by myself. Among these are the debt rather of justice than gratitude to the surviving warriors of the Revolutionary War; the extension of the Judicial Administration of the Federal Government, to those extensive and important members of the Union, which, having risen into existence since the organization of the present Judiciary Establishment, now constitute at least one-third of its territory, power, and population; the formation of a more effective and uniform system for the Government of the Militia, and the ameliora tion, in some form or modification, of the diversified and often oppressive Codes relating to Insolvency. Amidst the multiplicity of

topics of great National concernment which may recommend themselves to the calm and patriotic deliberations of the Legislature, it may suffice to say, that on these and all other measures which may receive their sanction, my hearty co-operation will be given, conformably to the duties enjoined upon me, and under the sense of all the obligations prescribed by the Constitution. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Washington, December 4, 1827.

SPEECH of the King of Bavaria, on the Opening of the Session of the States.-17th November, 1827.

Mes chers et fidèles Etats du Royaume,

GRACES inexprimables soient rendues à celui auquel nous devons tant d'excellentes Institutions, à celui qui nous a donné la Constitution, et qui étoit pour nous tous le plus tendre des Pères! Jamais peut-être le Trône ne ressentira les battemens d'un cœur si noble et si plein d'amour.

Il seroit superflu sans doute de vous dire quelles sont mes dispositions, de protester de mon attachement aux libertés légales, aux droits du Trône, à cette Constitution protectrice de tous; de vous répéter que je regarde la Religion comme la base la plus essentielle, et que je saurai la maintenir dans tout ce qui lui appartient.

Notre Constitution, malgré tous ses avantages, n'est pas exempte de défauts; l'expérience peut seule démontrer ce que les théories në peuvent enseigner. Mais notre Constitution elle-même l'a prévu; elle nous ouvre avec sagesse la route des améliorations.

Les Sessions précédentes ont déjà fait beaucoup de bien; mais il nous reste beaucoup à faire.

Le défaut de Conseils Provinciaux est très préjudiciable.

Pour rendre l'Administration Publique et celle de la justice moins coûteuse, plus expéditive et moins surchargée d'écritures, des changemens sont indispensables.

Le prompt établissement d'un bon système définitif des contributions est vivement desiré; la justice le réclame, elle veut une Loi qui assure d'une manière plus exacte l'assiette et la répartition de l'impôt; ce besoin est celui des contribuables, mais non des caisses de l'Etat, car non seulement le déficit du service courant est comblé, mais encore la construction d'une grande Place Forte Nationale est entreprise. La Bavière en possédoit une jusqu'au commencement de ce siècle.

L'institut d'Amortissement de la Dette Publique et des Pensions suit la marche régulière: les Finances sont en bon ordre.

Le nouveau Tarif des Douanes et la Loi sur la culture des terres

ont pour but de soulager le commerce et l'agriculture, et d'ouvrir de nouvelles sources à l'industrie.

J'ai l'espoir qu'un Traité avec la Couronne de Wurtembourg va bientôt reporter la vie et le mouvement vers cette Frontière.

Grâce aux généreuses dispositions de la dernière Assemblée Législative, des améliorations importantes ont eu lieu dans plusieurs branches de l'agriculture et de l'industrie manufacturière.

Sur ces objets et sur d'autres non moins importans, mes Ministres sont chargés de soumettre à vos délibérations et à votre approbation divers Projets de Loi, de même que pour une nouvelle forme de Procédure Judiciaire, basée sur la publicité des débats et sur la plaidoirie orale, et enfin pour un Code Pénal, commun à tous mes Sujets.

Je mets toute ma confiance dans les lumières de mes chers et fidèles Etats du Royaume; je me repose sur leur bonne volonté. Loin de nous tout intérêt personnel; notre seul but est la Bavière, le bien de cette Bavière, objet de mon amour le plus profond.

N'oublions pas cependant que toute bénédiction vient de Dieu.

REPORT of the Minister of Finance to the President of Mexico.-10th January, 1827.

(Abstract.)

(Translation.)

YOUR Excellency, always desirous to promote the best interests of the Republick, your own honour, and that of your Ministers, was pleased to require from me, on the 1st of the present month, a detailed account of the improvements effected in the different branches of the publick Revenue during my Administration.

I undertake this task with pleasure, both because it is one which your Excellency has been pleased to assign to me, and because it has always been my opinion that, upon so important a subject, the Nation should judge only by the knowledge of facts.

Nor will this even be sufficient, unless due attention be paid to the extraordinary circumstances under which your Excellency assumed the reins of Government, at a moment when the entire political existence of Anahuac was renewed, and the system, both of Government and of Finance, entirely changed: publick opinion pronounced itself against the abuses of the preceding Ages: the Congress decreed a complete regeneration; it gave a new form to old practices, and introduced others, till then unknown.

In August 1824, the great metamorphoses commenced. Fate placed me at the head of the Ministry, at the moment when the change was about to be made; when the adoption of the Federal System, and the extinction of the National Chests, the Intendencies, the Di

rectories, and Audit Offices, left, ample room for the introduction of the desired Reforms.

The Decrees of the Congress, Nos. 70 and 80, and the Law, No. 106, confirm these facts: all that had previously existed, was swept away: the Minister found himself invested with the charge of Director General; a charge which required both mental and bodily activity, and assiduity. The Ministry was a perfect chaos: order was to be substituted for confusion,-method for irregularity; inferior Agents of every kind were wanting; the Secretary's Office was ignorant of almost all that it ought to have known, and, even in the Capital, efficient Persons were not to be procured;-the whole weight of the undertaking fell upon the Minister alone, upon whose plans, well or ill formed, and upon whose activity, the organization of the new System depended.

Such was the condition of the Department when first confided to my care. I have thought it my duty to state it without disguise, in the hope that the changes which have been effected, will be received, at least, as a proof of the earnestness with which I have devoted myself to the task of accomplishing them.

In order to convey a just idea of what has been done, it is absolutely necessary to institute a comparison between the present state of the Publick Revenue, and that of the Years 1822, 1823, and the beginning of 1824, as developed by my Predecessors in the Finance Department, who were taught by experience the difficulties of their situation, and of whose zeal, and abilities, the Country must always retain a grateful recollection.

"On the 28th of October, 1822, not only was the pay of the Troops in arrear, in the Capital, but on the point of being suspended altogether; and in the States, (then Provinces) it was about to be reduced, from the total want of resources." Such were the expressions used by Don Antonio Medina, then Minister, in his Introduction to his Plan for a new System of Contributions, for the year 1823.

The confusion was, at that time, so great, that, in order to form an estimate of the Receipt and Expenditure of the Provinces, the Minister was forced to make all his calculations upon the basis of those of the Capital alone, as he himself admits in his Report to Congress, of the 3d September, 1823. He therein stated, "that his orders for the collection of the necessary data had not been complied with, and that he found it very difficult to enforce obedience to them, as their execution depended upon Men, some of whom were too ignorant to give the information required, whilst others were interested in suppressing it, in order to perpetuate abuses; the whole of them being influenced by the langour, to which they had been accustomed under the old system."

This confession, on the part of so distinguished a Publick Functionary, proves that, in the year 1822, at least, disorder was at its

height throughout the Department, the Receipts trifling, and the want of resources great.

In 1823, Don Francisco Arrillaga was placed at the head of the Finance Department. He characterized as frightful; the abuses which prevailed in the Administration of the Revenue, and declared that plunder and corruption prevailed in all its branches. In April, he was only able, with the help of a Loan from the Consulado, to pay half what was due for the month, upon the Civil List. On the 31st of May, the Receipts were not sufficient to pay the Troops alone. He described their clamours, and those of the Pensioners, and Government Officers; the impossibility of satisfying them; the ab sence of all assistance from the States; the want of the necessary elements to enable him to form an idea of the resources of the Coun try. In short, the picture which he laid before the Congress was truly lamentable, and warranted the most serious apprehensions. On the 12th of November, 1823 (by which time some little improvement might have been hoped for,) Senor Arrillaga stated, in his Report, "that no ordinary measures, or threats, were sufficient to awaken the Government Employés from their culpable indolence; that others of a more serious nature must be resorted to; that the Directors and Accomptants, as expensive as useless, had dared to present him with Returns of the produce of the Country, founded upon those only of two Towns and of three Provinces." He then described the state of the Customs at the end of March, 1823, and drew a wretched picture indeed, of the state of the Finances :-" the administration, in com plete disorder; the Revenues themselves exhausted; deposits, both ordinary and judicial, embargoed; Forced Loans, carried to their utmost extent; the produce of the Tithes, Media anata, &c. pledged for many Hundred Thousands of Dollars; Credit destroyed, by the fatal seizure of the Conducta, and by the issue of Paper Money which only obtained a partial currency at a loss of three-fourths

its nominal value: the removal of Capitalists, with their Capitals, which had followed this destruction of confidence, and tranquillity, and left us without resources, and even without hope of a remedy."

2

No malversation in the application of the Publick Revenues, is to be inferred from the above description, beyond the effect of an irresistible necessity; but it presents a true picture of the state of affairs at the time when I took possession of the Ministry. During the short interval of 9 months, which elapsed, between the last Report and the period of my entering Office, little improvement had taken place; although the sale of the stock of Tobacco on hand, the Loan of Richards, and that contracted for with the house of Goldschmidt, the strictest economy, the partial receipts of the Customs and some minor branches of the Revenue, enabled my Predecessor to meet the most