[Law of the Vilayets.]

Chapter V.-Duties of the Councils and Tribunals.

Justice and Equity. Nizamiés, &c.

ART. XXXVII. The members of the Nizamiés Tribunals must conform to the established laws, and never depart from the principles of justice and equity.

In virtue of the impartiality of the Tribunals, their members enjoy complete liberty and independence of opinion. The members of the Tribunals are placed as a whole under the authority of the Ministry of Justice.

ART. XXXVIII. The Administrative Councils presided over by the Valis in the vilayets, by the Mutessarifs in the sandjaks, and by the Kaïmakams in the cazas, take cognizance of the administrative affairs which concern the State and the province. Their duty consists in freely giving their advice on affairs submitted to their deliberations in accordance with law and custom.

ART. XXXIX. The members of the Administrative Councils are not responsible for execution contrary to their decisions. They must, however, abstain from all abuse in the exercise of their functions. The responsibility resulting from acts carried out contrary to decisions annulled or adjourned without motives, will fall on the functionaries charged with the executive power.

ART. XL. In cases when the members of the Administrative Councils shall discover irregularities or injustice in the administrative service, they may communicate, by a report to the Sublime Porte, the results of the discovery they may have made, while keeping within the limits of strict justice. Any individual who may be the object of vexatious acts exercised against his person, or of injustice committed against his interests, on the part of a public functionary or of a private person, has the right to complain directly to the Sublime Porte. If it is proved, however, that these complaints are the results of personal animosity, the calumniator will be subject to the penalties decreed by law.

Final Provision. Execution of above Instructions.

The Committee of Inspection of the Executive Council is charged with superintending the strict execution of the present instructions. Any infraction of their arrangements will entail responsibility before the law.

No. 460.-CIRCULAR to Roumanian Agents abroad, announcing the Neutrality of Roumania in the Crisis in the East. April, 1876.*

EUROPE, in the midst of the emotions which still agitate her, feels so great a need of peace, such a desire to avoid every cause of conflagration, that I do not think it superfluous, with the objects of preserving for our country the sympathies of the Guaranteeing Powers, to recall to them, on this occasion, the peaceable and absolutely correct attitude which the Prince's Government has preserved from the commencement of the crisis which has arisen in the East.

This attitude, as prudent as it is loyal, does not only result from the personal views of a group of men, who, finding themselves in power, may have guided the current of opinion in this direction; it results in addition and above all from the traditions, the sentiments, the real interests of the Roumanian people.

Separated geographically from Turkey by one of the greatest rivers in the world, strong in her autonomy, confident in the Treaties which guarantee her existence, Roumania is not obliged to lay claim to rights which she has never forfeited. Though foreign by language, by race, by the genius of her people, to the races who inhabit Turkey, she does not hesitate to give them her sympathies; but neither does she see anything in the events passing beyond the Danube which ought to make her forget the economical and social questions which have arisen in her midst and which she must solve at any price.

The Roumanian people understands that on the solution of these problems depend its internal repose and welfare.

The desire of realising all the progress compatible with our time and our means forms at the present moment, M. l'Agent, the object of our constant care. The development of our agriculture and our commerce; the creation at all points, so to speak, of our industries; the multiplication of our relations

Forwarded to the Foreign Office by Mr. Vivian, Her Majesty's Agent and Consul-General at Bucharest, on the 4th of April, 1876.

[Neutrality. Crisis in the East.]

with neighbouring countries; the placing of instruction within the reach of all; the increase of our means of communication, are not these sufficient to absorb all our faculties? This noble task, this great field open to the intelligence and the activity of the Roumanians, are not these worthy of a nation eager to take its place in the great family of civilized peoples?

These peaceful and progressive ideas form a programme to which we shall know how to remain faithful. Relying under all circumstances upon the sympathy of the Great Powers; confiding in our own powers for our pacific development; we make the strict observance of Treaties the very basis of our policy.

Under present circumstances, this policy is defined in one word-Neutrality. If this policy gives us the right to the support and the esteem of the Guaranteeing Powers, it also imposes on us some sacrifices and the duty of making this Neutrality respected.

The preceding ought to suffice to enlighten the most prejudiced as to the real sentiments of the Roumanian people, and as to the real intentions of its Government. I have every reason to believe that these frank explanations will dissipate the rumours lately spread abroad concerning the alleged armaments which we were supposed to be making.

In point of fact, you are aware, M. l'Agent, that the Legislative Assemblies have only granted this year to the Minister of War, under the head of extraordinary credit, a sum of 950,000 fr. Although this Minister has at the present moment a reserve of 4,000,000 fr., that is because he has preserved intact 3,000,000 fr. from the credit which was allotted to him last year, and for which he would already have found employment, had the Government entertained, were it only for an instant, the warlike projects that have been so gratuitously attributed to it. Do you not think, Sir, that if the case had been so, it would have been his duty, first of all to give to our infantry that uniformity of armament which all the specialists demand for it, and for which we shall, nevertheless, be obliged to make them wait some time longer.

Such are the facts, M. l'Agent; such, I repeat, is the pacific conduct which the Prince's Government has followed, and which it is resolved to continue to follow.

Scrupulously observing all Treaties, as a disinterested spectator of the events which develop themselves around us, we

[Neutrality. Crisis in the East.]

think only of the means of utilizing the immense resources of which Roumania can dispose.

I am desirous, Sir, that you should be impressed by these ideas, and that you should be exclusively inspired by them in all the verbal communications that you may be called upon to make to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of

I have, &c.,

BALLATCHANO.

[Berlin Memorandum. Insurrection in Turkey.]

No. 461.-MEMORANDUM of the Views of AustriaHungary, Germany, and Russia, on the Affairs of Turkey, and on the proposed Basis for the Pacification of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Berlin, 13th May, 1876.*

TABLE.

Proposals for Combined Naval Movements for Protection of respective Subjects, and for the Maintenance of Tranquillity.

Proposed Armistice for Two Months.

Reconstruction of Houses and Churches, and Subsistence of Returning Refugees.

Distribution of Relief by a Commission.

Concetnration of Turkish Troops.

Retention of Arms.

Consular Supervision.

(Translation.)

THE alarming tidings which come from Turkey are of a nature to impel the Three Cabinets to draw closer their inti. macy.

The Three Imperial Courts have deemed themselves called upon to concert amongst themselves measures for averting the dangers of the situation, with the concurrence of the other Great Christian Powers.

Proposals for combined Naval Movements for Protection of Respective Subjects and Christians, and the Maintenance of Tranquillity.

It appears to them that the existing state of affairs in Turkey demands a double series of measures. It seems to them of primary importance that Europe should consider the general means necessary to guard against the recurrence of events similar to those which have recently taken place at Salonica,t and the repetition of which is threatened at Smyrna and Con* Communicated to Lord Odo Russell by Prince Bismarck, 13th May, 1876.

+ On the 6th May a Religious Disturbance broke out at Salonica, during which the French and German Consuls were murdered in a Turkish Mosque. In consequence of the great alarm which these murders created among the Christians at Constantinople, Sir H. Elliot telegraphed, on the 9th May, to H.M.'s Consul-General at Beyrout, instructing him to inform Admiral Drummond, who was then at Jaffa, that his early presence at Constantinople might be very useful, and that he would be glad if he would bring the squadron to Besika Bay.