sub-section, have not since the date of their acquisition of the property above mentioned applied them to any other use or purpose.

3. Societies, whatever their nature, aims, and objects, which are composed entirely or in part of the persons referred to in Nos. 1 and 2.

4. Those who come forward as being the owners of real estate where religious associations have practical seclusion, novitiate, professions, or vows, unless they can prove that they were in complete ignorance of these facts.

6. The provisions contained in Article 2 of the Decree, still in force, of the 28th May, 1834, are applicable to the properties which belonged to religious houses and associations without prejudice to the civil and criminal responsibility which attaches to the members of the houses or associations in which it is proved that seclusion, novitiate, professions, or vows existed.

CHAPTER II.-Concerning Claims made before the Legal
Representative of the State.

7. No action or execution may be initiated relating to the aforesaid, either against the State or against a third party, unless it has been preceded by the unofficial proceedings upon a claim, the form of which is prescribed in the following Articles.

8. Any person who considers himself entitled to any of the properties mentioned in Article 1 and the Sub-Article thereof, or to moneys for which those properties may be liable, must present to the delegate of the attorney of the Republic of the judicial district or ward in which these properties are situated his petition, divided into articles and supported by evidence, signed by an advocate, and producing, at the same time, all the documentary proofs in his possession and attaching thereto the necessary power of attorney.

§. For the effects of this Article, no request, down to the date of the publication of this Decree, to the judge in charge of the inventories, to the Minister of Justice, or to any other department or authority will be considered to be a claim; neither will it do away with the obligation to present one in the way required by this Article, but the claimant is dispensed from presenting the documents already produced by him, provided that he makes express mention of them indicating where, when, and to what authority he has produced them.

9. The proper delegate will not receive petitions which are not drawn up in conformity with the last preceding Article or which include the petitions of more than one claimant when they are not co-proprietors, or when they relate to properties situated in more than one judicial district or refer to more than one religious house or association.

10. When the petition, for which a receipt will be given, has been presented, the aforesaid delegate of the attorney for

the Republic will seek to obtain all the evidence relating to the case-both for and against the claimant-applying for it to any authorities, including those who have drawn up the inventories and the administrator of the township or ward, whom he may also request to open an administrative inquiry.

§. The delegate will thereupon, and within the maximum space of fifteen days from the day on which the petition was filed, forward the petition, with the documents in support thereof and the evidence and facts which he has collated, direct to the secretary of the committee of examination which was appointed by the Ministerial Order of the 27th December, 1910, published in the "Diario do Governo on the 28th of the same month.

11. The committee above referred to will require from that officer, or from any others, or from any bodies or public officers, any evidence of which it may be in need; and transmit, within the shortest possible period, to the proper delegate, a report upon their work, of which it will take a copy to be placed in the keeping of the Minister of Justice.

12. The delegate, in view of the facts furnished by the committee, will determine whether or not the petition is or is not well-grounded, there being no appeal whatever from his decision except in the case provided for in Articles 19 et seq.

13. Should the claim be held to be well-grounded the delegate of the attorney for the Republic will, in his decision, order, if the case requires it, that delivery of the properties be made by the registrar of the Court who has made the inventory, or, should an inventory not have been made, by the registrar serving in that week, always without prejudice to the rights which any third persons have or may have to the properties in question.

14. In the second case, when deciding that the claim is not well-grounded, he will, in his decision, order the registrar serving that week to notify the petitioner, to whom a certificate copy of the decision shall be delivered.

15. The provisions of the preceding Articles shall be applicable respectively when the decision upon any claim is that it is in part well-grounded and in part not so.

16. In the proceedings for claims tried before the delegate of the attorney for the Republic, even if the claim is decided not to be well-grounded, the claimants will not have to pay any costs, and the entire proceedings will be without stamps and without expenses.

17. Both the report and the documents which have not been filed by the claimant will be secret, and only those documents with which the claimant has supported his claim will be sent, upon application, to the registrar to whose office the suit in question has been sent.

18. The claims defined in the preceding Article may only be put forward down to the 30th June in Portugal, down to the following 16th August in the adjacent islands, and down to the 31st December, 1911, in the provinces beyond the seas.

§. After the dates referred to, if no claims have been put

forward, the properties will be definitively incorporated in the Treasury by means of communications from the Minister of Justice to the Minister of Finance.

CHAPTER III.-Concerning Procedure before the Judicial
Authorities.

19. When the claim tried by preliminary proceedings before the attorney for the Republic has been decided to be untenable, the claimant shall be bound, under the penalty of losing his rights and of the enforcement of Sub-Article of the preceding Article, to initiate the necessary action within the period of thirty days dating from the notification of the decision of the delegate of the attorney for the Republic.

20. If, at the expiration of six, ten, or eighteen months, according as it may be in Portugal, the adjacent islands, or in the provinces beyond the seas, the claimant has not been notified of the decision upon his claim, he may, if he so desires, institute the necessary action, filing it with the receipt referred to in Article 10.

21. The action, which will similarly be initiated in the judicial district or ward in which the properties are situated, will follow the procedure used for ordinary actions the object of which is to recover property as defined in the Code for Civil Procedure, or the corresponding forms of procedure when it is a question of other rights or debts receivable, with the modifications set forth in the following Articles.

22. It is not permissible to include in one section the claims of more than one plaintiff, or relating to properties situated in more than one judicial district, or to more than one religious house or association.

§ 1. Joint owners are, however, allowed to institute their action jointly.

§ 2. Infraction of the provisions of this Article renders the whole action irrevocably null and void.

23. The claim and the grounds of the action shall be precisely the same as those which were filed in the preliminary proceedings under penalty of being wholly null and void.

24. The action, when it has to follow the forms of civil procedure, will be judged by a collective Court composed, in Lisbon and Oporto, of the judge of the ward and by those of the following wards, in their order of numerical succession, in the remaining districts of Portugal of the proper judges and of those of the two nearest judicial districts, and in the adjacent islands and the colonies, of the judge or judges of the judicial district, the registrar of real estate and the competent deputy judge until that number is completed.

§. The nearest judicial district is, for the effects of this Decree, the judicial district of which the seat is the least distant from the seat of the judicial district in which the action in question is pending.

25. After each of the parties has pleaded in writing in accordance with the provisions of Article 400 of the Code of Civil Procedure the records will be forwarded officially to each member, who will examine them and return them with his endorsement within the space of ten days; and upon recovering the records the presiding judge will also endorse them and will at once name a day which will be officially communicated to the two members for the judgment of the case, which shall take place without the parties or their representatives being present, unless there has to be a postponement owing to the non-appearance of some one of the judges.

26. In complete freedom and without subjection to the legal rules the judges will consider all the evidence upon the records, seeking, above everything, to convince themselves as to the truth and justice of the claims put forward, but they will state the grounds for their decisions, setting forth all the elements of a judicial and moral nature which have influenced them in delivering their judgment.

S. If the action for the recovery of property has been declared to be not well-grounded by a judgment which has become absolute the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 18 shall be carried out.

27. When it is necessary to follow the forms of commercial procedure, the jury will of necessity intervene, and will conscientiously weigh the whole body of facts alleged which are pertinent to the case and requisite for the decision thereof.

28. The Supreme Court of Justice, when it has to intervene in these proceedings on account of the importance of the case, shall limit its action to taking cognisance of any nullities in the proceedings.

CHAPTER IV.-General and Transitory Provisions.

29. Actions against the State which, at the date of the publication of this Decree, are already before the Courts in connection with the property of religious houses or associations shall be suspended, all time limits being interrupted until a note of the notification or a certified copy of the decision arrived at in the non-litigious claim spoken of in Article 15 has been filed.

§. The periods of time interrupted will continue to run for each of the parties from the date upon which they are notified of the order to file upon the records the note or certified copy referred to.

30. If that note or certified copy is not filed within the space of one month from the date of the decision of the claim the actions cannot proceed, and shall be ex officio, or upon the petition of the attorney of the Republic, declared to have elapsed and to be disallowed for any legal effects.

31. No action or execution' may be initiated against any person alleging that he or she is the possessor or owner of properties which have been occupied, held, or used by Jesuits or

any other religious houses or associations, or against either the former or the latter, or further against any of their members with respect to the properties in question or for the recovery of debts, without being preceded by the non-litigious claim treated of in Articles 7 et seq., which in their entirety are applicable thereto.

§. The provisions of this Decree are equally applicable to the actions referred to in this Article, and the Attorney for the Republic will always be summoned therein to put forward whatever he may think advisable in the defence of the interests of the State.

32. Actions which may have to be brought against any religious house or association should be brought against the State, which, however, will only be responsible within the value of the properties which have belonged to the religious house or association in question, and only after those properties have been definitely considered as belonging to the Treasury.

33. When it is a question of claims for articles of food or others, the nature of which does not admit of delay until the periods of time referred to have run, the State may settle them after the conclusion of the preliminary proceedings upon the claim remaining invested with the rights of the creditors, and being empowered also to exact a security if it is considered to be

necessary.

34. When, in accordance with the general law, the form of procedure to be employed against the persons mentioned in Article 31, or against the State as being in the place of any religious house or association, is to be that of an execution, the provisions of that law are to be carried out, the Attorney for the Republic being always summoned to allege whatever he considers to be expedient in the defence of the interests of the State, and the provisions of Article 32 being observed.

§. The execution shall in every case be preceded by the non-litigious claim mentioned in this Decree, the respective provisions being applied thereto.

35. The provisions of Article 29 are applicable to the actions. and executions mentioned in the preceding Articles, but which may be pending at the date at which this Decree comes into force, even if the Attorney for the Republic has not until then intervened therein.

36. In all cases provided for in this Decree, the right of the Attorney of the Republic to make use of all the other civil, commercial, and criminal actions which he may think it his duty to bring against those who seek to defraud the interests of the State or of third parties, is reserved.

37. The Committee appointed by the Ministerial Order of the 27th December last shall furnish to the Attorneys for the Republic all the materials which they may obtain, and which may be necessary for them to initiate, in the name of the State, actions for the recovery of the debts receivable by the Jesuits and the suppressed religious houses or associations.