had lost all value, and with the loss of their value even their name had disappeared. One day it was announced, however, that these bonds were to be redeemed, and the sons of the original holders began to search for them amongst forgotten papers. That day was for many a day of legitimate surprise. The creditors offered their bonds for any price, and they were told that they would be redeemed at the value inscribed on them. It would have sufficed to pay in the future, but it was added that even arrears and the accumulated interest would be paid, and the redemption of the capital duly redeemed, and new bonds to be called "deferred" would be issued. To what is this extraordinary fact due? You all know that it is due to one of the most honourable actions of the Province of Buenos Ayres. Nevertheless we had not reconstructed the Republic, nor established its government; yet the day after the suppression of the tyranny, and at a time when one alone of the provinces which belong to the Argentine nation had barely been able to establish a system of normal revenue and expenditure, it began as the representative of the common fatherland to seek out in the London exchange those bonds which had been forgotten by all except the debtor. Well, when a nation has shown such a trait as this in its life, a trait unique in the history of national finance, it is entitled to hold its brow aloft, and assert its honour and credit, although speculators may contradict it, and, in order to maintain but for one day their fallacious transactions, impress the libeller's pen into their service. I have before me the figures of our foreign debt. It amounted on December 31 to only 43,000,000 dollars in bonds, it being necessary to deduct 1,200,000l. which we retain at disposal in a banking-house. So then this debt is not only represented, but surpassed, by the millions in cash which the railway to Tucuman, that from Villa Maria to Mercedes, and the Primer Entre-Riano, the vast telegraphic net which covers the Republic, and the large buildings, such as the Custom-house at Rosa, which have been constructed within the last three years, are worth. Why then are we reproached with the money spent in wars, when the expenses incurred have been already covered by our industry? We can, moreover, proudly justify our wars. They were never wars of ambition or of conquest; and although there have been civil wars, we have fought them nobly with the soldier's sword, and founded the unity of the fatherland and the reign of free institutions, the establishment of which cost the great English nation not 30 years, but centuries of bloody strife. The holders of the Argentine bonds should indeed remain unalarmed. The Republic may be internally divided into widely differing parties, but all have the same honour and credit as all have one name, and one flag before foreign nations. There are 2,000,000 of Argentine subjects who have economized to the point of hunger and thirst, in order to respond at a supreme juncture to the engagements of our public credit in foreign exchanges. Gentlemen Senators, Gentlemen Deputies, I have given you an account of the state of the nation, and after invoking for your deliberations the help of Divine Providence, I solemnly declare your present session open. Buenos Ayres, May 1, 1876. NICOLAS AVELLANEDA. PROTOCOL OF CONFERENCE between the Delegates of Great Britain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, respecting Drawbacks on Sugar.-Signed at Paris, March 8, 1877.* CLOSING PROTOCOL, THE undersigned Delegates of France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Netherlands met at Paris, the 5th February, 1877, under the presidency of M. Teisserenc de Bort, Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, with the object of preparing the conclusion of a new Convention on the Sugar question. After the deliberations recorded on the minutes of the Conferences, they have, subject to the approbation of their respective Governments, agreed upon the Draft Convention annexed to the present Protocol. Done at Paris, March 8, 1877, OZENNE. GUILLAUME. F. G. WALPOLE. E. P. LE FEUVRE. TOE WATER. * Laid before Parliament in 1877 with other Protocols of Conferences relating to the same subject, held at Paris between 5th February and 8th March, 1877. Draft Convention annexed to the Protocol of March 8, 1877. ART. I. In France and the Netherlands the sugar factories and refineries shall be placed under supervision. II. In the sugar factories the supervision shall be carried out according to one or other of the systems at present in force in France and the Netherlands. III. In the refineries it shall have for its object the strict watching of the entries and deliveries without the Government officers having to interfere, otherwise than for the inventories, with the interior work of the establishment. This system of supervision shall be completed by the establishment of a general account of refining debited at entry with the raw sugars according to their absolute richness, and credited at delivery with the quantity and absolute richness of the products forwarded from the refinery. A general inventory of the refinery shall be taken at least once a year. The duty shall be levied on delivery for consumption; in France a minimum duty shall be levied before the entry of the sugars into the refineries, and the balance shall be recovered by means of supervision. Sugars intended for exportation after refining shall not be subjected to any preliminary payment of duty. In the Netherlands the account of refining shall be kept as a means of control only. The duty shall be levied at the moment when the manufactured products leave the refineries. IV. In the event of the duties on sugar being re-established in England, supervision would be applied to the factories and the refineries, either according to one of the systems adopted in France or in the Netherlands, or according to other regulations, which would be the object of a previous agreement between the High Contracting Parties. V. The system established in Belgium since the Convention of 1864 shall be retained, with the following modifications: The rate of duty shall be reduced from 45 fr. to 22 fr. 50 c. from the date on which the present Convention shall take effect, and shall be further reduced to 19 fr. when for a period of two years under the new arrangement the revenue from sugar shall have exceeded 4,800,000 fr. The charge for duty in the contract factories shall be raised from 1,500 to 1,550 grammes from the commencement of the crop of 1877-78, and to 1,600 grammes from the commencement of the following crop. The obligatory yield in refined sugar of the first, second, third, and fourth classes of raw sugars shall be fixed respectively at 94, 90, 81, and 72 per cent. A higher class of raw sugars shall be created, including white crystals (" poudres blanches "), at a yield of 98 per cent. For the exportation of raw indigenous sugars of the new class and of the three following classes, the standards shall be made according to the colour of Nos. 20, 17, 12, and 8 of the Dutch. series. Loaf sugar cut into pieces may be exported with drawback, provided it be equal in quality to sugar in loaf perfectly purified and dried. Saccharimetry shall be applied for the verification of sugars on exportation or importation, to control or to replace the standards in the event of undoubted frauds in colouration being proved by the Belgian Customs authorities. It is understood that the drawbacks shall not exceed the Customs or Excise duties levied on the same products. VI. During the whole period of the present Convention the duty on sugars in Belgium shall not exceed the maximum rate fixed by Article V. Subject to this reservation, each of the High Contracting Parties retains the right to raise, reduce, or entirely abolish the said duty. VII. Sugars imported from one of the contracting countries into another shall not be subjected to Customs or Excise duties higher than the duties on similar products of national manufactures. VIII. If in one of the contracting countries the system of supervision should hereafter be organized under different conditions to those indicated in Article III, and of such a nature as to occasion serious hindrances to the industry, that country would be at liberty to seek for its refineries a compensation equivalent to the charges resulting from these hindrances. The form and extent would be determined by common agreement between the Contracting States. IX. In the event of bounties, direct or indirect, being granted by other countries on the exportation of raw or refined sugar, and becoming compromising for the production of one or other of the High Contracting Parties, a new understanding might be promoted in order to consider in concert as to the measures of defence which might be taken. X. The High Contracting Parties shall reciprocally communicate the text of the legislative arrangements and regulations which are or shall be in force in their countries relative to the matters which form the object of the present Convention. XI. The execution of the reciprocal engagements contained in the present Convention is subject, so far as is necessary, to the completion of the formalities and rules established by the constitutional laws of each of the contracting countries. $ XII. The High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves the power to introduce, by common consent, into this Convention all modifications which may not be opposed to its spirit or principles, and of which the utility may be shown by experience. XIII. The High Contracting Parties likewise reserve to themselves the right of concerting measures for the purpose of obtaining the adhesion of the Governments of other countries to the stipulalations of the present Convention. XIV. The duration of the present Convention is fixed for 10 years from the 1st September, 1877; nevertheless each of the High Contracting Parties shall be able, by giving notice 12 months in advance, to put an end to it at the expiration of the third year. XV. The present Convention shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Paris within five months, or sooner if possible. DECLARATION between Switzerland and Roumania, for regulating, provisionally, the Commercial Relations between the two Countries.-Signed at Vienna, December 28, 1876. LE Gouvernement de la Confédération Suisse et le Gouvernement de Son Altesse le Prince du Roumanie, désirant régler provisoirement les relations entre les deux pays, pendant la période de temps nécessaire pour la négociation et la conclusion d'une Convention de Commerce, les Soussignés, dûment autorisés à cet effet, sont convenus des dispositions suivantes : Les produits d'origine ou de provenance Suisse qui seront importés en Roumanie, et les produits d'origine ou de provenance Roumaine qui seront importés en Suisse, seront respectivement soumis, quant aux droits d'importation, d'exportation, de transit, quant à la réexportation, au courtage, à l'entrepôt, aux droits locaux, et quant aux formalités douanières au même traitement que les produits de la nation la plus favorisée. Le Gouvernement de Son Altesse le Prince du Roumanie et le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté l'Empereur d'Autriche, Roi de Hongrie, étant convenus de s'assurer certains avantages spéciaux pour l'échange et la circulation des produits des districts limitrophes, ces avantages ne seront pas réclamés par la Suisse. Le présent arrangement provisoire entrera immédiatement en |