of economy, keeping in view for all of them the facility and accuracy of their operations, and the sufficient remuneration of the persons who perform them for their labours, tasks, and exertions. The best revenue for the state is a judicious economy, for the most effective means of meeting our obligations is to moderate all excessive expenses and to discharge all superfluous and unnecessary officers. The State does not keep them or want them for the pleasure of paying them by the sweat of the people, but on account of the necessity for their efficient services, and the public utility resulting therefrom.

Public Forces.

In the estimate of the military list No. 6, the public forces are taken as they now exist in Yucatan; limited enough even for garrison duty in time of peace and tranquillity, and absolutely insignificant in the miserable circumstances of disorder and turbulence in which we are unfortunately placed, and by which not only are the security and liberty of the citizens menaced, but also the existence of the Government itself. For the support of its measures, the preservation of social order, which is its primordial object, and to obviate the corruption of public and private morality, it is considered necessary that those forces should be augmented so as to be able to give active and efficient aid where their presence may be required to suppress any attempt to disturb tranquillity, and to leave it soundly secured; the local militia only being employed in very extreme cases, in order not to withdraw its members from their rural and industrial occupations to the prejudice of society in general. For this purpose, in No. 7, there is submitted to the inspection and recognition of the Honourable Assembly a project for the organization of the public forces which ought, in the opinion of the Government, to be established; determining the order and form of their enrolment and replacement, whether by means of enlistment, by lot, quota or contingent assigned to each division of the country, in proportion to its population. All men in constituted society are bound to render this service, on account of the advantage which they derive from having those who engage to protect them from all aggression, and to secure to them that tranquillity which is necessary to enable them to exercise freely the beneficent occupations of industry which create public wealth. This new organization will cause fresh expenses to the State, which, from the nature and purpose of their important object, cannot be dispensed with; and in comparison with those contained in the estimate already referred to, will show a difference which must be added to the deficit already stated. The Honourable Assembly will pay close and particular attention to this point, which is intimately connected with that of the public finances, and on the arrangement of which depends the

good or evil condition of the Yucatan people, their existence or their perdition.

Ecclesiastical Revenues.

It is a principle acknowledged from the first ages of the world, that religion is absolutely necessary to society; for, uniting worship and morality with the power which it exercises over manners, it influences public prosperity, strengthens the social bonds, preaches peace and fraternity, adorns the mind with the pure knowledge of truth, dispels ignorance, confirms security and protects enlightenment, while inspiring the love of labour; but all these advantages which emanate from religion, and the consolations which it offers, are, unfortunately, converted into misery and desolation when it is under the management of ministers but little or not at all zealous in the fulfilment of the sacred duties, for then it only serves as a cloak for the most sordid passions; preaching disunion and ignorance, and sanctifying idleness, which is the fruitful source of all the vices. that corrupt and dishonour society. Hence it is indispensably necessary that those who are selected and dedicated to religious worship should edify the people by the practice of virtue, and not lead them astray to the edge of the precipice, by examples of dissipated and licentious living, nowise in conformity, but completely at variance with their revered and august office. The expenses of divine worship and of its ministers having been legalised on account of the utility and necessity of their sacred object, the payment thereof has been assigned, since the year 1843, to the treasury of the State; but the poverty and the pressing exigencies of that establishment have prevented its meeting them entirely; and, as is shown in the report of 1846, already referred to, in that year 58,792 dollars were owing on account of divine worship and its ministers; a debt which will go on progressively increasing and producing a heavy liability on the public finances, from which they must be discharged, and that without in any way neglecting to assign positive resources to provide for those cares which are equally urgent. Perhaps it would be well to devote part of the personal tax to this purpose, making it absolutely separate and independent of the public treasure, and establishing moderate surplice fees according to the capabilities of the towns and the means of the contributors; leaving the collection of the tax, as was formerly the case, to the respective clergymen, with the assistance and protection of the authorities, so that its payment should not be illusory. The Honourable Assembly will consider this simple suggestion, as well as the two statements Nos. 8 and 9, which are laid before it, respecting ecclesiastical revenues, for the purpose of satisfying the third point included in Article II of the Decree which has occasioned its meeting.

Gentlemen, I have touched rapidly and lightly on the points which are to occupy you; the Government expects from your patriotism and your wisdom that you will go as deeply into them as possible, and that the result of their examination will be such arrangements as may overcome the difficulties and organise, according to circumstances, necessity, and expediency, those matters which are of such interest and importance to our community. There are left for you on the table all the respective data and evidence, and in order that no time may be lost in any case, and that the labours of the Honourable Assembly may be expedited, the Government has stationed itself near at hand, so that it will be able to furnish all the intelligence and information which may be considered necessary in addition to what has been already presented.

The Government does not consider that it need extol and recommend to you the noble object of your meeting. In electing you for the representation of our compatriots, in charging you with a mission of such importance, your antecedents, your information, and your civic feelings were consulted, and it is not possible to doubt that you will justify this honourable confidence. The Government leaves you at absolute liberty to deliberate and to combine interests so dear and precious to the community; the welfare of Yucatan will result from your skill, and since you cherish in your hearts the noble and generous feelings of worthy citizens, therefore the result of your labours will probably be the best and most useful.

Before you depart, and according to the new aspect of public affairs, you will also have to resolve a great question. You will have to declare whether it will be better to hasten or to defer the election of the Constitutional Powers. The Government, which had in view very exceptionable circumstances for the convocation of this Extraordinary Assembly, also considered it prudent to invest it with the power of hastening or retarding those elections, in anticipation of circumstances that might require it. The Assembly will be able to take these circumstances into due consideration; and if, in its judgment, there should be a necessity for departing from the normal term, for the better security of peace and order, and to assure and give thereafter greater vigour to the empire of the law, it can so determine with the loyalty and good intention which are to be expected from all its actions.

It is necessary, Gentlemen, that the new constitutional powers which may be elected should enter upon the discharge of their high duties, under the calmness and serenity of public order. What would be the use of observing certain legal forms if their results should turn out ephemeral and precarious? This is a matter which requires cautious and mature deliberation, because on it depends in a great measure the public weal. Let us endeavour to secure the

freedom of the elections; in turbulent times, and when the passions are in a state of effervescence, it is very seldom that the real public will is attended to; and then the authority which is confided to those who are elected is enfeebled by the viciousness of its source, and the more seriously, inasmuch as it appears decked out with the semblance of legality.

The Provisional Government desires, then, that the constitutional powers which succeed it should come supported by positive legality, and, consequently, that they should be sustained by moral force. The Government has to enunciate these ideas thus explicitly in order that no one may be in doubt as to its principles; it expresses them with loyalty and good faith, and the Assembly will examine them with the judgment and circumspection which characterize it.

Gentlemen, it is time to think seriously upon remedying the public evils; let us enter upon this with a firm and decided will, in order to justify our conduct before the Yucatecan people and before the whole world. Let the Assembly, then, proceed to its deliberations. Ticul, 24th May, 1847.

DOMINGO BARRET.

DECLARATION of the Emperor of the French of Neutrality during the Civil War in The United States.-Paris, June 10, 1861.

LE Ministre des Affaires Etrangères a soumis à l'Empereur la déclaration suivante, que Sa Majesté à revêtue de son approbation:

Déclaration.

Sa Majesté l'Empereur des Français, prenant en considération l'état de paix qui existe entre la France et les Etats-Unis d'Amérique, a résolu de maintenir une stricte neutralité dans la lutte engagée entre le Gouvernement de l'Union et les Etats qui prétendent former une Confédération particulière.

En conséquence, Sa Majesté, vu l'Article XIV de l'Ordonnance de la Marine du mois d'Août, 1681, l'Article III de la Loi du 10 Avril, 1825, les Articles LXXXIV et LXXXV du Code Pénal, LXV et suivants du Décret du 24 Mars, 1852, CCCXIII et suivants du Code Pénal Maritime, et l'Article XXI du Code Napoléon, Déclare:

1. Il ne sera permis à aucun navire de guerre ou corsaire de l'un ou l'autre des belligérants d'entrer et de séjourner avec des prises dans nos ports ou rades pendant plus de 24 heures, hors le cas de relâche forcée.

2. Aucune vente d'objets provenant de prises ne pourra avoir lieu dans nos dits ports ou rades.

3. Il est interdit à tout Français de prendre commission de l'une des deux parties pour armer des vaisseaux en guerre, ou d'accepter des lettres de marque pour faire la course maritime, ou de concourir d'une manière quelconque à l'équipement ou l'armement d'un navire de guerre ou corsaire de l'une des deux parties.

4. Il est également interdit à tout Français, résidant en France ou à l'étranger, de s'enrôler ou prendre du service, soit dans l'armée de terre, soit à bord des bâtiments de guerre ou des corsaires de l'un ou de l'autre des belligérants.

5. Les Français résidant en France ou à l'étranger devront également s'abstenir de tout fait qui, commis en violation des lois de l'Empire ou du droit des gens, pourrait être considéré comme un acte hostile à l'une des deux parties, et contraire à la neutralité que nous avons résolu d'observer.

Les contrevenants aux défenses et recommandations contenues dans la présente Déclaration seront poursuivis, s'il y a lieu, conformément aux dispositions de la Loi du 10 Avril, 1825, et aux Articles LXXXIV et LXXXV du Code Pénal, sans préjudice de l'application qu'il pourrait y avoir lieu de faire aux dits contrevenants des dispositions de l'Article XXI du Code Napoléon, et des Articles LXV et suivants du Décret du 24 Mars, 1852, sur la marine marchande, CCCXIII et suivants du Code Pénal pour l'armée de mer.

Sa Majesté déclare, en outre, que tout Français qui ne se sera pas conformé aux présentes prescriptions ne pourra prétendre à aucune protection de son Gouvernement contre les actes ou mesures, quels qu'ils soient, que les belligérants pourraient exercer ou décréter. NAPOLEON.

Le Ministre des Affaires Etrangères, E. THOU VENEL.

ORDINANCE of Senate of Bremen against Privateering. Bremen, July 2, 1861.

(Translation.)

THE Senate finds it necessary, in regard to the events which have occurred in North America, to renew the regulations contained in its Ordinance of April 29, 1854, and accordingly makes the following notincation for general observance :

1. All subjects of the State of Bremen are forbidden, under severe penalties, both from meddling in any way with privateering and from taking part therein, either by fitting out privateers themselves, or contributing through others to the same.