service, but it is still necessary to improve it, in order that the course of correspondence may be more easy and rapid; you will adopt such measures as you may consider fitting for the completion of this important department.

The judicial authorities act with perfect independence within their proper limits, and the Government effectually contributes to this by respecting them and causing others to respect them, and by giving them the requisite support for the execution of their judgments and orders.

But the administration of justice has met with considerable difficulties and obstacles in its course, which neither the zeal nor the ability, nor yet the integrity of the magistrates has been able to overcome; for there are defects and errors of great magnitude in our legislation in general, and particularly in the part relating to procedures, which delay and complicate causes the most simple and of most easy and brief determination, superfluously multiply the proceedings, and offer an ample field for unfair litigants. Well founded representations have been made by the tribunals, demonstrating these and other defects in our recent codes, and which you will no doubt take into consideration with a view to their indispensable reformation.

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Truly disconsolatory is the picture offered by the criminal statistics of these latter times, and in particular the large number of atrocious crimes which keep society in a state of terror. plague of malefactors infests the country, their numbers and audacity augmented by reinforcements of foreign outlaws, and every day the necessity becomes more imperious for the adoption of severe and efficient measures to terrify the evildoer and arrest him in his career of crime, instead of animating him by impunity, and leaving the life, the honour, and the fortune of the peaceful and defenceless citizen at the mercy of the assassin's poniard. It will be worthy of your examination to ascertain whether the evil exists in the legislation, or in the immorality of a corrupted and degraded part of the population.

In the midst of the unfavourable circumstances before mentioned, public instruction has been attended to as far as posssible, by the establishment of schools where there were none, by increasing their number in various districts where they were urgently required, and by re-establishing others which had been closed; so that a con. siderable number of children of both sexes are now receiving instruction in all the public and private schools which are in operation throughout the wide territory of the Republic.

The first experiments of the central normal school have answered to a great extent the purposes of the institution, the expectations of the public, and the intentions of the Government in amplyfying [1861-62. LI.]

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and regulating primary instruction, which has hitherto been very scanty, superficial, and defective throughout the country, especially in the interior provinces.

Rectors and professors of acknowledged ability have the direction of the national colleges; and the examinations which regularly take place in them, testify to the zeal and devotion of the masters, as well as to the perseverance and consequent advantage of the pupils.

The Government is not, however, satisfied with what has been done and is still doing in this department; it desires the propagation and the rapid progress of enlightenment; it desires that education, useful knowledge, and the study of the sciences, should become general; that there should be plan, system, and uniformity in the method of teaching; that there should be practical schools of arts and trades; that the Universities should arouse from the state of inertness, prostration, and complete nullity in which they are now; that instead of an illusory and fantastic existence, and of words devoid of meaning, they should receive a real and active existence, and become the worthy and venerable centre of all scientific teachings and doctrines, in conformity with the ideas, the spirit, and the wonderful progress of modern times.

In harmony with the ideas of the Government on public instruction in general, some important works have been prepared, which will have to be duly applied very shortly.

The hospitals are at present in the best possible condition, by means of the support afforded to them in strict justice by the intelligent and pious zeal of the benevolent societies, and the delicate and anxious service of the Sisters of Charity. Among the establishments of this kind is to be distinguished the lunatic asylum for both sexes recently opened in the Cercado, where the patients were transferred a few months ago, and where from the extent, conveniences, and scrupulous cleanliness of the locality, the salubrity of the temperature, careful attention, and adequate moral and physical means which science and experience employ opportunely and sagaciously in the treatment of those unfortunate beings, it is to be hoped that at least some of them may recover the full exercise of their intellectual faculties.

Our army gives fresh proofs every day of its well-known valour, morality, and discipline; and its conduct in the late campaign of Ecuador was worthy of its name. Divided between the north and the south, conducted by intelligent, vigilant, and active commanders, well armed, equipped, and paid, it is on the alert and ready to proceed wherever the necessities of the public service may call it for the defence and protection of the honour and the rights of the country; hitherto the forces of which it is at present composed have

been sufficient, and although they are larger than ought to be kept up under ordinary circumstances, it has not been necessary to increase them to the number sanctioned by law.

The services which the national fleet is called upon by its noble destiny to perform, and which it continually does perform, are of too great importance and therefore too well known, to make it necessary to record them. The fleet guards our coast and our interests, and is, at the same time, a powerful element of internal order. It maintained an extensive blockade of foreign territory; it aided the army, both in transporting it, and in the movements and operations of the campaign, and won, like that, the sympathies of the Equatorian people by its moderation and worthy deportment.

The same law that authorized the Government to augment the army, also authorized it to call into service the fighting men of all grades; and this has been done, many having been incorporated into the army and navy, without distinction of party or political complexion.

To secure the Republic against every kind of surprise, to make its frontiers respected, to vindicate our rights and the honour of our flag, it has been unavoidable, although very painful, to devote thereto, in preference, a large expenditure, which the Government would have wished it possible to avoid, in order to apply it to many and most useful improvements of vital importance, which the nation urgently requires to attain that high degree of prosperity and aggrandizement to which it is naturally called. Exigencies, as pressing as they were serious, and that one no less serious and pressing of fulfilling with scrupulous punctuality the engagements of the internal and external debt, have made, it is true, a considerable inroad upon our coffers; but it is also evident that far from our credit having decayed, it maintains itself at such a height, in the country and out of it, as is shown by recent transactions, by the high price of the securities in the market, by the difficulty that has been met with in redemption, by the scarcity of bonds on sale, and by the general disposition of the holders to retain what they possess, by reason of the confidence inspired by seeing their capital secure and productive. Another flattering aspect of the actual state of our credit is, the assurance of our ability to obtain in the commercial centres of the world the funds which the country may require to undertake and complete works of the greatest importance, and which are now of urgent necessity.

Of the various branches which constitute the national revenue, the Customs and the guano of the islands are the principal; the former are far from producing so much as they ought, in proportion to the riches, the increasing population, and consumption of the country; there are reasons for believing that smuggling is practised

on a large scale, that from thence arises the injury, and that the high duties with which certain merchandize is burdened nourish and stimulate that immoral traffic.

The system of consigning guano has been for a long time past a fruitful source of long discussions in the press, carried on with more or less warmth, and with reasoning of more or less weight; but the Government which studies the question uninterruptedly, seeking from experience and principle what is most fitting and to the point, does not yet find solid grounds for forming a different judgment from that which it has formed, respecting the mode of administering that important branch.

The monetary position in which the Republic finds itself is serious and complicated in the extreme; and much has been written recommending various ways and means to cut out the devouring cancer of the debased and discredited circulating metal. There are two certain means of effecting this; either to prohibit altogether the circulation of the Bolivian money, or to wait until the course of exchange occasions its exportation, in order that the former may be done with less charge on the exchequer; but, in either case, our monetary law must be reformed, because it is not in analogy with the present value of the precious metals.

The two questions of exchange and of money are intimately connected with each other; on which supposition it will be opportune to state, that although it has been vociferated on the part of national and foreign commerce, that the exchange is ruinous to them, such an idea cannot be accepted without reserve, for it is contrary to the most elementary notions of political economy; neither is it possible to conceive that exchanges should be constantly injurious to one of the parties engaged in the operation.

You will be circumstantially informed by the respective Ministries of all that concerns the various branches of the Administration, of the necessity of reforming some laws, the application of which offers no slight difficulties; such as those of conscription and the national guard; and others exceedingly defective and inappropriate; such as those of elections, of the municipalities, and of printing, as has been confirmed by experience and practice. The regulations and tarifs of the Customs, as well as the system of the Exchequer Offices, slow in their course, and, in one word, of imperfect organisation, must likewise be reformed. You will be apprised of all the public works already completed, or undertaken, or projected; and in due time an account will be given to you of the receipts and expenditure of the public treasury, with the necessary vouchers.

Legislators; you are about to fulfil the stern duties imposed upon by the august mission which the people have freely and legally conferred upon you. To consolidate peace and order, respect and

obedience to the laws and the public authorities; to enact suitable laws and useful reforms; to improve the institutions, in order to secure their permanence and prevalence; and in order that the rights and liberties of the citizen may not fluctuate; to second with your enlightenment and effective co-operation the views and projects of the Government, to the profit of the nation, for whose aggrandisement it is solicitous: such is the programme which will be laid before you as the result of profound and patriotic deliberations. May Divine Providence enlighten you and protect you, and cover you with honour and glory,

Legislators; the ordinary sessions of the Congress of the Republic are opened.

RAMON CASTILLA.

ACT of the British Parliament, "for the Protection of Inventions and Designs exhibited at the International Exhibition of Industry and Art for the year 1862."

[25 Vict. cap. 12.]

[April 29, 1862.]

WHEREAS it is expedient that such protection as is hereinafter mentioned should be afforded to persons desirous of exhibiting new inventions or new desigus at the International Exhibition of Industry and Art to be held in the present year, under the direction of "The Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1862 :" be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: I. This Act may be cited for all purposes as "The Protection of Inventions and Designs Amendment Act, 1862."

Protection of new Inventions.

II. The exhibition of any new invention at the said International Exhibition shall not, nor shall the publication, during the period of the holding of such exhibition, of any description of such invention, nor shall the user of such invention, under the direction of the said Commissioners, prejudice the right of any person to register provisionally such invention, or invalidate any letters patent that may be granted for such invention.

Protection of Designs.

III. The exhibition at the International Exhibition of any new design capable of being registered provisionally under the Designs. Act, 1850, or of any article to which such design is applied, shall not, nor shall the publication during the period of the holding of such

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