There remained to the Establishment, for expense of labour, 3 reals 32 maravedies. On each mark of silver coined, 18 grains short weight was allowed. Four drachms were also paid on each piece of metal, under the name of bocados (mouthfuls), for the Assayers, who had to defray all the expenses of the assay :-and on every mark of gold coined, there was a gain to the establishment of 7 dollars, 7 reals, 2 maravedies.

At present only 2 reals per mark are paid; 81⁄2 grains short weight is allowed, and there remain to the Establishment on each mark of gold coined, 2 reals.

From this reduction, and the absence of the profit of 13 grains on what was called yielded gold (oro cedido), which, on account of the small amount of the present manufacture, is not rendered, the decline of the Establishment has proceeded. In 1823 a loss of 37,233 dollars, 5 reals, 8 grs. was experienced; and that of 1824 is calculated at 25,000 dollars.

Foreign Loans.

A Loan was proposed by Don Bartoleme Vigors Richars, in the name of the House of Barclay, Herring, and Co., of London, on account of which he advanced 500,000 dollars, but this did not take effect. Another by Don Robert Staples, who, in money, credit, and tobacco, furnished the Government with 1,263,701 dollars. The last, which still exists, consisted of £3,200,000 sterling, which Don Francisco Borja Migoni, contracted in London, with the House of B. A. Goldschmidt and Co. This, after the deductions for the Contract, was reduced to about 5,900,000 dollars, which the Government could dispose of, as the respective instalments become due. It had done so in fact of the sum of 2,271,153 dollars 3 reals, up to the time of my entering the Ministry.

Of the 3,628,836 dollars 5 reals, remaining disposable,. 1,652,421 have been disbursed, and have been applied, in the most economical manner; to the assistance of the Californias, which had been for many years neglected by the Government, and were reduced to the greatest distress; to the outfit of Legations; the organization of the Army; contracts for Clothing; the purchase of Vessels, and also of Tobacco, in order to take as much as possible of the latter out of the hands of the growers, with the laudable object of preventing frauds.

There remain in the year 1825-1,976,315 dollars; from which one-third is to be deducted, agreeably to the Regulations for the establishment of the Sinking Fund. The remainder will be accounted for in the Abstract of the Revenue.

A new Loan for £3,200,000 sterling has been contracted for, by way of commission, on account of the Mexican Nation, with Manning and Marshal, as the Representatives of the House of Barclay, Herring, Richardson, and Co., of London, under the condition of their being

able to realize it within the year stipulated for in the twelfth Condition of the Loan concluded with Goldschmidt, through Migoni, which year expires in February next.

The Government, under the authority of the General Congress, of the 27th August, 1823, deviated from the former methods, and opened its Contract for the sale of its Bonds in Foreign Markets to the most favourable bidders. The object was to obtain for the Republic the gain which must have been otherwise had by the Contractors, if the Bonds had been sold at a fixed price.

ABSTRACT of the GROSS PROCEEDS, EXPENSES, and NET PRODUCE of the GENERAL REVENUES belonging to the FEDERATION, by the Sovereign Decrees Nos. 70 and 81.

III. On the third point, it will be sufficient to give a General Abstract of the Expenditure, which is founded on the Estimate of the different Ministers, preceded by the detailed Estimates of the two great Departments of the Army and Marine :

Battalions of Active Militia of Infantry, in the Interior of the

Republic ..

3,442,389

Battalions and detached Companies, on the South and North Coast

1,061,169

In this Estimate the subsistance of the Army is calculated on the ratio of the full Force required by Law: it is calculated that, although neither of the three arms is as yet complete, before the end of 1825, the Army will be raised to its full complement. The Ministers of War and of Finance agree, however, to deduct a fourth part from the above Estimate, and to take it at 12 millions of dollars, (including the Extraordinaries,) at which sum it is stated in the Abstract of Expenditure.

Officers, Crews, Arming, Victualling, and ordinary Repairs of
Eight Ships of burden...

720,956

Ditto of two Schooners, of twelve guns in battery, and one on the

gang-way

96,349

Ditto of seven armed Schooners and five small Craft (balandras)..
Seven Companies of Infantry and one of Artillery....

Building of two Frigates of 44 guns, three Corvettes of 30, and

two Brigs of 20 guns

Hospitals

Building of Arsenals, Magazines, &c.

GENERAL ABSTRACT.

Dollars.

292,128

133,941

1,032,097

117,128

450,000

Dollars.... 2,934,533

Estimate of the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Affairs.

Ditto of the Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs.

618,968

301,267

105,737

77,220

IV. And last Point.-Under this head the Minister considers the means of supplying the large deficit exhibited in the preceding Accounts. Nothing, he says, would be more easy than to resort to the obvious expedient of new Taxes to raise the Receipt to the level of the Expenditure. The condition of the Contributors, their impoverishment, after the struggle which they have for so many years maintained, induce him, however, not to resort to any expedient of this description. The Income which is to be derived from the present branches of the Revenue, and by the revival of some of the old ones, without altering the System, or incommoding the honest and peaceful Citizen, will be sufficient. The first object to which he turns his attention, is the Monopoly of Tobacco; formerly one of the most productive sources of Revenue, which, but for its decline, might have relieved the Government from many of its difficulties. He proposes a zealous union of the different States in preventing frauds, which have nearly annihilated a branch of Revenue which, at one period, produced 4,447,000 dollars.

He proposes that the Provinces should altogether abstain from interfering in the manufacture and Taxing of Tobacco, as the best means of assisting the necessities of the Treasury. He states, that in the five years from 1795 to 1799, the gross receipts of the Treasury were 20,462,317 dollars. "How fortunate," he observes, "should we deem ourselves, could we again realize the net amount of those Receipts, which was 15,325,065 dollars. It appears to be easy to do so, if we abandon unknown roads and return to those already trodden, sure of

reaching the point to which we direct our steps. At the period to which I have referred, Tobacco produced 3,927,898 dollars net. The Coinage of gold and silver 1,258,338; and the Duties on both metals, in ingots, 2,111,474 dollars. The three amounted together to 7,297,710; and it will be seen that we can collect, in the year 1825, 6,649,563 dollars, if the Revenue of Tobacco, the Coinage, and the Duty of Quintos, be carried by the Legislative Power, to the height at which they might be maintained, now that the number of Consumers is increased by the presence of Foreigners, and that the Mines are worked at the expense of the latter.

"If the Duty of Quintos be supposed to be derived from conquest, let it change its name, like that of New Spain, converted into the Federal Republic of the Mexican States. If a laudable attempt to encourage mining has taken the item of Coinage out of the branches of the Revenue, we reluctantly expose the evil effects of so benevolent an endeavour, and express an apprehension that, in the end, the riches buried in the bowels of the earth will remain there, even after years of protection."

The Minister concludes, (after anticipating some objections which might be raised on account of the separate rights of the States of the Federation,) by stating that he had performed the duty which was imposed upon him by the fourth division of his subject, in pointing out the possibility of covering the deficit which the Exposé exhibited, without odious direct contributions, or the imposition of new indirect ones-"The re-establishment of the ancient monopoly of Tobacco on its former level," says the Minister, "that of the duties on Gold and Silver in ingots, and of those on Coinage, and the suppression of some of the Maritime Customs, which, as they are part of the general Revenue, cannot be opposed to the interests of the States, will suffice to fulfil that object."

The Statement of Finances was followed by some general recommendations to economy in all branches of the State.

JOSE IGNACIO ESTEVA.

CONVENTION between Austria and the Two Sicilies, relative to the Stay of the Austrian Troops in the Neapolitan Territory.-Signed at Milan, 28th May, 1825.

LA Transaction conclue le 31e. Août, 1824, entre les Cours de Vienne et de Naples, avec l'assentiment de S. M. l'Empereur de Russie, Roi de Pologne, et de S. M. Le Roi de Prusse, en vertu de laquelle la force du Corps Auxiliaire de Troupes Autrichiennes, stationné dans le Royaume des Deux-Siciles, avait été réglée au nombre de 33,500 hommes, ayant fixé la durée de cet Arrangement jusqu'à la fin du mois