conclusion of the negotiations with Austria and those which are to be entered into with France, the Plenipotentiaries of the Contracting States shall once more assemble, in order to draw up a new Zollverein Treaty, which shall embrace the contents of the Zollverein Treaty of April 4, 1853,* together with the conditions agreed upon in the Treaties of June 28, this year, of July 11, this year, and of this day, as also the alterations hereafter made by common consent, and the said Treaty shall be substituted for the 3 last-named Treaties. On that occasion such agreements shall be entered into or such communications shall be made as were reserved in Separate Articles II and VIII, No. 2, of the Treaty of June 28, this year, in the Final Protocol of the same day under No. 52, and in the Final Protocol of July 11, this year, under No. 2, for the negotiations provided in Article VIII of the Treaty of June 28, this year. At the same time those proposals shall come under consideration which Saxony has made as contained in the records of June 28, this year, respecting the alteration of several of the stipulations of the Union Treaties. Finally, the understanding will then be come to which is reserved in the special Article to the Treaty of June 28, this year, respecting the trade in wine and tobacco. The assembled Plenipotentiaries guarantee to each other, that, as was the case with regard to the earlier Zollverein Treaties, their Governments will, on the ratification of this Treaty and of its Separate Article, consider the agreements contained in the present Protocol, as approved, without further formal ratification, and will faithfully adhere to them. The Treaty was thereupon signed and sealed by the Plenipotentiaries according to the agreement entered into for saving time, together with the Separate Articles thereto belonging, in one copy which is to be kept, for the whole Union, in the Royal Prussian State Archives, and duly prepared and certified copies are to be immediately sent on the part of Prussia to the Plenipotentiaries of the remaining Governments of the Union. After it was further agreed, that to avoid loss of time in preparing the ratification documents, it should be left to the High Contracting Parties, not only as already done in like cases, to choose such a form of ratification as to show the fact thereof clearly enough, without entering all the Treaty Articles, but also to announce the ratification of both the Public Treaty and of the Separate Articles in one and the same document, both the present Protocol as well as the agreement attached to it was, after having been read over, signed in one copy, and taken charge of by the Prussian Plenipoten* Vol. XLVI. Page 1141. tiaries, on condition of forwarding, with all despatch, certified copies to the remaining Plenipotentiaries, with the Treaty and the Separate Articles, the originals to be lodged in the Royal Secret State Archives. Done at Berlin, October 12, 1864. VON POMMER ESCHE. PHILIPSBORN. DELBRUCK. VON THUMMEL. VON BAR. SCHMIDT. BODE. THON. VON THIELAU. MEYER. METTENIUS. VON REICHERT. RIECKE. EWALD. VON HEEMSKERCK. Annex to the Final Protocol.-Agreement on the Rhine Navigation (Translation.) Berlin, October 12, 1864. Dues. IN connection with the Treaty of to-day respecting the accession of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau to the Customs Union Treaties of June 28 and July 11, this year, the following Agreement on the navigation dues on the Rhine has been entered into between the Undersigned Plenipotentiaries of the German States bordering on the Rhine: 1. For ships subject to toll sailing on the Rhine within the limits of the Union, between Emmerich and the Lauter, or beyond these points, the toll levied will be half that fixed in the Tariff, lit, B, of the Rhine Navigation Act of March 31, 1831.* 2. For articles liable to the whole and the quarter dues of the Rhine toll (Supplementary Article XVI to the Rhine Navigation Act of March 31, 1831,) forwarded to any point on the Rhine within the Union Countries, between Emmerich and the Lauter, or beyond these points, timber and wood for building purposes excepted, a tenth part only of the normal rate of the entire upward toll dues will be levied both in the passages upwards and downwards. The rates per centner, to be levied in accordance herewith, are comprised in the accompanying special Tariff. 3. By the foregoing Agreement those Treaties or Agreements which exist between the States bordering on the Rhine, or between any of them separately, either for the levying of the Rhine dues on timber, or for the complete or partial exemption of certain articles from these dues, or as to the mode of levying the Rhine Navigation dues between the German States bordering on the Rhine, or any of them separately, and likewise the conditions regarding the regula * Vol. XVIII. Page 1076. tions promulgated in one or other of the border States for the complete or partial exemption of certain articles from the Rhine dues, or as to the mode of levying those dues, as specially enacted in former negotiations on the part of Baden, Bavaria, and Hesse, are in no wise prejudiced. 4. The present Agreement comes into full operation on January 1, 1866, and from that day takes the place of the Protocol Agreement concluded at Carlsruhe January 12, 1860, between the German States bordering on the Rhine. It is provisionally in force until December 31, 1877. 5. The ratification of the present Agreement shall be considered as effected by the ratification of the Treaty first above mentioned, on the part of the States bordering on the Rhine. Done at Berlin, October 12, 1864. SCHMIDT. VON REICHERT. EWALD. SCHELLENBERG. VON POMMER ESCHE. Το VON HEEMSKERCK. DELBRUCK. Special Tariff for levying the Rhine Dues on the course of the Rhine from the Lauter to Emmerich. Ordinal (A.)-On all goods which are subject to the whole and the quarter Tax. For the Rhine course. From Neuburg Neuburg 0 07 Coblenz 1 41 Andernach.. Wesel Andernach..| Linz .. Cologne Düsseldorf.. Ruhrort To the Netherland Prussian Frontier (B.)-On goods subject to the whole and quarter Tax which leave the Rhine and enter the Lahn. MESSAGE of the President of Bolivia, on the Opening of the National Assembly - Oruro, August 18, 1863. (Translation.) HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN DEPUTIES, REASSEMBLED within this precinct for the task of devoting our labours to the welfare of the Republic, we ought before all to render thanks to Divine Providence for the peace and tranquillity which He has been pleased to grant to Bolivia, after the sad days which were brought upon her by the anarchical factions. It is satisfactory to me to assure you that the Republic preserves her good relations with the Powers beyond the seas, and with the sister Republics of this continent. In conformity with the Law passed by you on the 27th of May last, my Government has appointed a Mission of the first class to the Cabinet of Santiago, and it has been confided to Don Tomas Frias. Its object is to open final negotiations for the purpose of reclaiming our bay and coast of Mejillones, causing the Government of Chile to hear once more the clear echo of the right and justice by which Bolivia is supported in this demand. Notwithstanding the spirit of rectitude and justice displayed in the language of the President of Chile, in his message to the National Congress assembled last June, on the subject of this question, I regret to announce to you that the acts of his Government unfortunately do not correspond with the ideas enunciated in that document. In the Message, the President promises that the importance which the coast of Mejillones has recently acquired (and he designates it a part of the Chilean territory, at the same time admiting it to be doubtful) will not influence Chile and its Government to swerve from the path of justice, which has always been their guide in international questions, and which they must also follow in the decision of the one pending with Bolivia. He therefore trusts that, by means of a dispassionate examination of the titles produced by the two parties, such a solution may be obtained as shall terminate the present misunderstanding. Notwithstanding, the very same President himself, who in those sentences appears animated with such high sentiments of equity, a few days later presented to Congress a project of law in which, feigning entire forgetfulness of, and the most outrageous contempt for, the rights of Bolivia to the disputed coast, he proposes the adoption of several administrative measures for the more profitable working of the guano deposits of Mejillones, and the establishment of a port of the first order in that bay, disposes of that territory, and, in short, legislates with regard to it as if it were indisputably Chilean. Let us, await, however, the result of the Frias Mission, which Let us for national dignity cannot be other than the final one. await, I say, that result, without abandoning the hope that the Cabinet of Santiago may at length recognize our rights, which are imprinted on the conscience of the entire continent, and that by the restitution of the Coast of Atacama, which it at present occupies, it may give a splendid proof that it knows how to appreciate the reputation for honour, circumspection, and prudence by which until now it has been distinguished among the South American Republics. I have also appointed a Legation to the Government of Peru, and intrusted it to Señor Juan de la Cruz Benavente, with the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary. It was full time to reunite the bonds of peace and good understanding which ought always to bind us to that sister and neighbour Republic which has so many and such intimate relations with Bolivia, and to which community of origin, interests, character, and customs with those of our own country, assign equal community in their future destinies. In virtue of those harmonizing causes, which always produce their effect when personal policy does not frustrate them, diplomatic intercourse between the Cabinets of Peru and Bolivia had been so far spontaneously re-established that they reciprocally exchanged proofs of their benevolent and kindly dispositions. Animated by them, the Government of Peru, from the time of the illustrious General San Roman, of grateful memory, up to that of his Excellency General Canceco, has loyally fulfilled with regard to Bolivia the offices of good neighbourhood, and that which the law of nations prescribes, not permitting emigrants within its territory to form armed 'crusades to disturb order in the interior of the Republic. Its frontier authorities, acting no doubt in conformity with instructions of the same nature, have displayed zeal and concern for the preservation of peace and constitutional order in Bolivia, without thereby in any way oppressing the unfortunate Bolivian political refugees who had emigrated to Peru. In accrediting, then, the Legation, we have only taken officially an initiative as just as decorous, in order to occupy a position already favourably prepared for the spontaneous approximation of the two nations and Governments. I trust that Peru will know how to appreciate this initiative step, and that the day is not far distant when the two nations, consigning to oblivion the sad misunderstandings of the past, may seal their future relations by an honourable and decorous peace, fruitful in useful and glorious results. The Imperial Government of Brazil has recently accredited Señor Juan da Costa Rego Monteiro as its Minister resident in Bolivia. As soon as this distinguished gentleman was recognized in his public |
