Decrees:

Let the port of Iquitos be closed to all national and foreign ships; any ships which may infringe this Decree shall be subject to the penalties prescribed by Article 5 of the Commercial Code.

Let it be communicated to the Consuls of the Republic in foreign parts, so that they may abstain from certifying to invoices having that port for their destination.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs is charged with the carrying into effect of this Decree, and of making it public.

Given at the Government House at Lima, the 29th May, 1896. N. DE PIEROLA.

RICARDO ORTIZ DE ZEVALLOS.

LAW of the Government of Peru, relative to Patents.-Lima, January 3, 1896.

(Translation.)

THE Congress of the Republic of Peru taking into consideration that experience has proved the necessity of amending the Law regarding privileges of the 28th January, 1869,

Has passed the following Law:

ART. 1. Those persons or societies, who may desire to obtain a patent for an invention or an introduction, must address themselves directly to the Government. The Minister of the Exchequer and Commerce will carry out the necessary proceedings and issue the required patent.

2. The petition must contain:

(1.) The description in duplicate of the invention, or of the fact contained in the petition;

(2.) The plans, samples, or drawings also in duplicate, which may be necessary;

(3.) The invoice or description of the pieces or documents, which may be necessary;

(4.) A clear and precise description of the principal object, with all particulars belonging to it, and an indication of its application; (5.) The time for which, during the ten years fixed by Law it is intended to enjoy the privilege.

3. Since the Government does not guarantee the novelty, priority, or utility of the invention, the guarantee provided for by paragraph 6 of Article 7 of the Law in force regarding privileges is consequently suppressed.

4. The petition shall be passed to the Direction of Industries, which shall immediately and on the date of its presentation, give to the interested party so desiring it the corresponding certificate, and shall order to be published during thirty days, at the expense of the interested party, a notice announcing to the public the object of the privilege and the name of the interested party. Once this requisite has been fulfilled, it shall seek the opinion of two experts appointed for the purpose. If the report of these experts should be unfavourable to the privilege, the fact shall be made known to the interested party, and according as he may make explanations, a new report shail be sought from the experts, a third being named in conjunction with them. According to the decision given by them, the Direction of Industries will give its Report, and the Fiscal Officer being first consulted, the Minister of the Exchequer will issue the corresponding decision.

5. In the Decree granting the privilege, the respective patent shall be ordered to be issued, the interested party being required to pay into the Treasury the sum of fifty soles as Chancery dues without which preliminary no patent shall be issued.

6. The duration of the privilege shall be counted from the date of issue of the patent and its concession shall be valid for the whole of the Republic.

7. The Resolutions relating to the above contained in the Law of the 28th January, 1869, are niodified by the present Law, and the supreme Decree of the 26th February of the same year, abolished. The models referred to in the same are to be preserved in the Ministry of the Exchequer.

8. The petitions for privileges which may be under consideration in the Prefecture of the Department, or before the Provincial Council, at the time of the promulgation of the present Law, shall be immediately transmitted, in whatever stage they may be, to the Minister of the Exchequer, who shall at once proceed to expedite them in conformity with these rules. The publication of the notices shall, however, be omitted.

Let it be communicated to the Executive.

Done at the Congress Hall, the 3rd January, 1896.

(Signatures of the Presidents of the Chambers.).

MANUEL JESUS OBIN.

N. DE PIEROLA.

STATUTES of the Russo-Chinese Railway.—St. Petersburgh, December, 1896.*

(Translation.)

THE Minister of Finances presented on the th December, 1896, to the Ruling Senate for publication a copy of the Statutes of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company, which were Imperially confirmed on the th December, 1896.

27th August

Statutes of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company.

Formation of the Company.

§ 1. On the strength of the Agreement concluded on the 5th September 1896, by the Imperial Chinese Government with the Russo-Chinese Bank, a Company is formed under the name of the "Eastern Chinese Railway Company" for the construction and working of a railway within the confines of China from one of the points on the western borders of the Province of Wei-LunTsian, to one of the points on the eastern borders of the Province of Ghirin and for the connection of this railway with those branches which the Imperial Russian Government will construct to the Chinese frontier from Trans-Baikalia and the southern Ussuri lines.†

The formation of the Company shall be undertaken by the Russo-Chinese Bank.

With the formation of the Company all rights and obligations are transferred to it in regard to the construction and working of the line ceded in virtue of the above-named Agreement of the 27th August 1896.

8th September'

The Company shall be recognized as formed on the presentation to the Minister of Finances of a warrant of the State Bank certifying the payment of the first instalment on the shares. In any case such payment must be made not later than two months from the day of confirmation of the present Statutes.

28rd

* From the Official Gazette ("Bulletin des Lois") of the December, 1896, No. 137.

Observation.-The Company is empowered, subject to the sanction of the Chinese Government, to exploit, in connection with the railway or independently of it, coal mines, as also to exploit in China other enterprises-mining, industrial, and commercial. For the working of these enterprises which may be independent of the railway, the Company shall keep accounts separate from those of the railway.

The succeeding instalments on the shares shall be paid in such orders of gradation that the shares shall be fully paid up at their nominal value not later than one year from the day of formation of the Company.

Owners of shares of the Company may only be Russian and Chinese subjects.

Term of Concession.

§ 2. In virtue of the Agreement with the Chinese Government, the Company shall retain possession of the Chinese Eastern Railway during the course of eighty years from the day of the opening of traffic along the whole line.

Obligation towards the Russian Government.

§ 3. In recognition that the enterprise of the Chinese Eastern Railway will be realized only owing to the guarantee given by the Russian Government in regard to the revenue of the line for covering working expenses as well as for effecting the obligatory payments on the bonds (§§ 11, 16), the Company, on its part, binds itself to the Russian Government during the whole term of the Concession under the following obligations:

(a.) The Chinese Eastern Railway with all its appurtenances and rolling-stock must be always maintained in full order for satisfying all the requirements of the service of the line, in regard to the safety, comfort, and uninterrupted conveyance of passengers and goods;

(b.) The traffic on the Chinese Eastern line must be maintained conformably with the degree of traffic on the Russian railway lines adjoining the Chinese line;

(c.) The trains of all descriptions running between the Russian Trans-Baikal and Ussuri lines shall be received by the Chinese Eastern Railway and dispatched to their destination in full complement without delay;

(d.) All through trains, both passenger and goods, shall be dispatched by the Eastern Chinese Railway at rates of speeds not lower than those which shall be adopted on the Siberian Railway;

(e.) The Chinese Eastern Railway is bound to establish and maintain a telegraph along the whole extent of the line and to connect it with the telegraph-wire of the Russian adjoining railways, and to receive and dispatch without delay through telegrams sent from one frontier station of the line to another, as also telegrams sent from Russia to China, and conversely;

(f) Should, with the development of traffic on the Chinese

Eastern Railway, its technical organization prove insufficient for satisfying the requirements of a regular and uninterrupted passenger and goods traffic, the Chinese Eastern Railway shall immediately, on receipt of a notification on the part of the Russian railways to augment its capacity to a corresponding degree, adopt the necessary measures for further developing its technical organization and the traffic on it. In the event of a difference of opinion arising between the above-mentioned railways, the Chinese Eastern Railway shall submit to the decision of the Russian Minister of Finances. If the means at the command of the Chinese Eastern Railway prove insufficient for carrying out the necessary work of its development, the Board of Management of the railway may at all times apply to the Russian Minister of Finances for pecuniary assistance on the part of the Russian Government;

(g.) For all transit conveyance of passengers and goods, as also for the transmission of telegrams there will be established by agreement of the Company with the Russian Government for the whole term of duration of the Concession (§ 2), maximum tariffs, which cannot be raised without the consent of the Russian Government during the whole term above referred to. Within these limits the tariffs of direct communication both for railway carriage and telegrams will be fixed by the Board of Management of the Company on the strength of a mutual agreement with the Russian Minister of Finances s;

(h.) The Russian letter and parcels post, as also the officials accompanying the same, shall be carried by the Chinese Eastern Railway free of charge.

For this purpose the company shall set apart in each ordinary passenger train a carriage compartment of 3 fathoms in length. The Russian postal authorities may, moreover, if they deem it necessary, place on the line postal carriages, constructed by them at their own cost; and the repair, maintenance (interior fittings excepted) as well as the running of such carriages with the trains shall be free of charge and at the cost of the railway.

The above-mentioned engagements by which, as already stated, the grant of a guarantee by the Russian Government is conditioned and the consequent realization of the enterprise of the Chinese Eastern Railway, shall be binding on the railway until the same, after the expiration of the eighty years' term of the Concession, shall without payment become the property of the Chinese Government (§ 29). The redemption of the line from the Company before the above-mentioned term in accordance with $ 30 of the present Statutes shall not in any way diminish the effect of the above specified engagements, and these latter, together with the railway, shall be transferred to its new proprietor.