Cases where suspicion of fraud exists, are, however, excepted from this renunciation.

II. His Majesty the King of Prussia, on the other hand, readily grants a participation in the revisions at Mühlberg and Wittenberg; and, for that purpose, will not only cause the result of the special visitation to be fully and correctly stated in the Document of discharge, to be delivered to the Boatmen in order to its being produced at the other Elbe Toll-houses, but also consents to the appointment of a Special Commissary for Saxony at Mühlberg, and, for the other States bordering on the River, at Wittenberg.

III. These Commissaries shall, at the Royal Prussian Revision and Toll Offices to which they are appointed:

(a.) Attend to the interests of their Most High Constituents, in all affairs relative to the Elbe Tolls, and, for that purpose,

(b.) Are authorized to be present at the revision of the lading of Vessels and Floats of timber, (which revision, however, belongs exclusively to the Royal Prussian Functionaries,) in order thereby to obtain a conviction that the interests of their most high Constituents are attended to in the best manner.

They shall not by their presence impede the Royal Prussian Toll Authorities in their official business; and any direct interference in the course of their proceedings is strictly forbidden.

(c.) The Royal Prussian Elbe-Toll Register, as well of import as of export, shall be always produced to them at the Offices, on their demand, provided that no interruption be thereby occasioned to the current business, particularly after, or at other times than the hours of office; they may extract therefrom what they may deem necessary, compare the lists of the duties to be collected, which are transmitted by the Toll-Officers of their Most High Constituents, and regulate matters agreeably thereto.

(d.) They shall also be circumstantially informed, through the respective Toll-houses at Mühlberg and Wittenberg, of the result of the revision at the place of destination of each cargo, in every case of inquiry concerning the Manifest.

(e.) They may personally attend the examinations of the Toll Officer, so far as they may concern them; and they are authorized to take cognizance of, and to make extracts from, such Documents of the Proceedings of search, as may be interesting to them.

(f.) They shall receive the ulterior Duties, and remit them to the Toll Offices of Their Most High Constituents.

(g.) They shall, in all cases, transact business and preserve official relations with the Chief Collector and Officer of the Toll-house to which they are appointed.

IV. If, on the special revision of the Royal Prussian Authorities, deviations from the Declarations which have been made at the respective Toll-houses of the other States bordering on the River, who are Parties to this Special Convention of Revision, shall be discovered, a deficiency

of the Duties to be levied, or any intentional fraud on the part of the Boatmen, the Toll Commissaries shall immediately be informed thereof by the Royal Prussian Authorities; and the Boatmen shall not be dispatched until the deficient Toll Duties, and the deposited Costs and Penalties, shall have been received and handed over to the Toll Commissaries.

In case the Defrauder refuse to pay the Penalties and Costs, the Toll Commissaries shall have the option, either of instituting formal proceedings before the competent Royal Prussian Toll Officer, or of reserving the prosecution of the Offender before the respective Toll Officers of their Most High Constituents, should they succeed in apprehending him.

V. When, on the Royal Prussian side, security is obtained from Boatmen, for any Elbe Toll not fully discharged at Wittenberg or Mühlberg, the same shall be communicated to the Toll Commissaries, upon whose demand, a separate security shall likewise be given to the Boatmen, from the Toll Houses of Mühlberg and Wittenberg, for any duties that may have been unjustly levied at any of the Elbe Toll Houses of their Most High Constituents already passed; which must not, however, exceed a third part of the amount of those Toll Duties which have been levied at the Toll-houses already passed, agreeably to the Manifest.

VI. None but moral, peaceable, and experienced Men shall be chosen as Commissaries, and they shall be sufficiently paid at the Toll Houses of Mühlberg and Wittenberg, to enable them to live respectably, and independently of perquisites, which, under whatever denomination, they are not permitted to enjoy.

Their Appointments and Instructions shall be published by the Royal Prussian Government, and they, as well as the Toll Officers at Wittenberg and Mühlberg, are most especially directed to observe a conciliatory and peaceable conduct towards each other.

VII. Should the Royal Prussian Chief Toll Inspectors, at Wittenberg and Mühlberg, have occasion to require an inspection of the Registers, or Extracts of the same, from the Toll Officers of His Majesty the King of Saxony, Great Britain and Hanover, Denmark, or the Grand Duke of Mecklenburgh, the same shall be readily afforded to them.

VIII. Inasmuch as experience will best prove the advantages of the present Convention, relative to the mutual proceeding of inspection, the High Contracting Parties expressly reserve to themselves the right to prolong the duration of the same, and, if necessary, to amend and simplify the stipulations thereof, at the first Commission of Revision.

Should this Convention not answer the expectations generally entertained, and should they not agree upon another, in the first Commission of Revision, it will remain for the High Contracting Parties to resume the right belonging to them, of returning to their own peculiar mode of revision.

IX. This Convention does not include the cargoes on the Elbe which, in their destination, do not pass Mühlberg or Wittenberg; and

the general revision, conformably with the Convention of Navigation, also remains reserved to the High Contracting Parties.

X. The Ratifications of this provisional Convention shall be obtained without delay, and, together with those of the Convention for the Navigation of the Elbe, shall be exchanged without delay.

In faith whereof, the same is signed and sealed by the respective Plenipotentiaries of the Elbe Navigation.

Done at Dresden, 23rd June, 1821.

(L. S.) JOHANN LUDWIG V. JORDAN.

(L. S.) GUNTHER V. BUNAU.

(L. S.) CARL FRIEDRICH BARON V. STRALENHEIM. (L. S.) MATHIAS FRIIS V. IRGENSBERGH.

(L. S.) JOACHIM CHRISTIAN STEINFELD.

We therefore hereby declare, after a careful examination and consideration of all and each of the stipulations contained in the foregoing Convention, that we entirely accept the same, as we solemnly accept and give force to this Act of Ratification, in the usual form: Wherefore, on our royal word, we promise, for ourselves and our royal successors, truly to observe the said stipulations, and also to watch over them, so that they may at all times be duly fulfilled by our Authorities and Subjects.

In further confirmation whereof, we have signed and caused our great Seal of State to be affixed to 5 similar Copies, of which 4 are for the several Contracting Parties, and the 5th is to be preserved with the other Acts of the Commission.

Done at Berlin the 20th November, in the year of our Lord 1821, and the 25th of our Reign. (L. S.) FRIEDRICH WILHELM.

C. FURST VON HARDENBerg.
V. BERNSTOrff.

DECREE of the King of Portugal and Brazil, confirming and adopting the Constitution of Government proposed by the Cortes in Lisbon.—Rio Janeiro, 24th February, 1821.

(Translation.)

HAVING issued the necessary Orders, for the purpose of adapting the Constitution which is now preparing in Lisbon with what is suited to Brazil, and it having been represented to me that the greatest benefit which I can confer upon my people is, immediately to approve of that Constitution, and all my anxiety, as is well known, being to procure for them all tranquillity and happiness; I think it right to declare my approval of the Constitution now preparing there, and to receive it for my Kingdom of Brazil, and the other Dominions of my Crown.

My Ministers and Secretaries of State, to whom this Decree is addressed, shall carry the same into execution, transmitting the requisite Orders to the Tribunals and Captains General.

Palace of Rio de Janeiro, 24th February, 1821.

With the Signature of His Majesty.

DECREE of The King of Portugal and Brazil, respecting the removal of the Seat of Government to Lisbon 5—the appointment of The Prince Royal to the Provisional Government at Rio Janeiro;-and the Election in Brazil of Deputies to the General Cortes in Portugal.-Rio Janeiro, 7th March, 1821. (Translation.)

DIVINE Providence having graciously granted to all European Nations the long wished for blessings of a general Peace, after a ruinous War; and having permitted the establishment of a basis for the happiness of the Portuguese Monarchy, by means of the Meeting of the General Cortes now extraordinarily assembled in my very Noble and Loyal City of Lisbon, for the purpose of giving to the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarve, a Political Constitution, in accordance with the liberal principles, which, from the progressive improvement of the age, are now generally received by all Nations: and it having been represented to me, by well informed Persons, who are zealous for the service of God and for my welfare, that the minds of my faithful Vassals, (and principally of those now in this Kingdom of Brazil) who, anxious to maintain the unity and integrity of the Monarchy, were in a painful state of uncertainty, so long as I should not be pleased to declare, in a solemn manner, my express, absolute, and decisive, approbation of the said Constitution, to the end that it may be generally received and executed, without alteration or difference, in all the States of my Royal Crown;-I have thought it fitting to make such Declaration, in my Decree of the 24th of last February, and to take, conjointly with the whole of my Royal Family, and the People and Troops of this Capital, a solemn Oath, to observe, maintain and keep, in this and all the other Kingdoms and Dominions of my Monarchy, the said Constitution, such as it shall be determined, made and agreed upon, by the abovementioned General Cortes of the Kingdom: and, moreover, to issue my Orders, to the Governors, Captains General, and Authorities, Civil, Military and Ecclesiastical, in all the other Provinces, to administer a similar Oath to all their Inferiors and Subalterns, as a further means of strengthening and ensuring the said unity and integrity of the Monarchy.

But as the first and most essential condition of this social Compact, thus received and sworn to by the whole Nation, is that the Sovereign should fix his residence in that city, where the Cortes assemble, in order that the Laws, immediately after their discussion, may be presented to him, and receive, without delay, his indispensable sanction,-that scrupulous piety which behoves me to fulfil even more than the most arduous duties which have devolved upon me, by the Oath I have taken, enjoins that I, for the general good of my People, should make one of the most painful sacrifices of which my paternal and Royal heart is capable, by my separation a second time from Subjects, the recollection of whom will always be to me a source of anxiety, and whose prosperity,

wherever I may be, will never cease to be one of the most assiduous cares of my paternal Government.

1

It was, therefore, fitting, that I, in fulfilment of the duty which Pro vidence imposes upon me, of sacrificing every thing for the happiness of the Nation, should resolve, as I have now done, to transfer once more my Court to the City of Lisbon, the ancient Seat and original Cradle of the Monarchy; to the end that I may there co-operate with the Deputies, Representatives of my People, in the glorious undertaking of restoring the valiant Portuguese Nation to that high degree of splendour, by which it so much distinguished itself in former times; leaving in this residence my much beloved and valued Son, The Prince Royal of the United Kingdom, with the charge of the Provisional Government of Brazil, until the General Constitution of the Nation shall have been established.

And in order that my People of this my Kingdom of Brazil may previously participate in the advantages of a National Representation, by sending to the General Cortes of the United Kingdom a proportionate number of Representative Deputies, I have given, in another Decree, of the same date as the present, precise directions that, from this moment, the Election of the said Deputies, in the same form as the Regulations which have been adopted for that purpose in the Kingdom of Portugal, may be commenced in all the Provinces. The Deputies, who may be successively named in this Province, shall come without delay to this Capital, in order that those who arrive before my departure from the Kingdom, may accompany me: the means having already been provided for the conveyance of those, who, subsequently to that period, may arrive from the Northern Provinces, and have to make the Voyage to their future destination.

Palace of Rio de Janeiro, 7th March, 1821.

With the Signature of His Majesty.

DECREE of The King of Portugal and Brazil, respecting the Powers of The Prince Royal, as Regent and Lieutenant of the Kingdom of Brazil.-Rio de Janeiro, 22d April, 1821. (Translation.)

Ir being indispensably necessary to provide for the Government and Administration of this Kingdom of Brazil, from which I separate myself with lively sentiments of regret, (as announced in my Decree of the 7th of March,) in consequence of the existing political circumstances requiring my return to Portugal; and being guided not only by motives of public utility and interest, but also by a particular consideration for my faithful Vassals of Brazil, who are anxious that I should establish the Government which is to rule them during my absence, and until the arrival of