immédiatement par Sa Majesté le Roi d'Italie. Dans cette hypothèse, le point de départ des deux termes eût été presque simultané, et le Gouvernement Italien aurait eu, pour transférer sa capitale, les 6 mois jugés nécessaires.

Mais, d'un côté, le Cabinet de Turin a pensé qu'une mesure aussi importante réclamait les concours des Chamhres et la présentation d'une loi; de l'autre, le changement du Ministère Italien a fait ajourner du 5 au 24 Octobre la réunion du Parlement. Dans ces circonstances, le point de départ primitivement convenu ne laisserait plus un délai suffisant pour la translation de la capitale.

Le Gouvernement de l'Empereur, désireux de se prêter à toute combinaison qui, sans altérer les arrangements du 15 Septembre, serait propre à en faciliter l'exécution, consent à ce que le délai de 6 mois pour la translation de la capitale de l'Italie commence, ainsi que le délai de deux ans pour l'évacuation du territoire Pontifical, à la date du Décret Royal sanctionnant la loi qui va être présentée au Parlement Italien.

Fait double à Paris, le 3 Octobre, 1864.

(L.S.) DROUYN DE LHUYS. (L.S.) NIGRA.

DECREE of the Congress of The United States of Columbia, promulgating the Customs Code and Tariff of the Republic: -(Ports licensed for Imports and Bonding; Free Ports; Interference of Foreign Consular Agents, and of Agents of Foreign Creditors and Bondholders, in Custom-House Transactions; &c.*)-Bogotà, May 19, 1864.

(Translation.)

THE Congress of The United States of Columbia Decrees:

CHAPTER I.-On the Customs.

ART. I. The Custom-Houses of the Republic are for the purpose of collecting the duties established by law on imported goods.

II. The commercial operations subject to the Custom-House rules are classified in the following manner:

1. Importation, which means the introduction of foreign merchandize for the consumption of the Republic.

2. Exportation, which means the exportation of the products of the Republic to foreign countries.

* "London Gazette," September 23, 1864.

3. Transit, which means the transit of foreign merchandize imported into the Republic intended for some other nation.

4. Coasting, which means the traffic which is carried on by sea between the ports of the Republic.

5. Bonding, which means the bonding of foreign merchandize in the Custom-House stores, with the view of their being subsequently imported for home consumption, or re-exported within the term and under the conditions prescribed by law.

III. The operations defined in the preceding Article shall be permitted in the ports licensed by law, their execution being expressly prohibited in all ports not licensed, except as regards exportation, which is provided for in Articles CCV and CCVI.

Paragraph.-The coasting trade may be carried on between ports. not licensed, but that which is carried on between licensed and unlicensed ports shall be subject to the formalities prescribed by law.

IV. The ports licensed for imports and bonding are:

1. Carthagena, Savanilla, Santa Martha, and Rio-Hacha, on the Atlantic.

2. Buenaventura and Tumaco, on the Pacific.

3. The inland port of Cúcuta, on the frontier of Venezuela.

4. Quibdó, in the State of the Cauca.

5. Arauca and Cafifi.

Paragraph.-The inland port of Cúcuta is likewise licensed for the transit traffic with the Republic of Venezuela.

V. Are hereby declared to be free ports:

1. All those belonging to the State of Panama.

2. Those belonging to the Archipelago of San Andrés, in the Atlantic.

3. Those belonging to the territory of Caquetá and that of Carlosama, in the State of the Cauca.

VI. All the Customs ordinances may all be carried out in the free ports, excepting only those expressly prohibited by Article

XIII.

VII. There shall be a Custom-House established in each of the licensed ports.

VIII. The personnel of the Custom-House, the distribution of the duties of the employés and their fixed salaries, shall be settled by law, and by the decrees which may be issued for their execution.

IX. Besides the fixed salaries assigned to the employés of the Custom-Houses and to the coast guards, they shall be allowed an eventual extra salary, consisting of a quota on the gross revenue of the respective Custom-House, which shall be divided in proportion with their fixed salaries.

X. The quotas of which the foregoing Articles treat shall be as follows:

In the Santa Martha Custom, from 1 to 2 per cent. on the gross

revenue.

In the Custom-Houses of Carthagena, Savanilla, Rio-Hacha, Buenaventura, and Cúcuta, from 2 to 5 per cent.

In the other Custom-Houses from 4 to 10 per cent.

These quotas shall be fixed annually by the executive Power, when introducing the law for supplies.

XI. The quotas on the gross revenues of the Custom-Houses, allowed to the employés, shall be paid monthly in cash.

CHAPTER II.-On the importation of Foreign Merchandize.
Section 1.-General Rules.

XII. All foreign merchandize not prohibited by law may be imported into the Republic by natives or foreigners, without any distinction being made in regard to the flag, or whence the vessel may come, or as regards the country in which the goods were originally produced or manufactured.

XIII. The prohibited articles are

1. False money, which shall be destroyed at the time of its seizure; samples being retained in order that they be transmitted by the Custom-House authorities to the judge who is to take cognizance of the matter.

2. Money of inferior standard to that of 200 shall be confiscated 1000 and sent to the nearest mint to be recoined into money of 2000

3. Machinery for coining purposes, not imported for account of the nation, shall be transmitted by the Custom-House authorities to the competent judge, with a circumstantial inventory of which a copy shall be retained, that the machinery specified, when returned, may be destroyed in the Custom-House, when no longer required for the prosecuting of the suit.

Paragraph.-The chief magistrate of those States in which the distillation of spirits is a monopoly under their special laws, or in which there are any excise duties on the importation for consumption of the said article, and its compounds, can exact from the chiefs of the Custom-Houses existing in the territory of the respective State immediate information of such imported articles, expressing the quantity of and also the name of the importers, as necessary particulars in order to guard against any violation of the laws of the State.

Section 2.-Of the formalities which must be observed in the (Foreign) Ports in which Vessels load.

XIV. Every captain or supercargo of a vessel, which may load [1864-65. LV.]

2 H

in a foreign port, bound for national ports (Columbia), shall present to the Consular Agent of the Republic (or who ever may represent him) a manifest, in triplicate, written in the Spanish language, and signed, expressing clearly the following particulars:

1. The name, class, tonnage, and flag of the vessel.

2. The port of loading, and the national port or ports (i.e., those of Columbia) to which the vessel may be bound.

3. The merchandize intended for each port, with the names of the shippers, consignees, and gross weight of each shipment, in the way they may appear in the manifest; the goods to be in separate lots as they appear in the bills of lading, and the gross weight and total number of packages of all the cargo intended for each port.

XV. Every person shipping goods to the licensed ports of Columbia, shall present to the Consular Agent (or whoever may represent him) in the port, whence the shipment is made, an invoice in triplicate, written in the Spanish language, and expressing:

1. The name of the shipper, of the consignee, the port intended for, and the name of the vessel.

2. The mark, number, contents, gross weight, and description of each package. In stating the contents, it will be sufficient to give the name or description, quantity, and the material of which each class of merchandize is composed.

3. The total value of the invoice, without the necessity of specifying that of each package.

Paragraph.-In commercial places, where there are public officers, whose duty it is to weigh merchandize for sale, and who give a certificate of the weight they contain, the Consular Agent shall exact likewise, the certificate of such officer, with respect to the weight of the merchandize invoiced, without which formality he shall not certify to the invoice presented.

XVI. It is prohibited to express, in the documents treated of in Articles XIV and XV, the same packages for different ports. Consequently, when any shipper breaks through this rule, the Consular Agent shall determine as the place for which said packages are intended, the first of the ports named.

XVII. The documents once despatched by the Consular Agent, the destination of the goods cannot be changed from that stated in them; and only in the case at the time of the vessel's arrival, public order be disturbed in the port stated, the importation may be permitted in a port other than that named in these documents.

XVIII. The Consular Agents shall take a note of the manifests in a register which shall be kept for that purpose; he shall compare it with the invoices presented, and after being convinced of the truth and exactness of said documents, he shall write his certificate

at the foot of each of the copies of the manifests and invoices, and return one copy to each of the interested parties for its presentation in the respective Custom-House.

XIX. The Consular Agent shall send by the same vessel to the Custom-House of the first of the national ports (i.e., of Columbia) to which the vessel is bound, a copy of the manifest, and to the respective Custom-Houses a copy of each invoice, with all the information he may think useful or necessary, to guard against any fraud which may be intended.

The other copies of the manifest and invoices are to be remitted to the Minister of Finance by the first post. The postages incurred are to be borne by the nation.

XX. Consular Agents who have no salary, have the right to a fee of 5 dollars for the certificate of each manifest, and one dollar for that of each invoice, it being understood that these fees relate to the 3 copies of each document, and not to each copy. The fees are to be paid by the person who requires the certificate.

Section 3.-Of the entry and boarding of Vessels.

XXI. Vessels which enter the ports of the Republic, shall be boarded immediately by one of the superior officers of the CustomHouse, by the Chief of the Coast Guard Service, and other officers who may be considered necessary for watch over the vessel.

XXII. If the vessel be a merchantman, on boarding her, the captain or supercargo shall deliver

up:

1. The vessel's register; however, when the vessel belongs to a nation which does not exact this formality from Columbian merchant vessels, the said register shall be handed over to the respective Consul; but in such case, the captain or supercargo must present at the Custom-House, immediately after the visit of inspection is over, a certificate from the Consul, in which he certifies that he has received the vessel's register, with the promise of not returning it till it be proved to him by Custom-House documents that the vessel owes nothing to the Custom-House, and has been duly cleared at the said Custom-House.

2. The manifest certified in the port whence she comes, according to Article XIV.

If the vessel should have touched at and discharged a part of her cargo in any other national port, the manifest, with the certification of the respective Custom-House, drawn up as provided for by Article LXIV, must be presented.

3. The document or documents which the Consular Agents address to the Custom-House authorities with a copy of the manifest and invoices of which Article XIX treats.

4. A list of all the effects on board belonging to the captain and