purposes shall be respected, and all persons connected with the same protected in the discharge of their duties, and the pursuit of their vocations.

2. In order that the fate of prisoners of war may be alleviated, all such practices as those of sending them into distant, inclement, or unwholesome districts, or crowding them into close and noxious places, shall be studiously avoided. They shall not be confined in dungeons, prison-ships, or prisons; nor be put in irons, or bound, or otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs. The officers shall enjoy liberty on their paroles within convenient districts, and have comfortable quarters; and the common soldiers shall be disposed in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise, and lodged in barracks as roomy and good as are provided by the party in whose power they are for its own troops. But if any officer shall break his parole by leaving the district so assigned him, or any other prisoner shall escape from the limits of his cantonment, after they shall have been designated to him, such individual, officer, or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the benefit of this article as provides for his liberty on parole or in cantonment. And if any officer so breaking his parole, or any common soldier so escaping from the limits assigned him, shall afterwards be found in arms, previously to his being regularly exchanged, the person so offending shall be dealt with according to the established laws of war. The officers shall be daily furnished by the party in whose power they are with as many rations, and of the same articles, as are allowed, either in kind or by commutation, to officers of equal rank in its own army; and all others shall be daily furnished with such ration as is allowed to a common soldier in its own service —the value of all which supplies shall, at the close of the war, or at periods to be agreed upon between the respective commanders, be paid by the other party, on a mutual adjustment of accounts for subsistence of prisoners; and such accounts shall not be mingled with or set off against any others, nor the balance due on them be withheld, as a compensation or reprisal for any cause whatever, real or pretended. Each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of prisoners, appointed by itself, with every cantonment of prisoners, in possession of the other; which commissary shall see the prisoners as often as he pleases; shall be allowed to receive, exempt from all duties or taxes, and to distribute, whatever comforts may be sent to them by their friends; and shall be free to transmit his reports in open letters to the party by whom he is employed.

And it is declared that neither the pretence that war dissolves all treaties, nor any other whatever, shall be considered as annulling or suspending the solemn covenant contained in this article. On the contrary, the state of war is precisely that for which it is provided; and during which, its stipulations are to be as sacredly observed as the most acknowledged obligations under the law of nature or nations.

ARTICLE XXIII.

This treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof; and by the President of the Mexican republic, with the previous approbation of its general Congress; and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the city of Washington, or at the seat of government of Mexico, in four months from the date of the signature hereof, or sooner if practicable.

In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement; and have hereunto af fixed our seals respectively. Done in quintuplicate, at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the second day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.

ARTICLES REFERRED TO IN THE FIFTEENTH ARTICLE OF THE FOREGOING

TREATY.

Articles I. and V. of the unratified Convention between the United States and Mexico, of the 20th November, 1843.

IN EXECUTIVE SESSION, SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

June 21, 1848.

Resolved, That the injunction of secrecy be removed from the first and fifth articles of the unratified convention for the settlement of claims of the citizens and Government of the Mexican Republic against the Government of the United States, and of the citizens and Government of the United States against the Government of the Mexican Republic, concluded at the city of Mexico the 20th of November, 1843, as proposed to be ratified by the Senate of the United States, which unratified convention is referred to, and the first and fifth articles thereof made a part of the fifteenth article of the treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, concluded at Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the 2d day of Febuary, 1848.

"ARTICLE I.

"All claims of citizens of the Mexican Republic against the Government of the United States, which shall be presented in the manner and time hereinafter expressed, and all claims of citizens of the United States against the

Government of the Mexican Republic, which, for whatever cause, were nʊ. submitted to, nor considered, nor finally decided by the commission, nor by the arbiter appointed by the convention of 1839, and which shall be presented in the manner and time hereinafter specified, shall be referred to four commissioners, who shall form a board, and shall be appointed in the following manner, that is to say: Two commissioners shall be appointed by the President of the Mexican Republic, and the other two by the President of the United States, with the approbation and consent of the Senate. The said commissioners, thus appointed, shall, in presence of each other take an oath to examine and decide impartially the claims submitted to them, and which may lawfully be considered, according to the proofs which shall be presented, the principles of right and justice, the law of nations, and the treaties between the two Republics."

"ARTICLE V.

"All claims of citizens of the United States against the Government of the Mexican Republic which were considered by the commissioners, and referred to the umpire appointed under the convention of the 11th April, 1839, and which were not decided by him, shall be referred to and decided by the umpire to be appointed, as provided by this convention, on the points submitted to the umpire under the late convention, and his decision shall be final and conclusive. It is also agreed, that if the respective commissioners shall deem it expedient, they may submit to the said arbiter new arguments upon the said claims."

AN ACT

Adopting the Common Law of England.

Passed April 13, 1850.

The people of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

The Common Law of England, so far as it is not repugnant to or inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, or the Constitution or laws of the State of California, shall be the rule of decision in all the Courts of this State.

AN ACT

For the better regulation of the Mines, and the government of Foreign Miners.

Passed April 13, 1850.

The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

§ 1. No person who is not a native or natural born citizen of the United States, or who may not have become a citizen under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (all native California Indians excepted,) shall be permitted to mine in any part of this State, without having first obtained a license so to do according to the provisions of this Act.

§ 2. The Governor shall appoint a Collector of Licenses to foreign miners for each of the mining counties, and for the county of San Francisco, who before entering upon the duties of his office, shall take the oath required by the Constitution, and shall give his bond to the State with at least two good and sufficient sureties, conditioned for the faithful performance of his official duties, which bond shall be approved by the Governor, and filed in the office of the Secretary of State.

§ 3. Each Collector of Licenses to foreign miners shall be commissioned by the Governor.

§ 4. It shall be the duty of the Comptroller to cause to be printed or engraved a sufficient number of licenses, which shall be numbered consecutively, and shall be in form following, to wit:

"Number

complexion

(Date.) A. B., a citizen of

is hereby licensed to work in the mines of California for

the period of thirty days." The Comptroller shall countersign each of such licenses, and shall transfer them to the Treasurer, keeping an account of the number so transferred.

§ 5. The Treasurer shall sign and deliver to each Collector of Licenses to foreign miners so many of the licenses mentioned in the preceding section as he shall deem proper, and shall take his receipt for the same and charge him therewith. Such collector and his sureties shall be liable upon his bond for the number so furnished him, either for their return or the amount for which they may be sold; and the moneys collected, as herein provided, shall be paid into the treasury as prescribed in this Act.

§ 6. Every person required by the first section of this Act to obtain a license to mine, shall apply to the Collector of Licenses to foreign miners, and take out a license to mine, for which he shall pay the sum of twenty dollars per month; and such foreigners may from time to time take out a new license, at the same rate per month, until the Governor shall issue his proclamation announcing the passage of a law by Congress, regulating the mines of precious metals in this State.

§ 7. If any such foreigner or foreigners shall refuse or neglect to take out such license by the second Monday of May next, it shall be the duty of the Collector of Licenses to foreign miners of the county in which such foreigner or foreigners shall be, to furnish his or their names to the Sheriff of the county, or to any Deputy Sheriff, whose duty it shall be to summon a - posse of American citizens, and, if necessary, forcibly prevent him or them from continuing such mining operations.

§ 8. Should such foreigner or foreigners, after having been stopped by a Sheriff or Deputy Sheriff from mining in one place, seek a new location and continue such mining operations, it shall be deemed a mis lemeanor, for which such offender or offenders shall be arrested as for a misdemeanor, and he or they shall be imprisoned for a term not exceeling three months, and fined not more than one thousand dollars.

§ 9. Any foreigner who may obtain a licence in conformity with the provisions of this Act, shall be allowed to work the mines anywhere in this State, under the same regulations as citizens of the United States.

§ 10. It shall be the duty of each Collector of Licenses to foreign miners to keep a full and complete register of the names and description of all foreigners taking out licenses, and a synopsis of all such licenses to be returned to the Treasurer.

§ 11. Each license, when sold, shall be endorsed by the Collector selling or issuing the same, and shall be in no case transferable; and the Collector may retain out of the money received for each license, the sum of three dollars, which shall be the full amount of his compensation.

$12. Each Collector of Licenses to foreign miners shall, once in every two months, and oftener if called upon by the Treasurer, proceed to the seat of government, settle with the Treasurer, pay over to the officer all moneys collected from foreigners not before paid over, and account with him for the unsold licenses remaining in his hands.

§ 13. If any Collector shall neglect or refuse to perform his duty as herein provided, it shall be the duty of the Comptroller, upon receiving notice thereof from the Treasurer, to give information thereof to the District Attorney in whose district said officer may have been appointed, who shall bring an action against such Collector and his sureties upon his bond, before any court of competent jurisdiction; and upon recovery had thereon, the said District Attorney shall receive for his services ten per cent. upon the amount collected, the balance to be paid by him into the Treasury in the manner provided by law for like payments.

§ 14. It shall be the duty of the Governor, so soon as he shall have been officially informed of the passage of a law by the United States Congress, assuming the control of the mines of the State, to issue his proclamation, requiring all Collectors of Licenses to foreign miners to stop the issuing of licenses.