him by the law of the 6th April 1830, and impressed with the necessity of relieving a multitude of persons whose condition has been and now is most unfortunate by reason of political errors, the paralization of trade, the destruction of fortunes, and all those evils which attend a state in a condition of constant revolution as has been the state of this republic for many years, it has resulted in the opening of the coffers of the public in order to repair as far as possible, a state of things so deplorable. The territories situated adjoining the dividing line of our republic all crossed by navigable rivers, situated immediately on the Atlantic Ocean, open to commerce, unexhausted by cultivation and fruitful in the extreme, and inviting the robust arms of the Mexican to all kinds of employment which can no where else be so well rewarded and the same facilities afforded, as within their limits.

No other measures are necessary to effect the colonization of those beautiful and fruitful territories, but the incipient advances for the enterprise, and the Supreme government have the disposition and power to make them. The public funds should not be wasted but neither should the necessary means be niggardly applied, nor as those affected be withheld, anticipating on proper occasions the means of bringing into action the industry of the nation, until their accumulated means shall place the colonists in a position not only of supplying for themselves the bare necessaries of life, but to form for themselves a capital by which to extend their operations and to reproduce continually the product of agricultural industry, the true source of wealth, and that upon which alone new communities can rely.

The republic finds itself infested by families, which in one mode or another, from this or that cause, have lost their fortune and their peace: all such the Supreme government invites to better their condition in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture: this will restore their estates, improve their fortunes, make them to forget their errors and wanderings, and convert into useful citizens a multitude of persons, whom the pressure of circumstances have widely separated from the existing communities and the imperious necessity of living, which could not be satisfied by lawful means, has ranked with the class of criminals.

The vice president is sincerely desirous of attaining this happy result, but he cannot omit adopting the precautions to secure it by avoiding the result that the transport of the colonists shall possess no other character than that of a costly journey. If they are to abandon their land shortly after their arri val, and if they are to do nothing to render it productive by their labor, and confine themselves to consuming the appropriations made for the sacred purpose of supplying their want of capital, the object is entirely frustrated, and the republic instead of recovering its erring citizens, only lose their funds, and increase their wants by an enterprise, which instead of securing, exposes to greater risks the integrity of its territory. At no period has it been so important to provide for the security of the frontiers, and to give employ.

ment to the innumerable hands which by the most sad fatality are found unemployed. To objects so beneficent and salutary has the attention of the goverment been directed, and he believes that the following provisions are not unlikely to secure them.

1. Every person who is free and not under local engagements in other parts of the republic shall be admitted to colonize the lands which are or may be at the disposition of the supreme government in the state of Coahuila and Texas.

2. This invitation is most particularly given to the officers and soldiers who have been thrown out of employment from having taken part in the present revolution, to those who are under obligation for debts due to the government, to those expelled from the States and to those who already remain with arms in their hands.

3. To each family which shall engage to colonize in said State there shall be given a tenth part of a sitio de ganado mayor.

4. To every person more than fifteen years of age the expense of cattle or carts necessary for transportation, shall be borne by the government, and they shall become the property of such persons at the moment of arriving at the sitio where they intend colonizing.

5. Each of the persons aforesaid past the age of fifteen years, shall be assisted from the day of his departure from the place of his residence to the end of a year, by receiving four reals daily, and to those less than fifteen years of age, two reals.

6. No person shall separate from the colony before the expiration of two years without the permission of the government, and those who do so shall lose the land which had been given to them, and continue bound to pay whatever may have been received from the government.

7. To each of the families comprising the colonies shall be given a yoke of cattle and a cow, or their value, two ploughs and such carpentering and farming tools as the government shall consider necessary.

8. From the land which is appropriated for a village there shall be given to each family a building lot on which to erect a house as his own dwelling. 9. The transportation shall be conducted under the direction of the person or persons which the government shall select.

10. The colonies shall be subject to such political regulations as the government shall direct and when they shall have distributed their house lots, they shall establish a municipal government.

[Published by decree, on the 6th. instant.] In the declaration circulated by the Secretary of the Treasury of the 11th of April, of this year, and published by decree of the 13th, the 10th article is published in the following terms:

"The Colonies shall be subject to such political ruler or rulers as the gov ernment shall designate and when they shall have distributed their house lots

they shall establish a municipal government in conformity with the laws of the same State."

LAW.

April 24, 1835.

In relation to the decree of the Legislature of Coahuila and Texas, and the unoccupied lands of those states.

1. The decree of the Legislature of Coahuila and Texas, of the 14th of March of the present year, is contrary, in its first and second articles, to the law of the 18th of August 1824; consequently, the alienations of property made in pursuance of said decree, are void and of no effect.

2. In the exercise of the power which is reserved to the general congress in the 7th article of said law of the 18th of August 1824, the states on the frontiers and on the coast are prohibited from alienating their vacant lands for colonization, until the regulations proper to be observed therein shall be

established.

3. If any one of those states desire to alienate any portion of their vacant lands, they cannot do so without the previous approbation of the general government, said government in every case shall be preferred, if they see fit to take it, and shall give to the state the corresponding indemnification.

4. The general government may, in accordance with the 3d and 4th articles of the law of the 6th of April 1830, purchase to that amount of the state of Coahuila and Texas the four hundred sitios which it says it is under the necessity of selling.

[Circulated by the secretary of relations on said 25th of April, and published by edict on the 2d of May following.]

The decree cited in Article 1 of the foregoing law is as follows:

Supreme Government of the free states of Coahuila and Texas. The pro visional governor of the state of Coahuila and Texas, in the exercise of supreme executive power, to all the inhabitants thereof. Know ye :

That the Congress of said state have decreed as follows:

The Constitutional Congress of the free, sovereign and independent state of Coahuila and Texas, have thought proper to decree:

1. The government may dispose to the extent of four hundred sitios of land, of the vacant lands of the state, in order to meet the urgent wants of the public, which are actually existing.

2. The colonization of said lands shall be regulated on the bases and conditions which may be considered expedient, without being subject to the provisions of the law of the 26th March of the last year.

3. The government will direct the measures necessary for the collection of the amounts due the state, whatever their source and origin.

The provisional constitutional governor will cause the same to be complied with, and to be printed, published and circulated.

Providing for rendering effective the colonization of the lands which are, or should be the property of the Republic. All directions heretofore issued in relation to colonization, so far as they are contrary to this law, are repealed. See decree of the Supreme government of the 12th of the present month. The government with the consent of the Council, will proceed to give effect to the colonization of the lands which are, or should be the property of the Republic by means of sale, enfiteusis, or mortgage, applying the amount (which for the best lands should not be less than ten reals per acre) to the redemption of the national debt, contracted, or to be contracted, reserving always a sufficient amount in order to fulfil the promise to the troops who aided in achieving the independence, and for the rewards and grants decreed by Congress in favor of the native tribes or nations, and of those aiding in the restoration of Texas; not being hindered by the laws heretofore passed in relation to colonization, the provisions of which, so far as they are contrary to this law, are repealed,—the prohibition of the 11th Article of the law of the 6th April, 1830 being renewed.

DECREE.

Mexico, 12th April, 1837.

Decree of the Supreme Government in virtue of the authority conferred by the Law of the 4th instant.

Creation of a national consolidated stock at an interest of 5 per cent. per annum, for the express purpose of converting the entire foreign debt and redeeming the same on the terms expressed.

1. A consolidated national stock with interest at five per cent. per annum, is hereby created for the sole and determinate object of converting the entire foreign debt if the existing creditors consent, and for the redemption of the same in the manner expressed in the following articles. For this purpose

Messrs. F. de Lizardy and Company are appointed as agents for the Republic in said transaction, and are authorized in the name of the Mexican nation to issue accordingly the bonds of said consolidated national stock in pounds sterling, payable in London on the 1st October, 1866 with coupons for interest in the margin payable every six months and running to the aforesaid date. These bonds shall also be viseéd by the minister plenipotentiary of the Republic at London or by the person acting in his stead.

2. The holders of the bonds of the foreign debt in circulation, the proceeds of the two loans negotiated in London at 5 and 6 per cent. interest, may convert the same together with the interest coupons over due, into bonds of the new consolidated stock in the following conditions. First: That the bonds of five per cent. interest shall be received in exchange, cent. per cent. Secondly: That those of six per cent. interest shall be at the rate of a hundred twelve and a half for a hundred. Third: That the over due coupons of interest of both loans shall be exchanged cent. per cent. Fourth: That they shall receive in payment of the sums which they desire to convert, one half of the amount in bonds of the consolidated stock at five per cent. interest, and the other half in public land scrip in the departments of Texas, Chihuahua, New Mexico, Sonora and the Californias, at the rate of four acres per pound sterling; and this scrip shall also bear interest at five per cent. to the day on which the owners are placed in possession of the lands, increasing thereby proportionally the amount of property acquired, and security shall be given by those interested that they will be present to take possession within the period designated in article 5th.

3. The interest on the bonds of the national consolidated stock, shall be payable in London, at intervals of six months, on the first days of April and October of each year, commencing on the first of October of the present year, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven. In the meantime and until arrangements are made for remitting periodically the funds destined to this object, the holders of the interest coupons which become due shall have the right to present them to the agents of the republic in London, on the day of their maturity, and to require of them in exchange for such coupons, a certificate of their value, viseéd in like manner by the minister of the republic at said court; and these shall be received on presentation as ready money in payment of a sixth part of the duties collected at the maritime custom houses of Vera Cruz and Santa Anna de Tamaulipas. The agents of the republic in London shall not, consequently be at liberty to refuse to give such certificates when thereto requested by the holders of the unpaid coupons. In such case the value of each pound sterling shall be computed at the rate of five dollars, and the amount of each certificate shall be increased six per cent. in full compensation for difference of exchange and all expenses, including in such six per cent. one per cent., which the persons interested shall pay on receiving the certificates, to the agents, one fourth part