lished unless contiguous to another composed of Mexicans or of other foreigners of various countries.

49. The direction of colonization will make application for parishes to be erected in the military colonies, and shall establish in each of them a primary school and a medical practitioner.

50. The same direction shall take the necessary steps for the founding of missions in the colonies nearest to the savage tribes, and shall propose to the government the means of sustaining and increasing them, and of encouraging those already existing.

51. The direction of colonization shall appoint agents, commissioners, or auxillary boards in the states and territories, whose labors in the business of colonization shall be executed under the instruction of the same direction.

52. It shall also have power to appoint agents in foreign countries who may promote colonization, and enter into communication with the ministers consuls of the Republic, for the trust it may think proper to confide to

them..

53. With the data which it shall collect together, the direction of colonization shall submit to the government the means of marking the boundaries of the lands on the frontiers of the Republic, and whatever may concern the internal navigation of the rivers. Colonization of the frontiers shall not take place without the express approbation of the government, at less than twenty leagues from the boundaries of the Republic, nor less than ten from the coasts, conformably with Article 4 of the law of 13th August, 1844.

54. The office of the direction shall keep clear and methodical registers of all the public lands, of the titles of transfers which it may issue in consequence of sales at auction or by contracts, and of the documents of grants of lands where the issues of the title remains pending upon the surveys. It shall also keep the judicial record of the revenue which may arise from the amount of the price of the lands, and shall draw up a table showing the report of the measures which, up to this time, have been used by the survey. ors, with the measures of the acre and of the mile.

55. The direction shall submit to the government every thing which may have relation to the better administration and government of the new settlements; it shall report against the abuses which may be committed therein; and in order that they may be effective, shall report the guarantees and exemptions conceded to the colonists.

56. The direction, as far as concerns the branches of the agricultural and manufacturing industry of the colonies, the district and the territory of the confederation, and as far as may be within the province of the general government in the states, shall exercise the following powers:

1st. It shall be the organ of communication between the assemblages of manufacturing or agricultural industry of the colonies, and of the district and territories of the confederation and the supreme government, and through its

channel all petitions or memorials which may be made to the government relative to matters appertaining to agriculture and the arts, shall be conveyed to it, the direction expressing its opinion upon the same.

2d. It shall enter into correspondence with the juntas (societies) of agriculture or industry of the states, in relation to its designs.

Bd. It shall make to the government such reports as may be desired, in relation to matters of the same industry.

4th. It shall have in its charge the formation of industrial statistics.

5th. It shall promote the advancement of agriculture and the arts, by all proper means, and especially by premiums for industrial inventions, and improvements in cultivation, in vegetables, and breeding of animals, and by the establishment of schools of arts and agriculture, and the publication of instructive works.

6th. It shall take cognizance of all the records of applications for patents for the invention, perfection, or introduction of new processes in industry, and in its archives shall be deposited the models and specifications presented by those who obtain patents, and it shall publish both, when the inventions become public property.

7th. It shall take care that public exhibitions at stated periods shall be made in the capital of the republic, of the national agricultural and manufacturing products.

8th. It shall put into operation, as early as possible, the establishment of the schools of arts and of agriculture, which are placed under the inspection and care of the direction of industry, taking charge immediately of the funds destined for said establishments.

57. In the treasury of the direction shall be kept a set of books, with the formalities which shall be decreed, on the recommendation of the board, and the following rules shall henceforth be observed:

1st. No payment shall be made which shall not be decreed by law, without an order from the president, and without the assent of the board, and the further approval of the government, in the cases where the law expressly demands the same.

2d. Every month there shall be a settlement of accounts, and a general settlement at the close of the fiscal year.

3d. The treasury account shall be settled on the 30th of June of each year, and shall be presented before the month of November, together with a statement which shall comprehend the condition of the branch in charge of the direction, in which shall be exhibited the present state of colonization, and that of industry, their progress, or the causes of their backwardness, if such be the case, with an indication of what ought to be done to remedy the same, in order that the government, taking the whole into consideration, may on its part dictate such measures as may be within its functions, and

may call the attention of Congress at its next following session to what may be requisite from the legislative power.

Wherefore, I order that the same be printed, published and circulated and carried into full effect.

Palace of the Federal Government of Mexico.

JOSE MARIANO DE SALAS.

To DON JOSE MARIA LAFRAGNA."

And I communicate it to you for its fulfillment.

God and Liberty.-Mexico, December 4th, 1846.

LAFRAGNA.

Colonization Law

Of the State of Coahuila, and Texas.

The Governor provisionally appointed by the Sovereign Congress of this State-to all who shall see these presents; Know-That the said Congress have decreed:

Decree, No. 16. The Constituent Congress of the free, Independent, and sovereign state of Coahuila and Texas, desiring by every possible means to augment the population of its territory; promote the cultivation of its fertile lauds; the raising and multiplication of stock, and the progress of the arts, and commerce; and being governed by the Constitutional act, the Federal constitution, and the basis established by the National decree of the general congress, No. 72, have thought proper to decree the following law of colonization:

ART. 1. All foreigners, who in virtue of the general law, of the 18th August, 1824, which guarantees the security of their persons and property, in the territory of the Mexican nation, wish to remove to any of the settlements of the State of Coahuila and Texas, are at liberty to do so; and the said state invites and calls them.

ART. 2. Those who do so, instead of being incommoded, shall be admitted by the local authorities of said settlements, who shall freely permit them to pursue any branch of industry, that they may think proper, provided they respect the general laws of the nation, and those of the state.

ART. 3. Any foreigner, already in the limits of the state of Coahuila and Texas, who wishes to settle himself in it, shall make a declaration to that effect, before the Ayuntamiento of the place, which he selects as his residence, the Ayuntamiento in such case, shall administer to him the oath, which he

must take to obey the federal and state constitutions, and observe the religion which the former prescribes; the name of the person, and his family if he has any, shall then be registered in a book kept for that purpose, with a statement of where he was born, and whence from, his age, whether married, occupation, and that he has taken the oath perscribed, and considering him from that time and not before, as domiciliated.

ART. 4. From the day in which any foreigner has been enrolled, as an inhabitant, in conformity with the foregoing article, he is at liberty to designate any vacant land, and the respective political authority will grant it to him in the same manner, as to a native of the country, in conformity with the existing laws of the nation, under the condition that the proceedings shall be passed to the government for its approbation.

ART. 5. Foreigners of any nation, or a native of any of the Mexican States, can project the formation of new towns on any lands entirely vacant, or even on those of an individual, in the case mentioned in the 35th article; but the new settlers who present themselves for admission, must prove their christianity, morality and good habits, by a certificate from the authorities where they formerly resided.

ART. 6. Foreigners who emigrate at the time in which the general sovereign congress may have prohibited their entrance, for the purpose of colonizing, as they have the power to do, after the year 1840, or previous to that time, as respects those of any particular nation, shall not then be admitted; and those who apply in proper time, shall always subject themselves to such precautionary measures of national security, which the supreme government, without prejudicing the object of this law, may think proper to adopt relative to them.

ART. 7. The government shall take care that within the 20 leagues bordering on the limits of the United States of the north, and ten leagues in a straight line from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, within the limits of this state, there shall be no other settlements, except such as merit the approbation of the supreme government of the Union, for which object, all petitions on the subject, whether made by Mexicans or foreigners, shall be passed to the superior government, accompanied by a corresponding report.

ART. 8. The projects for new settlements in which one or more persons offer to bring at their expense, one hundred or more families, shall be presented to the government, and if found conformable with this law, they will, be admitted; and the government will immediately designate to the contractors, the land where they are to establish themselves, and the term of six years, within which they must present the number of families they contracted for, under the penalty of losing the rights and privileges offered in their favor, in proportion to the number of families which they fail to introduce, and the contract totally annulled if they do not bring, at least, one hundred families.

ART. 9. Contracts made by the contractors or undertakers, Empresarios with the families brought at their expense, are guaranteed by this law, so far, as they are conformable with its provisions.

ART. 10. In the distribution of lands, a preference shall be given to the military entitled to them, by the diplomas issued by the supreme executive power, and to Mexican citizens who are not military, among whom there shall be no other distinction than that founded on their individual merit, or services performed for the country, or in equal circumstances, a residence in the place where the land may be situated; the quantity of land which may be granted is designated in the following articles.

ART. 11. A square of land, which on each side has one league or five thousand varas, or what is the same thing, a superficie of twenty-five mil lion varas, shall be called a sitio, and this shall be the unity for counting one, two, or more sitios; and also the unity for counting one, two, or more labors, shall be one million square varas or one thousand on each side, which shall compose a labor. The vara for this measure ment shall be three geometrical feet.

ART. 12. Taking the above unity as a basis, and observing the distinction which must be made, between grazing land, or that which is proper for raising of stock, and farming land, without the facility of irrigation; this law grants to the contractor or contractors, for the establishment of a new settlement, for each hundred families, which he may introduce and establish in the State, five sitios of grazing land, and five labors at least, the one half of which shall be without the facility of irrigation; but they can only receive this premium for eight hundred families, although a greater number should be introduced, and no fraction whatever less than one hundred shall entitle them to any premium, not even proportionally.

ART. 13. Should any contractor or contractors in virtue of the number of families which he may have introduced, acquire in conformity with the last article, more than eleven square leagues of land, it shall nevertheless be granted, but subject to the condition of alienating the excess, within twelve years, and if it is not done, the respective political authority shall do it, by selling it at public sale, delivering the proceeds to the owners, after deducting the costs of sale.

ART. 14. To each family comprehended in a contract, whose sole occupation is cultivation of land, one labor shall be given, should he also, be a stock raiser, grazing land shall be added to complete a sitio, and should his only occupation be raising of stock, he shall only receive a superficie of grazing land, equal to twenty-four million square bars.

ART. 15. Unmarried men shall receive the same quantity when they enter the matrimonial state, and foreigners who marry native Mexicans, shall receive one fourth more; those who are entirely single, or who do not form a part of some family, whether foreigners or natives, shall content them