"Diario del Gobierno."-(Vol. XXII. No. 2457, page 297-8.)

Mexico, March 16th, 1842.

Government of the Department of Mexico.

EDICT.

Citizen Luis Gonzaga Vieyra, brevet brigadier general, and governor of

this department.

By the department of foreign affairs and government the following has with this date been communicated to me.

MOST EXCELLENT SIR-His Excellency the Provisional President of the republic has been pleased to transmit to me the following decree:

Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna, general of division, benemérito of the country, and provisional president of the Mexican Republic, to all the inhabitants thereof. Know Ye :-That after a mature and the most cautious examination into the benefits which will result to the republic from permitting foreigners to acquire property; having heard the opinion of the council of representatives, which with the greatest exactitude examined this subject; the reports of several juntas of the departments, many well informed persons, and the pro and contra supported in print: having seen the various projects for a law which to this effect have been offered; being also convinced that a frank policy and a well understood interest demand that there should no longer be delayed a concession which may tend to the advancement of the republic, by the increase of population, the extension and division of property, which consequently makes the national wealth the greater; having also in consideration that by these means the safety of the nation may be more and more secured, since foreign proprietors will be so many more defenders of the national rights, at the same time that they are interested in the common property considering also the impulse which will be given to agriculture, indus try and commerce, which are the sources of public wealth; and finally, that the opinion generally expressed is in favor of the said concession, I have thought proper, exercising the powers conceded to me by the seventh of the bases accorded in Tacubaya, and attested by the representatives of the departments, to decree as follows:

ART. 1. Foreigners not citizens, residing in the republic may acquire and hold town and country property, by purchase, adjudication, denouncement or any other title established by the laws.

ART. 2. They may also acquire ownership in mines of gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, iron and coal, of which they may be the discoverers, in conformity with the ordinance of the branch.

ART. 3. Each individual foreigner cannot acquire more than two country estates in the same department, without a license from the Supreme Govern

ment, and only under the boundaries which they now have, each independent of the other.

ART. 4. In the acquisition of town property in the cities, towns and villages, as also in the lands contiguous thereto, in which they may wish to construct new estates, they shall enjoy the right to so much under similar circumstances and conditions.

ART. 5. Foreigners who in virtue of this law may acquire property, remain absolutely liable in regard to it, to the existing laws, or those which may prevail in the republic, as to transfer, use, preservation and payment of imposts, without the power of alleging any right appertaining to being for eigners, in regard to those points.

ART. 6. Consequently, all the questions of this nature, which may arise, shall be decided in the ordinary and usual manner of the national laws, with the exclusion of all other intervention whatsoever.

ART. 7. Foreigners who may acquire country property, city property, or property in mines, and foreigners who may labor in them as servants, laborers or journeymen, are not obliged to take part in the service of arms, unless in the way of police; but they are to pay the imposts which have for their object to keep up the militia.

ART. 8. If the foreign proprietor absent himself for more than two years with his family from the republic, without obtaining permission from the gov ernment, or if the property pass by inheritance or by any other title into the possession of persons non-resident in the republic, he shall be obliged to sell it within two years, counted from the day when his absence took place, or the change of ownership. If this be not done, the sale shall be officially proceeded with, with all the legal formalities, and of the proceeds the tenth part shall go to the informer; the nine tenths remaining shall be safely deposited at the disposal of the owner. This shall always be done when it is proven that the owner of the estate resides out of the republic, and he who is the nominal proprietor is only so in place of the absentee.

ART. 9. These arrangements do not include the departments on the frontier and bordering upon other nations, in regard to which special laws of colonization will be enacted, without the power to foreigners to ever acquire property in them, without the express license of the Supreme Government of the Republic.

ART. 10. In the departments which are not on the frontier, and which may have coasts, only at five leagues distance from the coasts can foreigners acquire country property.

ART. 11. In order that foreigners who may have acquired property in the republic may be citizens thereof, it is sufficient that they prove before the political authority of the place of their residence that they are proprietors, that they have resided two years in the republic, and that they have conducted themselves well, The expediente drawn up in this manner will be

sent to the proper department, by which the certificate of citizenship will be issued.

ART. 12. Foreigners cannot acquire royal or public lands in all the de partments of the republic, without contracting for them with the govern ment which possesses this right as representing the domain of the Mexican nation.

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

Palace of the national government, Mexico, 11th March, 1842.

ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA.

JOSE MARIA DE BOCANEGRA,

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Government.

And I communicate it to your excellency for your information and consequent action.

God and Liberty.

--Mexico 14th March, 1842.

BOCANEGRA.

And in order that it may come to the knowledge of every one, I order that it be published by edict in this capital and the other cities, towns and places within the limits of this department, exposed in the usual places, and circulated among those who are concerned in taking care to see it observed. Given in Mexico on the 14th March, 1842.

MIGUEL ZEREZ, Secretary.

LUIS G. VIEYRA.

"Diario del Gobierno."-(T. XXIII. No. 2579. page 285.)

Mexico, July 15th, 1842.

Department of Foreign Relations and Government.

MOST EXCELLENT SIR:

His Excellency the provisional president has been pleased to issue the following decree:

"Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, general of division benemérito of the country, and provisional president of the Mexican Republic, to all the inhabitants thereof,

Know ye: That the decree of the 11th March of this year, which so empowers foreigners to acquire landed property in the republic, in the manner set forth in the same decree, having been made public, some doubts have arisen as to the true meaning of the 2nd Article, and appeals have been brought to the supreme government arising from the different meaning which has been given to said article. In view of all which, and, bearing in mind the respec tive provisions and ordinances, I have thought proper, in the exercise of the

powers conceded to me by the seventh of the bases accorded in Tacubaya, and attested by the representatives of the nation, to declare as follows:

"Natives or foreigners who shall fully prove that they have been the restorers of old mines fallen into disuse or abandoned, shall be considered as discoverers and consequently empowered by the 2nd Article of the decree of 11th March of the present year, to acquire property in mines.

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

National Palace, Mexico 12th July, 1842.

JOSE MARIA BOCANEGRA,

ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA.

Minister of Foreign Relations and Government.

And I communicate it to your Excellency, for your information and consequent action.

God and Liberty.-Mexico July 12, 1842.

BOCANEGRA.

"El Siglo diez y nueve."-(No. 331, 1st. Year, 4th Quarter.)

Mexico, September 7th, 1842.

Department of Foreign Relations and Government.

MOST EXCELLENT SIR:-His Excellency, the provisional President, has been pleased to issue the following decree:

"Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, general of division, benemérito of the country and provisional president of the Mexican Republic, to all the inhabitants thereof, Know Ye: That in the exercise of the powers conceded to me by the seventh of the bases accorded in Tacubaya and attested by the representatives of the Departments, I have thought proper to declare as follows: "The Law of the 11th March of this year which empowered foreigners to acquire landed property, did not annul that of the 7th of October, 1823. "Wherefore I order that it be printed, published, circulated and carried into full effect."

National Palace, Mexico, 31st August, 1842.

ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA.

JOSE MARIA DE BOCANEGRA,

Minister of Foreign Relations and Government.

And I transcribe it for your Excellency, for your information and consequent action.

God and Liberty.-Mexico, 31st August 1842.

BOCANEGRA.

"Diario del Gobierno."—(Vol. 27, No. 3021, p. 121.)

Mexico, September 30th, 1843. Department of Justice and Public Instruction.

His Excellency the provisional President of the Republic has been pleased to transmit to me the following decree.

"Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, General of division, benemérito of the county, and provisional president of the Mexican Republic, to the inhabitants thereof, Know Ye: That desiring to render effective the benefit which the government purposed to confer upon the mining interests in the authority which it granted to the board of encouragement of the branch, by decree of the 5th of July last, to enable it to establish and encourage the working of quicksilver mines, I have thought proper to decree as follows:

ART. 1. The Board of encouragement of mining shall appoint at least one commission in each department of the Republic, to explore and examine all the quicksilver mines that may be in said department.

ART. 2. The examination which these Commissions are to make, shall be scientific, and they shall also be charged to report upon the following points. First: If in the respective department there are or have been mines of quicksilver which may at present be worked, or which have heretofore been worked. Second: What is their present condition. Third: Which of them are most susceptible of being worked. Fourth: What works are necessary to put them in operation, and the expense required to put them in order. Fifth: The alloy contained in the yield which may be produced. Sixth: The cost of its extraction and working.

ART. 3. The Board of encouragement in view of all the above reports will decide upon the places which should be established in preference, and the sum with which the establishment is to be put in operation.

ART. 4. The aforesaid examinations must be concluded within six months, counted from this date; and within seven months, also counted from this date the supplies for the working of the mines shall be decreed, some facilities being prior to that time conceded to the mines which evidently deserve them.

ART. 5. Out of the funds which may be designated for the supply of the quicksilver mines, and out of those which this decree, may designate, the facilities mentioned in the foregoing articles shall be conceded.

ART. 6. In order to furnish the supplies mentioned in this decree, the board shall make use of one of two modes. First To furnish the necessary funds in the character of a loan at the annual interest of 6 per 100. Second: To constitute itself the [aviador] mines supplier, keeping an account of the losses and gains as in the ordinary advances.

ART. 7. When it advances money on interest, it shall be secured precisely