LAW of Chile, relative to Differential Duties on Foreign Vessels.-Santiago, July 16, 1850.

(Translation.)

WHEREAS the National Congress has passed the following law: ART. I. The provisions contained in Articles XV, XVI, XVII and XVIII, of the Law of Internationality of the 8th of January, 1834, are abrogated and void.

That part of Article VIII of the Law of the 7th of August, 1834, which exempts national vessels from tonnage dues, is also abrogated; and these vessels are to pay in future the same dues, as foreign vessels.

II. Merchandize, produce, and, in general, every article of commerce, imported into the republic in vessels under a foreign flag, are to pay the same international dues as if they were imported in Chilian vessels.

III. Articles of commerce which are introduced into the republic by vessels of any nation that does not recognize the bases of reciprocity established by the present law, are to be surcharged with a duty equal to that imposed on the merchandize entered at the ports of that nation by Chilian vessels.

IV. For the due fulfilment of the provision in the preceding Article, the President of the republic will fix the differential duties indicated therein.

And whereas, having heard the Council of State, I have thought fit to approve and to sanction this law: therefore, I order that it be promulgated and carried out, in all its parts, as a law of the republic.

Santiago, July 16, 1850. JERONIMO URMENETA.

MANUEL BULNES.

DECREE of the President of New Granada, approving the Contract, granting a Privilege for the Construction of an Iron Railroad across the Isthmus of Panama.—Bogotá, June 8, 1847.

THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

(Translation.)

OF NEW GRANADA IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, HAVING considered the contract respecting a privilege for the construction of a railroad from one ocean to the other, across the Isthmus of Panama, which was signed in this capital on the 10th day of May last, between Juan de Francisco Martin and Mateo Klein; by the first in virtue of appointment and special authorization from the Executive, and by the second as the agent and attorney of the association entitled "The Panama Company ;" and having also con

sidered the document specifying the duties and obligations of the said parties, signed by them on the same day, which papers are to the following effect:

The undersigned, Juan de Francisco Martin, in the name and under the commission of the Executive power of the Republic of New Granada, and Matthew Klein, as agent and attorney of Messrs. Jean Louis Marie Eugene Durien, chief of a section in the department of the interior at Paris; Viscount François Ernest Chabrol de Chameane, proprietor; Jean Edouard Caillard, administrator of the General Messageries; Alexandre de Bellegarde, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Staff; Jaques Courtines, civil engineer; Chevalier François Thierry, proprietor; Charles Veyret, merchant; Eloi Dumon, proprietor; Silvaine Jaques Joseph Joly Blazon de Sabla, merchant proprietor; Augustin Jean Salomon, merchant proprietor; the Baron Jean Henri Joseph de Lagos; William Henry Bainbridge, banker; and Sir John Campbell, Vice-President of the Oriental Steam Company,-as appears by the power granted at Paris on the 26th of November, 1845, before M. Guillaume Bouclier and his colleague, the above named persons having associated themselves under the title of the Panama Company, with the object of constructing a railroad from one ocean to the other, across the Isthmus of Panama; we, the said Juan de Francisco Martin and Matthew Klein, have agreed, in order to carry the said object into effect, upon the following contract:

TITLE I.

ART. I. The exclusive privilege of establishing a railroad between the 2 oceans, across the Isthmus of Panama, is conceded to the Company styled "The Panama Company."

II. The privilege of establishing a railroad, conceded to the Company by the preceding Article, shall continue for 99 years, reckoned from the day of the completion of the road and its being opened for public use.

III. The road shall be completed within 6 years, reckoned from the expiration of 4 months after the present Deed of Concession shall have been approved by the Congress of the Republic; and the fact of its completion shall be verified before the Governor of Panama, at the request of the Company, by a joint statement drawn up after consultation with the agent or agents of the Executive power commissioned to that effect.

IV. During the 99 years of exclusive privilege thus conceded to the Company for the establishment of a railroad from one ocean to the other, the Government of the Republic engages neither to undertake on its own account, nor to grant to any other company whatever, under any title, the power to establish another railroad

or ordinary carriage-road, serving as means of communication between the 2 oceans, across the Isthmus of Panama; neither shall the Government of the Republic undertake itself, nor grant to any other person or persons the right to open a maritime canal across the isthmus, to connect the 2 seas, during the period of the continuance of the privilege granted to the Panama Company, without the consent of that Company.

V. The exclusive privilege is also granted to the Company for 99 years:

1. To make use of the ports situated at the 2 extremities of the railroad, required for the anchorage of vessels, and for the landing and shipping of the goods which are to pass along the said road.

2. To make use of the places and stations necessary and specially designed for warehouses, and for the free deposit of all effects and merchandize admitted for transit across the isthmus, by means of the railroad established by the Panama Company. In virtue of the said privilege the Company may levy such transit dues, warehouse dues, and tolls as it may deem proper to establish, in compensation for the use of the lines of communication, the means of conveyance, the ports, passages, warehouses, and establishments of all kinds belonging to it.

VI. The Executive shall determine the forms to be observed in the landing of goods from either ocean, and the intervention on the part of the Custom-House officers, with the object of preventing goods destined for transit from one sea to the other, from being left on the way, or fraudulently introduced for consumption in the country. The said precautions shall be such as may tend to prevent all frauds to the injury of the public revenues, without delaying or embarrassing the rapid dispatch and transit of the goods, baggage, and passengers.

VII. During the progress of the railroad towards completion, the Company may open to public use such portion thereof as may be passable, and as it may judge proper to bring into service, so soon as such portion may be completed. The Company may also then enter upon the enjoyment of the concessions, privileges, and advantages applying thereto, as set forth in the present grant, conformably with the provisions of the annexed document specifying the duties and obligations.

VIII. The completion of one-half of the railroad shall secure to the said Company the definitive possession of all that is connected with the present privilege, and of the rights contained in it and annexed to it; the Company, however, remaining bound to complete the railroad entirely within the 6 years agreed upon in Article III, or within 8 years in case the period for such completion of the road should be thus far prolonged; in default of which it will be subject

to the fines and penalties expressed in the document specifying the duties and obligations.

IX. The Company may give to the railroad such direction as it may judge most favourable for the enterprise; and may select with entire liberty the points of departure and arrival which it may consider most advantageous and convenient for the entrance and anchorage of vessels or for the ports, properly so called, and the places for embarkation, dry docks, places for lighterage and landing, warehouses, stations, inns and establishments of all kinds.

X. The Company is also at liberty to choose the mode which it may consider most favourable for the construction and works of the railroad, provided it be completed in such a manner that travellers and goods passing over it may be transported in 12 hours at most from either ocean to the other.

TITLE II.-Grants of Land.

In consideration of the difficulties of the enterprise, and the direct and indirect advantages which the republic may derive from it, various concessions of lands are to be made to the Company.

XI. The Republic grants gratuitously to the Company:

1. The land which may be necessary for the establishment of the line of railroad in its whole extent.

2. All the land which it may require for the establishment of ports, places for landing and embarking, dry docks, places for lighterage, warehouses, stations, inns, and in general for all the necessary purposes of the construction and service of the railroad.

The concession is to be understood as restricted to the land belonging to the Republic; with regard to that which is the property of individuals, the Company must obtain it from the owners, upon valuation and indemnification in the manner specified in Article XV. The land granted by the Republic as expressed in this present Article, shall return to its possession immediately on the expiration of this privilege; and shall be restored to it by the Company with the forms prescribed, and agreeably to the conditions specified in the document respecting the duties and obligations, to which the Company binds itself.

XII. The Republic moreover grants to the Company gratuitously, and in perpetual possession, 100,000 fanegadas of unoccupied land in the provinces of Panama and Veragua; which grant may be increased to 150,000, if such extent be found vacant in the 2 provinces above mentioned, so that the Government can dispose of it; and the Company shall have liberty to select the land, in the continental portions of these provinces, wheresoever it may judge most proper; it being stipulated, however, that wheresoever the land may be selected on the line of the road or in its vicinity, stated intervals

shall be left, in which the Government of the Republic may make concessions, or sales of land, for other establishments such as it may choose to form on the said line and in its vicinity. The 100,000 fanegadas of land, or any other extent less than 150,000 fanegadas, which may be found disposable as unoccupied and thus granted to the Company, may be used for encampments for workmen, fields for cultivation, pastures for beasts of burden and cattle, or for cutting wood for establishments of any kind facilitating the industrial operations undertaken by the Company, especially those tending to colonization. The Government of the Republic will make no concessions of unoccupied lands in the provinces of Panama and Veragua, until it shall have completed the appropriation of those to which the present Article refers.

XIII. The unoccupied land which the Republic concedes to the Company is given to it in full ownership; and the Company may dispose of it freely, during the period of the privilege, and after its termination.

XIV. This land, and the land appropriated for the railroad, shall be made over to the Company, as it may be required, agreeably to the provisions of Article XII.

XV. Whenever the land required for the establishment of the railroad, or for ports, or for any other purpose connected with the works on the said road, may be the property of individuals, the Company shall have the right to take it, under an order from the Governor of the province, after valuation has been made, and a just indemnification given to the owner, conformably with the Law of June 2, 1847, defining the cases in which property may be taken for public uses, and the forms to be observed in so doing.

XVI. The possession of the unoccupied land conceded to the Company gratuitously shall be given so soon as the land has been pointed out by the Company, and after it shall have been declared unoccupied, and have been surveyed and appropriated by the Executive Power. Such appropriation shall be equivalent to taking possession, and shall prevent any ulterior concession of the lands in favour of any other party.

XVII. The Company may vary or modify the line of route of the railroad, if difficulties should arise or obstacles be found to its completion on the line first selected; it may also in such case, exchange the unoccupied land gratuitously selected and conceded to it, according to the provisions of Article XII, for others in a different locality.

TITLE III.-Rights, Privileges, and Immunities.

In order to aid the Company as far as possible in this part of its enterprise, and to facilitate the success of its operations of all kinds,