will no longer be able to rend asunder the ties which unite us with that aboriginal race.

With regard to our Finances, they are in such a state that we are unable to meet our ordinary Expences, much less the extraordinary Debt so deeply affecting the National Credit. If we would have it more simple and better methodized, we must apply our peculiar care and unwearied exertions to the subject. An accumulated mass of regulations, equally ambiguous and contradictory, our plan of auditing the publick Accounts, expensive from the number of Offices, and obscure from the complicated mode of its proceedings, joined to an excessive disproportion in the receipts and disbursements, constitute the great defects of our Financial system. To extricate it from this chaos, Government has devised certain preparatory measures, of which one is the liquidation of our Home Debt up to the 5th of April last: there has been no hesitation to include the preceding one of 1810, contracted under the Spanish Yoke. Very powerful motives, of justice and the publick weal, advise this measure,-a measure uniformly adopted by all the Republicks of our Continent. With the view of consolidating this Debt, and remodelling our System of Finance, Government, in concert with the Commission of Congress, had passed a Decree for organizing the Publick Credit, and creating a Sinking Fund. All that had been solicited and obtained, was the permission to issue 600,000 dollars for the important end of Military Reform, leaving to your sanction the acknowledgment of other debts. The Government has prolonged your Session, in order that this Sinking Fund may be established, and the publick credit invested with the weight and dignity which must characterize an act so truly national. Every thing is prepared and ready to be laid before you by the Minister of Finance, so that under your high direction the foundation may be laid of a better system of Revenue.

The Commission nominated by Government for the improvement of the Commerce, the Customs, and Public Accounts, has been constantly occupied; the result of its labours will be laid before you. All these Departments call for a complete revision, as well to unfetter industry as to render the Taxes more productive, and to avoid the litigations consequent upon their exaction.

A Mint has been established in the Capital of the Province of Coquimbo, the centre of the richest minerals in the Republick. The plan of this establishment is such that it will be less expensive than hitherto, from the employment of machinery, by which labour is saved and simplified.

In calling your attention to our Foreign Debt,-the unfortunate English Loan, you will feel as I do, the deepest regret, when you consider the lamentable blow which has been given to our credit by our failure in the payment of the dividends. Most cheerfully did the People consent to the monopoly of various articles of consumption, in order that the payment of them might be effected, and the National honour

preserved; but in 1826 all-powerful necessity compelled the Representatives to apply the greater portion of the money thus raised to the maintenance of the Army of Operation. But the original intention may still be fulfilled: the dignity of the Chilian Nation, your own, and that of all the Authorities, demand from you determinate and sufficient Funds, both for the discharge of the unpaid dividends, and of those becoming hereafter annually due. For so noble a purpose no sacrifice can be too great; the credit of Chili is more to be valued than her very existence.

The ease and comparative comfort enjoyed by the people in general, contrasted with the misery and dejection formerly experienced by the labouring classes, must surprize all who are in the habit of observing the contrast. The fruits of the earth have increased fourfold, and many wealthy Capitalists have appeared. A disposition to industry, an obvious improvement in their manners, and an ardent desire for instruction, are the great distinguishing traits of our People.

Personal obligations, as if by instinct, have been religiously respected throughout the Republick. Without a Constitution, or positive Laws, the rights of property have been held so sacred, that, in the great conflicts maintained by our Military Commanders and Governors in various parts. against the incursions of the Banditti, no Individual has been deprived of the least portion of his property. In this respect our situation calls for no improvement: the Person and Property of every one have been as secure as they could be in Countries where social security has its roots in the heart of the soil.

All our People are perfectly united, not by intrigue or compulsion, but by the cordial and sincere desire of the Chilians to become one and the same indivisible Nation. The local spirit, so fatal to many parts of America, has not caused a single tear to be shed in Chili: no where has it found a single proselyte, nor disturbed the tranquillity of a single Village, however remote.

Such, Gentlemen, is the soil in which you are about to sow. If you follow the footsteps of preceding Congresses; if interests, momentary and purely local, engage your attention; if you devote not your exertions in behalf of the Republick at large; you will certainly plunge it into an abyss of misfortunes. But if, obedient to the voice of patriotism, and the warnings of experience, you satisfy the desire of the Nation for a wise and liberal Constitution, you will be blessed by all your Countrymen, who will annually commemorate the glorious day when they returned you for their Representatives to the Constituent Congress.

FRANCISCO ANTONIO PINTO.

Santiago de Chile, 25th February, 1828.

TREATY of Commerce and Navigation between Prussia and Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburgh.-Signed at Berlin, the 4th October, 1828. (Translation.)

His Majesty The King of Prussia, on the one part, and the Senate of the free and Hanseatic City of Lubeck, the Senate of the free and Hanseatic City of Bremen, and the Senate of the free and Hanseatic City of Hamburgh, on the other part,-proceeding on the conviction that the placing of their respective Subjects and Citizens, reciprocally, upon an equal footing, with respect to the present and future Trade and Navigation Duties, will essentially tend to the furtherance of their mutual commercial undertakings,-have, in order to the conclusion of a Convention for the attainment of so desirable an object, named as their Plenipotentiaries: viz.

His Majesty The King of Prussia, His Privy Councillor of Legation Ernst Michaelis; and the Senate of the free and Hanseatic City of Lubeck, the Senate of the free and Hanseatic City of Bremen, and the Senate of the free and Hanseatic City of Hamburgh, the Chamberlain, Resident Minister and Chargé d'Affaires of the free and Hanseatic City of Hamburgh at Berlin, Ludwig August von Nebeur; who have agreed upon the following Articles:

ART. I. Prussian Vessels, arriving in ballast or with cargoes in the Harbours of the free and Hanseatic Cities of Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburgh, and Vessels of Lubeck, Bremen and Hamburgh, arriving in ballast or with cargoes in the Harbours of the Prussian States, shall be treated, on their arrival as well as on their departure, upon the same footing as National Vessels, with regard to the present and future harbour, tonnage, light-house, pilot, and salvage duties, and to all others of the State Chest, as well as to the duties and burthens arising from State or Private Regulations, of every denomination whatsoever.

II. All wares, goods, and articles of commerce, whether of home or of foreign origin, which may hereafter be imported or exported in National Vessels, to or from the Royal Prussian harbours, or to or from those of the free Hanseatic Cities of Lubeck, Bremen and Hamburgh, shall, in like manner, be imported and exported in Vessels of either Party, without being burthened with higher or other duties of any kind than those to which they would be subject, on their importation or exportation in National Vessels. And the same bounties, drawbacks, allowances, and immunities, shall be granted, on the importation or exportation of such wares, goods, and articles of merchandize, in Ships of the other Party, as now are, or may in future be granted on their importation or exportation in National Vessels.