Governor-General when impeached for his responsibilities, as defined by the Penal Code.

The Council of Ministers shall take cognizance of his other responsibilities.

51. The Governor-General shall have the power, in spite of the provisions of the different Articles of this Decree, to act upon his own responsibility without consulting his Secretaries in the following

cases:

(1.) When forwarding to the Home Government a Bill passed by the Insular Parliament, especially when, in his opinion, it shall abridge the rights set forth in Article 1 of the Constitution of the Monarchy or the guarantees for the exercise thereof vouchsafed by the laws;

(2.) When it shall be necessary to enforce the law for the preservation of public order, especially if there be no time or possibility to consult the Home Government;

(3.) When enforcing the national laws which have been approved by the Crown, and made applicable to all Spanish territory or to the Colony under his Government.

The proceedings and means of action which the GovernorGeneral shall employ in the above cases shall be determined by a special law.

TITLE VIII.—Municipal and Provincial Government.

52. Municipal organization shall be compulsory for every group of population of more than 1,000 inhabitants.

Groups of less number of inhabitants may organize the service of their community by special arrangements.

Every legally constituted municipality shall have power to frame its own laws regarding public education, highways by land, river, and sea, public health, municipal finances, as well as to freely appoint and remove its own employés.

53. At the head of each province there shall be an Assembly, which shall be elected in the manner provided for by the Colonial Statutes, and shall be composed of a number of members in proportion to the population.

54. The Provincial Assemblies shall be autonomous as regards the creation and maintenance of public schools and colleges, charitable institutions, and provincial roads and ways by land, river, or sea; also as regards their own budgets and the appointment and removal of their respective employés.

55. The municipalities, as well as the Provincial Assemblies, shall have power to freely raise the necessary revenue to cover their expenditure, with no other limitation than to make the means

adopted compatible with the general system of taxation which shall obtain in the island.

The resources for provincial appropriations shall be independent of municipal resources.

56. The Mayors and Presidents of Boards of Aldermen shall be chosen by the respective Boards from among their members.

57. The Mayors shall discharge without limitation the active duties of the Municipal Administration, as executors of the Resolutions of the Board of Aldermen or their representatives.

58. The Aldermen and the Provincial Assembly men shall be civilly responsible for any injuries caused by their acts.

Their responsibility shall be exacted before the ordinary Courts of Justice.

59. The Provincial Assemblies shall freely choose their respective Presidents.

60. The elections of Aldermen and Assemblymen shall be conducted in such manner as to allow for a legitimate representation of minorities.

61. The provincial and municipal laws now obtaining in the island shall continue in force, wherever not in conflict with the provisions of this Decree, until the Insular Parliament shall legislate upon the matter.

62. No Colonial Statute shall abridge the powers vested by the preceding Articles in the municipalities and the Provincial Assemblies.

TITLE IX. As to the Guarantees for the Fulfilment of the Colonial Constitution.

63. Whenever a citizen shall consider that his rights have been violated or his interests injured by the action of a municipality or a Provincial Assembly, he shall have the right to apply to the Courts of Justice for redress.

The Department of Justice shall, if so required by the agents of the Executive Government of the Colony, prosecute before the Courts the Boards of Aldermen or Provincial Assemblies charged with breaking the laws or abusing their power.

64. In the cases referred to in the preceding Article, the following Courts shall have jurisdiction:

The Territorial Audiencia shall try all claims against municipalities; and the Pretorian Court of Havana shall try all claims against Provincial Assemblies.

The said Courts, when the charges against any of the abovementioned Corporations shall be for abuse of power, shall render their decisions by a full bench. From the decision of the Terri

torial Audiencia an appeal shall be allowed to the Pretorian Court of Havana, and from the decisions of the latter an appeal shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of the kingdom.

65. The redress of grievances which Article 62 grants to any citizen can also be had collectively by means of public action, by appointing an attorney or representative claimant.

66. Without in any way impairing the powers vested in the Governor-General by Title V of the present Decree, he may, whenever he deems fit, appear before the Pretorian Court of Havana in his capacity as Chief of the Executive Government of the Colony, to the end that the said Court shall finally decide any conflict of jurisdiction between the Executive Power and the Legislative Chambers of the Colony.

67. Should any question of jurisdiction be raised between the Insular Parliament and the Governor-General in his capacity as Representative of the Home Government, which shall not have been submitted to the Council of Ministers of the kingdom by Petition of the Insular Parliament, either party shall have power to bring the matter before the Supreme Court of the kingdom, which shall render its decision by a full bench and in the first instance.

68. The decisions rendered in all cases provided for in the preceding Articles shall be published in the collection of Colonial Statutes, and shail form part of the insular legislation.

69. Every municipal measure for the purpose of contracting a loan or a municipal debt shall be without effect unless it be assented to by a majority of the townspeople whenever one-third of the number of Aldermen shall so demand.

The amount of the loan or debt which, according to the number of inhabitants of a township, shall make the referendum proceeding necessary, shall be determined by special Statute.

70. All legislative Acts originating in the Insular Parliament or the Cortes shall be compiled under the title of Colonial Statutes in a legislative collection, the formation and publication of which shall be intrusted to the Governor-General as Chief of the Colonial Executive.

Additional Articles.

ART. 1. Until the Colonial Statutes shall be published in due form, the laws of the kingdom shall be deemed applicable to all matters reserved to the jurisdiction of the Insular Government.

2. When the present Constitution shall be once approved by the Cortes of the kingdom for the Islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, it shall not be amended except by virtue of a special law and upon the petition of the Insular Parliament.

3. The provisions of the present Decree shall obtain in their entirety in the Island of Porto Rico; they shall, however, be ordained by special Decree in order to conform them to the population and nomenclature of said island.

4. Pending contracts for public services affecting in common the Antilles and the Peninsula shall continue in their present shape until termination, and shall be entirely governed by the conditions and stipulations therein made.

As regards other contracts already entered into, but not yet in operation, the Governor-General shall consult the Home Government, or the Colonial Chambers, as the case may be, and the two Governments shall, by mutual accord, decide as between themselves the final form of such contract.

Transitory Provisions.

ART. 1. With a view to carrying out the transition from the present régime to the system hereby established with the greatest possible dispatch and the least interruption of the public business, the Governor-General shall, whenever he deems it timely and after consulting the Home Government, appoint the Secretaries of the Executive Office under Article 45 of this Decree, and with their aid he shall conduct the Local Government of the island until the Insular Chambers shall have been constituted.

The Secretaries

thus appointed shall vacate their offices as soon as the GovernorGeneral shall take his oath of office before the Insular Chambers, and the Governor-General shall immediately appoint as their successors the Members of Parliament who, in his judgment, most fully represent the majorities in the Chamber of Representatives and the Council of Administration.

2. The manner of meeting the expenditures occasioned by the debt now weighing upon the Spanish and Cuban Treasuries, and the debt that may be contracted until the termination of the war, shall be determined by a law fixing the share that shall be borne by each Treasury, and the special ways and means for the payment of the interest, and the sinking fund, and for refunding the principal in due time.

Until the Cortes of the kingdom shall decide this point no changes shall be made in the conditions under which the said debts were contracted, nor in the payment of the interest, nor provisions for a sinking fund nor in the guarantees which they enjoy, nor in the actual terms of payment.

When the Cortes shall have apportioned the shares, each of the two Treasuries shall take upon itself the payment of the share allotted.

In no event shall the obligations contracted towards the lenders on the faith of the Spanish nation cease to be scrupulously respected.

Given at the Palace, Madrid, the 25th November, 1897.

PRAXEDES MATEO SAGASTA, President of the

MARIA CRISTINA.

Council of Ministers.

SPEECH of the King of Roumania, on Opening the Roumanian Chambers.-Bucharest, November 15, 1898.

(Translation.)

MM. LES SENATEURS, MM. LES DÉPUTÉS,

J'ÉPROUVE un vif plaisir, en ouvrant la quatrième Session ordinaire de cette législature, à me retrouver aujourd'hui parmi vous et à vous saluer chaleureusement.

En remerciant le Ciel de la récolte satisfaisante qui a suivi une année d'inquiétude et de soucis, nous pouvons envisager l'avenir avec confiance, à présent surtout que le maintien de la paix continue à être la préoccupation de tous les Gouvernements.

Je constate avec fierté que, dans cette situation, la Roumanie est entourée des sympathies générales et que nos relations avec tous les États sont des plus cordiales.

A l'occasion de la visite que j'ai rendue à l'Empereur de Russie, Sa Majesté m'a donné de nombreuses marques d'une amitié réelle. La réception qui m'a été faite a été aussi sympathique que brillante, et, au cours de mon voyage en Russie, j'ai vu avec une satisfaction toute particulière que le souvenir de la confraternité d'armes consacrée sur les champs de bataille de la Bulgarie est resté intact.

Dans le courant de cette année, l'accomplissement d'un douloureux devoir m'a appelé aux obsèques de l'Impératrice et Reine Elisabeth, où j'ai exprimé à l'Empereur François-Joseph la vive part prise par moi et par mon pays au grand malheur qui l'a frappé et qui a suscité partout les témoignages de la sympathie la plus chaleureuse pour la mémoire de l'Impératrice défunte.

L'horrible crime de Genève a déterminé le Gouvernement Italien à prendre l'initiative d'une Conférence dans le but d'établir une entente pour la défense des États contre les menées anarchistes. Mon Gouvernement a pris la décision de participer à cette réunion internationale.

La Roumanie a encore été conviée à une Conférence, due à l'initiative généreuse de Sa Majesté l'Empereur Nicolas, dans le but noble et élevé d'assurer aux peuples une ère de paix durable.