the representative bodies require the sanction of a higher representative body or of the Government of the State.

2. The principals of the provinces, districts, and circles, are appointed by the King.

The Communal Regulations will settle the particulars relative to the participation of the State in the appointment of the heads of the communes, and relative to the right of election belonging to the

communes.

3. To the communes specially belongs the independent administration of their communal affairs under the legally regulated supervision of the State.

The law decides relative to the participation of the communes in the administration of the local police.

For the maintenance of order, a communal safety or burgher guard may, according to the further enactments of the law, be established by a communal resolution.

4. The meetings of the provincial, circle and communal representative bodies are public. The law decides the exceptions. Respecting the revenues and expenditures, a report must be published at least once a-year.

General Enactments.

CVI. Laws and ordinances are binding when they are published in the form prescribed by the law. The examination of the validity of duly promulgated Royal Ordinances does not belong to the authorities, but to the Chambers only.

CVII. The Constitution may be altered by the usual way of legislative proceeding, in which case the ordinary absolute majority of votes in each Chamber, on 2 divisions, between which a period of at least 21 days must intervene, is sufficient.

CVIII. The members of both Chambers, and all functionaries of the State, take the oath of allegiance and obedience to the King, and swear the conscientious observance of the Constitution. The Army is not sworn to the Constitution.

CIX. The existing taxes and duties continue to be levied, and all the enactments of existing codes of laws, and of particular laws and ordinances, which are not contrary to the present Constitution, remain in force till they are altered by a law.

CX. All the authorities constituted by the existing laws remain in force, until the passing of the organic laws concerning them.

CXI. In case of a war or insurrection, when there is imminent danger for the public security, the Articles V, VI, VII, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXX, and XXXVI of the Constitution may be temporarily suspended and by districts. The law decides the particulars of such suspension.

Provisional Enactments.

CXII. Until the promulgation of the law provided for in Article XXVI, the legal enactments relative to the organization of the schools and of instruction now valid remain in force.

CXIII. Previous to the completion of the revision of the penal law, a special law will be passed relative to the offences which are committed, by words, in writing, in print, or by figurative representation.

CXIV. Until the promulgation of the new Communal Regulations, the former enactments relative to the administration of the police remain in force.

CXV. Until the promulgation of the Electoral Law referred to in Article LXXII, the Ordinance of the 30th of May, 1849, concerning the election of the Deputies to the Second Chamber remains in force.

CXVI. The 2 Supreme Courts of Justice still existing shall be united into one. Their organization will be by a special law. CXVII. Particular regard shall be had in a law concerning the servants of the State, to the claims of State functionaries regularly appointed before the promulgation of the Constitution.

CXVIII. Should alterations of the present Constitution be rendered necessary by the Constitution to be established for the German Federal State on the basis of the Project of the 26th of May, 1849, the King will order them, and submit these ordinances to the Chambers at their next assembly. The Chambers will then resolve whether the alterations provisionally made be in accordance with the Constitution of the German Federal State.

CXIX. The oath of the King, mentioned in Article LIV, as well as the oath prescribed to be taken by both Chambers and by all functionaries of the State, are to be taken immediately after the present revision of this Constitution has been completed by legislative proceeding (Articles LXII and CVIII).

Witness our Royal autograph signature and our seal hereto affixed.

Given at Charlottenburg the 31st of January, 1850. COUNT VON Brandenburg.

FREDERICK WILLIAM.

VON LADENBERG.

VON MANTEUFFEL.

VON STROTHA.

VON DER HEYDT.

VON RABE.

SIMONS.

VON SCHLEINITZ.

SPEECH of the King of Prussia, on taking the Oath to the Constitution.-Berlin, February 5, 1850.

(Translation.)

GENTLEMEN,

I REQUEST your attention. The words I am about to speak are entirely my own, for I appear before you to-day as I never have done before, and never shall do hereafter. I am here, not to exercise the innate and hereditary sacred duties of the royal office (which are exalted high above the opinions and wishes of parties); above all, not sheltered by the responsibility of my highest counsellors, but as myself alone, as a man of honour, who is about to give that which is dearest to him-his word--his yea!-energetically and deliberately. Therefore, a few words previously.

The work, which I am this day about to sanction, began during a year which the loyalty of coming generations will wish with sorrow, but in vain, to wrest from our history. In the form in which it was submitted to you, it was indeed the work of the devoted loyalty of men who have saved this throne; towards whom my gratitude will only be extinguished with my life; but it was in days during which, in the literal sense of the word, the existence of the Fatherland was menaced. It was the work of the moment, and bore the broad stamp of its origin.

It is a legitimate question, how I, with such a reflection, can give my sanction to this work? Yet I will do it because I can; and it is, thanks to you alone, Gentlemen, that I can. You have

laid an improving hand upon it. You have removed objectionable points from it, and have inserted good in it, and by your admirable labours, and by the adoption of my last proposals, you have given me a pledge that you will not, after the sanction, abandon the perfecting work begun before it, and that our united honest endeavours may succeed in rendering it, in the constitutional manner, ever more conformable to the vital acquirements of Prussia. I may sanction this work because I can do it with hope, that I acknowledge with the warmest thanks to you, Gentlemen,—and I say it with joyful emotion, you have deserved the thanks of the Fatherland. And so I declare, God is my witness, that my vow to the Constitution is true, sincere, and without reserve. But the existence and success of the Constitution, as you and all noble hearts in the country feel, depend upon the fulfilment of unavoidable conditions.

You, Gentlemen, must help me, as well as the Diets after you, and the loyalty of my people must help me against those who make use of the freedom royally given, as a cloak for malice, and turn it against its originators, against the authority appointed by God, against those who would wish to consider this document even as a

substitute for God's blessed providence, for our history and for ancient sacred loyalty. All the good energies of the country must unite in the loyalty of subjects and in respect to royalty, and to this throne, which rests upon the victories of our armies, in the observance of the laws, in faithful fulfilment of the oath of allegiance, as well as of the new oath of loyalty and obedience to the King, and of consciencious observance of the Constitution; in a word, the condition. of its (the work's) existence is, that government may be rendered possible to me with this law; for in Prussia the King must govern, and I govern, not because it is my pleasure, God knows it, but because it is God's ordinance; on that account, therefore, I am also determined to govern. A free people under a free King; that has been my watchword for 10 years, that it is to-day, and that it will remain as long as I breathe.

Before I proceed to the act of the day, I will renew before you two vows, that is commanded to me by a view of the 10 years of my government which have elapsed:

1st. I renew, repeat, and confirm, solemnly and expressly, the rows which I took before God and men at the acts of homage at Königsberg and here. Yes, yes, that I will, so help me God.

2ndly. I renew, repeat, and confirm, solemnly and expressly, the sacred vow which I pronounced on the 11th of April, 1847, "With my house to serve the Lord." Yes, yes! that I will, so help me God. That vow stands above all others; it must be contained in every one, and must run through all other vows, like the pure water of life, if they are to be of any value.

Now, however, whilst in virtue of my royal sovereignty, I hereby sanction the Constitution; I vow solemnly, truly and expressly, before God and men, to maintain the Constitution of my country and realm, firmly and inviolably, and to govern in conformity with it and the laws. Yes, yes, that I will, so help me God.

And now I commit the sanctioned law into the hands of God Almighty, whose agency in the history of Prussia can plainly be recognised, in order that, out of this work of man, he may make an instrument for the salvation of our dear fatherland, namely, for giving effect to His holy rights and ordinances. Therefore, so be it

TREATIES, &c. between Great Britain and Native Chiefs and States on the West Coast of Africa, relative to the Slave Trade, Commerce, &c.—February-December, 1850.

(1.)-ENGAGEMENT with the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman.— Signed off Gallinas, February 2, 1850.

ARTHUR FANSHAWE, Esq., Companion of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, Commodore of the First Class, and Commander-in-chief of Her Majesty's ships and vessels on the West Coast of Africa, on the part of Her Majesty the Queen of England, and the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman, and of the neighbourhood. on the part of themselves and of their country, have agreed upon the following Articles and Conditions:

ART. I. The export of slaves to foreign countries is for ever abolished in the territories of the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman. and the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman engage to make and to proclaim a law prohibiting any of their subjects, or any person within their jurisdiction, from selling or assisting in the sale of any slave for transportation to a foreign country; and the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman promise to inflict a severe punishment on any person who shall break this law.

II. No European, or other person whatever, shall be permitted to reside within the territory of the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman, for the purpose of carrying on in any way the Traffic in Slaves; and no houses, or stores, or buildings of any kind whatever, shall be erected for the purpose of Slave Trade, within the territory of the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman; and if any such houses, stores, or buildings, shall at any future time be erected, and the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman shall fail or be unable to destroy them, they may be destroyed by any British officers employed for the suppression of the Slave Trade.

III. If at any time it shall appear that Slave Trade has been carried on, through, or from the territory of the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman, the Slave Trade may be put down by Great Britain by force upon that territory, and British officers may seize the boats of Gallinas and Solyman found anywhere carrying on the Slave Trade: and the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman will be subject to a severe act of displeasure on the part of the Queen of England.

IV. The subjects of the Queen of England may always trade freely with the people of Gallinas and Solyman, in every article they may wish to buy and sell in all the places, and ports, and rivers within the territories of the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman, and throughout the whole of their dominions; and the Chiefs of Gallinas and Solyman pledge themselves to show no favour, and give no privilege to the ships and traders of other countries, which they do not show to those of England.