and of Aleppo, for the next seven years, dating from the day of the promulgation of the order.

On account of the late bad harvests, and consequent suffering for want of food in the Black Sea provinces of the empire, the Sublime Porte has issued a decree, which was communicated April 12, 1873, interdicting the exportation of all kinds of cereals from the districts of Roustehouk and of Vidin for the next three months, beginning from the above date.

As the above regulations may be of interest to some of the citizens of the United States, the Sublime Porte requests that the decrees may be given publicity in our country.

I have, &c.,

GEORGE H. BOKER.

No. 94.]

No. 458.

Mr. Boker to Mr. Fish.

[Extract.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Constantinople, April 15, 1873. (Received May 9.) SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 83, under date of March 28, 1873.

To-day the city was excited by the intelligence that the grand vizier, Essad Pacha, who has held office for just two months, had been superseded by Mehmed-Rushdi Pacha, who until then had been minister of finance. No reasons are assigned for this unexpected change of minis ters, which it would be as difficult to account for as it would be to predict what and how soon will be the next.

It would perhaps be unjust to attribute the many changes which with in a short time have taken place in the government to mere caprice on the part of the Sultan. I, as one who have had unusual opportunities of estimating His Majesty, think too highly of his intelligence to refer his conduct to so slight a cause. I believe that he is seeking among his pachas for one who has the ability and the resolution to carry out a policy already laid down by His Majesty, and that the cumbersome form of Ottoman government, and the traditional abuses which have hardened into customs, almost prevent the possibility of reform or of alteration. No man can be a successful autocrat at second-hand; and he may try long and in vain to find a substitute to perform to his satisfaction duties which he should assume as his own-duties of whose good or ill perform ance he is shrewd enough to judge justly, but from active participation in which he is debarred by his sacred function as caliph. There is no country in Europe where the curse brought upon the government by the union of church and state is so visible as in Turkey, now that the Pope has lost his secular kingdom; for here, as it was in the case of the latter, the union is in a single person, and therefore the vices of the combination are the more evident and unavoidable. Here, too, as formerly at Rome, we see the same kind of weakness, sapping the foundation of the state,

impoverishing the treasury and the credit, degrading and enslaving the people, and finally making the whole system at once ridiculous and odious in the sight of rational governments.

I have, &c.,

GEORGE H. BOKER.

No. 96.1

No. 459.

Mr. Boker to Mr. Fish.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Constantinople, April 19, 1873. (Received May 12.) SIR: I have the honor to say that a protocol has recently been signed between the Sublime Porte and certain European powers, which secures to the province of Tripoli, in Africa, the same judicial privileges which, under the capitulations, have heretofore been enjoyed by the European and the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman empire.

So far the protocol has been signed by the only European powers that have any considerable commercial interests or important consular establishments in Tripoli of Africa, but I understand the other powers will raise no objections should their assent be requested.

I herewith inclose a copy and a translation of the protocol, and I respectfully request instructions from the Department to meet the probable case of my being applied to by the Sublime Porte to sign a similar agreement on the part of the United States.

I have, &c.,

GEORGE H. BOKER.

[Translation.]

PROTOCOL.

The Sublime Porte, having addressed the governments of France, Great Britain, and Italy to express the desire that in the province of Tripoli, of Africa, the competence of the local tribunals, in causes between natives and foreigners of French, English, and Italian extraction, shall be established upon the same basis as in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and Asia, the said governments, after having agreed severally to this wish, have resolved to confirm their consent by a joint act.

The undersigned, having been duly authorized, have agreed in consequence to the following stipulations:

ARTICLE I. The consuls of France, England, and Italy, in Tripoli, of Africa, shall receive precise and formal orders from their governments, so that henceforth all processes and differences between natives and the subjects of France, England, and Italy, in this province, whatever may be the nationality of the defendant, shall be adjudicated according to the terms of the capítulations in force, and in the same manner as the capitulations are applied in the European and the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

ARTICLE II. The Sublime Porte engages to treat the consuls and the subjects of England, France, and Italy at Tripoli, of Africa, in the matter of consular jurisdiction, upon the footing of the most favored nations, and to enable them to participate in the enjoyment of all favors or advantages accorded in this respect to the consuls and the subjects of any other state.

Done at the Sublime Porte the 14th February, 1873.

KHALIL.

HENRY ELLIOT.
M. VOQUÉ.

U. BARBOLANI.

No. 98.

No. 460.

Mr. Boker to Mr. Fish.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Constantinople, April 21, 1873. (Received May 12.) SIR: I have the honor herewith to transmit a copy of the regulations for the organization of the new courts of law proposed to be established in Egypt, as settled by the commission lately in session at Constanti nople, together with a translation of the same.

ARTICLE I. There will be instituted three tribunals of first instance, at Alexandria, at Cairo, and at Zagazig.

ARTICLE II. Each of these tribunals shall be composed of seven judges, four foreigners and three natives. Judgments shall be given by five judges, three foreigners and two natives. One of the foreign judges shall preside, with the title of vice-president, and shall be designated by the absolute majority of the foreign and native members of the tribunals. In commercial affairs the tribunal shall add two mercantile assessors, one native and one foreigner, having a deliberative vote, to be chosen by election.

ARTICLE III. There shall be at Alexandria a court of appeal, composed of eleven judges, four natives and seven foreigners. One of the foreign judges shall preside, with the title of vice-president, and shall be chosen in the same way as the vice-president of the tribunals. The decisions of the court of appeal may be made by eight merchants, five foreigners and three natives.

ARTICLE IV. The number of the judges of the court of appeal and of the tribunals shall be increased, if in the opinion of the court the necessity of the service requires it, without altering the fixed proportion between the native and the foreign judges. Meanwhile, in case of absence or impediment on the part of several judges at once from the court of appeal, or of the same tribunal, the president of the court may sup ply the deficiency; if they are foreigners, by their colleagues from the other tribunals, or by the foreign judges of the court of appeal. When one of the judges of the court shall be so designated to intervene in the audiences of one of the tribunals, he shall have the presidency.

ARTICLE V. The nomination and the choice of the judges will belong to the Egyp tian government, but, in order to be sure of the guarantees which may be presented by the persons whom it may select, it will apply officiously to the ministers of justice abroad, and will engage only those who are furnished by the consent and the authorization of their respective governments.

ARTICLE VI. There shall be in the court of appeal and in every tribunal, a greffier and several sworn assistant greffiers, who may act in the greffier's absence.

ARTICLE VII. There shall be also in each court and tribunal sworn interpreters in sufficient numbers, and the necessary body of officers, who will be charged with the conduct of the trials, of the signification of the writings, and of the execution of the judgments.

ARTICLE VIII. The greffiers, officers, and interpreters will be at first nominated by the government, and as to the greffiers they shall be chosen for the first time abroad, among the ministerial officers who perform or have performed, or among the persons able to perform the same functions abroad.

Section II.-Competence.

ARTICLE IX. These tribunals will judge alone all contentions in civil and commercial matters between natives and foreigners of different nationality, as well as all questions of real estates between any person, even if they belong to the same nationality.

ARTICLE X. The government, the administrations, the dairas of His Highness the Khedive, and the members of his family, will be triable before these tribunals in processes with foreign subjects.

ARTICLE XI. These tribunals, without being able to decide on the property of the public dominions, or interpret, nor hinder the execution of an administrative measure, may judge, in the cases provided by the civil law, the prejudices which are caused to the rights of a foreigner by any administrative act.

ARTICLE XII. There shall not be submitted to these tribunals the demands of foreigners against religious establishments regarding claims of real estate possessed by these establishments; but they shall be competent to judge on claims made on the question of legal possession, no matter who the claimant or the defendant may be.

ARTICLE XIII. The sole fact that the real estate has been given as security for debt to a foreigner shall empower these tribunals to decide on all the consequences of the hypothecation existing, so far and including the forced sale of the property and the distribution of the prices.

ARTICLE XIV. The tribunals shall delegate one of the judges, who, acting as a judge of peace, shall endeavor to conciliate parties, and to decide on affairs of such importance as may be fixed by the law of procedure.

Section III.-Audiences.

ARTICLE XV. The trials shall be public, except cases in which the tribunal, by a decision explaining the reasons, shall order the huis-clos in the interests of morality and public order, the defense shall be free.

ARTICLE XVI. The judiciary languages employed before the tribunals for the pleadings, and of the acts and the sentences, shall be the languages of the country, the Italian and the French.

ARTICLE XVII. Only persons having the diploma of lawyer will be admitted to defend the parties before the court of appeals.

Section IV-Execution of judgments.

ARTICLE XVIII.—The execution of judgments shall take place without any administrative, consular, or other action, and on the order of the tribunal. It shall be effected by the officers of the tribunals, with the assistance of the local authority, if this assistance becomes necessary; but always without any administrative interference.

But the officer of justice charged with the execution of sentences by the tribunals shall be obliged to inform the consulate of the day and hour of the execution, and that under pain of the annulling of the execution and damages against the officers.

The consul so informed may be present at the execution, but in case of his absence the execution will proceed.

Section V.—Irremovability of the judges.—Promotion.—Incompatibility.—Discipline. ARTICLE XIX. The magistrates who will compose the court of appeal and the tribunals shall not be removable. This non-removability shall last only during five years. Magistrates shall not be definitively admitted until the term of probation is passed. ARTICLE XX. The promotion of the magistrates, on their passage from one tribunal to another, shall take place only by their consent, and on the proposal of the court of appeal, which will take the advice of the interested tribunals.

ARTICLE XXI. The functions of magistrates, greffiers, assistant greffiers, interpreters, and officers shall be incompatible with any other salaried office and with the business of the merchant.

ARTICLE XXII. The magistrates shall receive no honorary or material distinction from the Egyptian government.

ARTICLE XXIII. All the judges of the same category shall receive the same salary. The acceptance of any remuneration besides their salary, of an increase of salaries, valuable gifts, or of any other material advantages, will involve for the judges the forfeiture of the employment and of the salary, without any right to indemnity.

ARTICLE XXIV. The discipline of the magistrates, officers of justice, and the lawyers is reserved to the court of appeals. The disciplinary penalty applicable to the magistrates for facts compromising their honesty as magistrates, or the independence of their vote, shall be the revocation and the loss of their salary, without any right to indemnity.

The penalty applicable to the lawyers compromising their honesty shall be the exclusion from the list of lawyers admitted to plead before the court, and the judgment shall be given by the court in general meeting by a majority of the three-quarters of the judges.

ARTICLE XXV. Any complaint presented to the government by one of the members of the consular body against the judges for disciplinary reasons shall be referred to the court, which will be bound to examine the question.

CHAPTER II.

Section VI.-Parquet, (bar.)

ARTICLE XXVI.-A parquet shall be instituted, at the head of which shall be an attorney-general.

ARTICLE XXVII. The attorney-general shall have under his direction, at the court of appeals and at the tribunals, substitutes in sufficient number for the conduct of trials and the judiciary police.

ARTICLE XXVIII. The attorney-general will be permitted to be present at all the sessions of the court and the tribunals, at all the criminal courts, and at all the general assemblies of the courts and the tribunals.

ARTICLE XXIX. The attorney-general and his substitutes will be removable and they shall be appointed by His Highness the Khedive.

Section VI.—Special and transitory dispositions.

ARTICLE XXX. The right of peremptory challenge of the magistrates and of the interpreters and the written translations shall be reserved for all the parties. ARTICLE XXXI. There will be in every record-office of the tribunal of first instance a clerk of the mehkemé, (Turkish court,) who will assist the greffier in the conveyancy acts of real estate, and of the creation of rights and privileges concerning real estate, and he will draw up the act and transmit it to the mehkemé.

ARTICLE XXXII. There will be also at the mehkeme clerks delegated by the greffier of the tribunal of first instance, who shall transmit to him, in order to be recorded in the office of the recorder of mortgages, the acts of conveyance of real property, and of the creation of mortgage upon real estate. These transmissions shall be made under the penalty of damages and interest, and of disciplinary prosecution. The omission shall not involve nullity.

ARTICLE XXXIII. The conventions, donations, and the acts constituting mortgage or conveyance of real property received by the greffier of the tribunal of first instance will be considered authentic acts, and their original shall be deposited in the archives of the record-office.

ARTICLE XXXIV. The new tribunals in the exercise of their jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters, and in the limits conceded to them in penal matters, shall apply to laws presented by Egypt to the powers; and in case of silence, insufficiency, and obscurity of the law, the judge shall conform to the principles of natural rights and to the rights of equity.

ARTICLE XXXV. The government will cause the laws to be published a month before the new tribunals assemble, an example of which, in each of the judicial languages, shall be deposited in each mudirich, at every consulate, and at each record-office of the court of appeals, and of the tribunals, which will always keep a copy of them.

ARTICLE XXXVI. It will likewise publish the law relating to the personal statutes of the natives, a tariff of the judicial fees, the regulation as to land-dikes and canals. ARTICLE XXXVII. The court will propose the general judicial regulations as to the police of the trials, the discipline of the tribunals, of the officers of justice, of the lawyers, and the duties of the attorneys representing the parties at the trials, the admission of indigent persons to the judiciary assistance-office, the exercise of the right of peremptory challenge and the manner of proceeding in case of equal division inthe judgments of the court of appeals. The projet of regulations so prepared shall be trans mitted to the tribunals of first instance for their observations, and after a new deliberation which shall be final, shall be put in execution by decree of the minister of justice.

ARTICLE XXXVIII. The tribunals in civil and commercial matters shall not have cognizance of mixed cases until one month after their establishment.

ARTICLE XXXIX. The foreign consulate shall finally decide the cases already commenced before them at the establishment of the tribunals. Nevertheless, at the request of the parties and with the consent of all the interested parties, they can be referred to the new tribunals.

TITLE II.

Jurisdiction in penal matters in what concerns foreigners accused.

CHAPTER I.

Tribunals of offenses of correctional police and court of assizes.

Section I.-Composition.

ARTICLE I. The judge of the offenses charged against foreigners shall be one of the foreign members of the tribunals.

ARTICLE II. The court for the trial of offenses, as well as of criminal matters, shall be composed of three judges, one native and two foreigners, and of four foreign asse

sors.