The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-12 00:00:00

iseourse at the solemn opening of the present General Cortes
of the Kingdom, of making provision for the expense of the
War without having recourse to new loans, or to an Increase of
taxes, united to the extraordinary sacrifice of their fe;',,ones,
made by all classes of the State, in favour of honourt..ble
cause which now obliges us to retain our arms. most powerfully
excite me to employ my seal in promotiog the receipts of the
revenue. and of the ordinary taxes, for the purpose of making
, head against the urgent wants that surround us.
On examining its state, I with pain observe the disastrous
effects produced among the fruitful sources by the contraband
favoured by the fatality of the economical laws, as well as by
circumstances, and this has induced me to call the attention of
your Majesty thereunto, in order to arrest their progress.
" Far from me be the idea of obtaining that end by fruitless
prohibitions, by dire penalties, by violent judicial proceedings,
or by minute formulas, which, without enriching the Treasury
or fomenting industry, attack the rights of citizens, and injure
that commerce which they ought to protect. The high-minded
intelligence of your Majesty and my principles regret such
measures, which, if unfortunately they were once considered
Worthy of high attention, the knowledge and experience of the
present age have condemned to oblivion.
" Smuggling is, in my eyes, a crime arising rather from the
imperfection of the laws than from the perversity of the human
heart. While the interests of the finance attack the individual,
the sovereign authority will find itself tricked in the realization
of its projects of revenue. The profit of the gain is more
more powerful than the force of the laws. A well understood
regulation in the prices of the articles over which the public
revenue exercises a monopoly, will be capable of stopping
those who compete in merchandise with it; and a tariff ar-
ranged with correct information will also deprive the defrauders
of the duties which are demanded in the Custom-houses. This
is an undertaking which demands extensive mercantile and
reouomic experience, and which, as the meritorious and well-
informed members of the tariff committee, have it now under
their care, I flatter myself will be speedily brought into effect
in such a manner as to 'reconcile the interests of cor.v.;inerce
with those of the Treasury.
" But in the interval which may occur before my hopta on
this subject may be realized, shall we permit smuggling to
continue without making any attempt to arrest its progress ? If
we could procure a maritime coasting guard_ sufficiently strong
to watch and cover our shores, perhaps we should be able to
restrain the fraud, without giving trouble to commerce. But,
as we are in want of this resourr,e, it strikes me that we may
be able to make arrangemer'„s to supply that want, by availing
ourselves of the co-opera%.ron of the Consuls resident in fo-
reign countries.

" Years have elP.psed since orders were issued that all goods
coming from foreign countries to our ports should be accom-
panied with e'ertificates from our Consuls to authenticate their
origin, a 'formality which, if it augmented the emoluments
of those, employes, did not produce results favourable to the
finane e.
" With these results in view, and taking into consideration
the conduct observed by other nations, I have thought that
the object which I thus propose to myself may be gained by
organizing an immediate communication between the finance
and those Consuls in such a manner as, without throwing any
fresh obstacles in the way of commerce, will serve as a gua-
rantee to good faith against the artifices of the fraudulent.
" My idea, Madam, is first, simply, instead of demanding
from the importers the certificates of the Consul, that they
shall produce to him a manifest stating the bales, cases, and
other things which they propose to take to Spain, to which
the Consul shall affix his signature, taking at the same time an
account thereof, and returning it afterwards to the intended
importer, in order that it may be presented at the proper Cus-
tom-house ; and, secondly, to require that the Consul shall
remit with speed and exactitude notes of those manifests to
the administrators of the Custorn-houses and to the Minister
of Finance, in order to serve as a proof of whatever may be
lawfully admitted—all conformity to the tenour of what
is proposed in the P':oject of the Decree, of which I annex
a minute, to see it should meet the approbation of your
Majesty.
" There is ri.o obligation imposed on those who remit these
articles to sp.ecify their value, because this proceeding would
be troublesome, and because it is very easy for the Consuls to
declare ;:c by the quotations from the price lists published on
the Foreign Exchange.
" By this means we shall put obstacles in the way of fraud,
elk! the Government of your Majesty will succeed in obtaining
data and information of much more exactness than it now pos-
sesses, in order to form a commercial statistic, which is so use-
ful for giving a correct aim to the laws and regulations of
finance, and to promote the improvements of national in-
dustry.
" Your Majesty will decide, as always, what is best suited.
"JUAN ALVAREZ Y MENDIZABAL.
" Madrid, Nov- 28, 1835."

"ROYAL DECREE.
Boir.g convinced by the reasons which you have mani-
fested to me that the progress of smuggling by the sea fron-
tiers
will, without throwing any difficulties in the way of corn-
Mrcree, which it is my desire to protect, be restrained by sub-
lecting to simple regulations the expedition of the certificates
of the origin of foreign articles on their introduction into the
Peninsula, which are issued by the Consuls of Spain resident
in foreign countries, and agreeing with what you have in this
respect proposed to me, I have resolved, in the name of my
august daughter, the Queen Isabel H., to decree as follows :
" All foreign goods and articles which are brought into the
Custom-houses, on the coast of the sea of the Peninsula and
the adjacent islands shall be required to come accompanied
with a manifesto.

"2. In these special manifestos shall be expressed the mark
and number of each bale or parcel, specifying in letters, and
not in figures, the quantity, quality, or weight of the Merchan-
dise or effects contained in each of them.

•••• ••••• Y.. 4 •.4 4.11,
"3. Those who remit those articles—the brokers or ship-
Pers—shall present the said manifestoes to the Consuls or
Vice-Consuls of Her Majesty in foreign countries, who are to
examine them, and to affix at the bottom thereof their certi-
ficates of having done so.
"4. The Consuls or Vice-Consuls shall form a general
statement of all the particular manifestoes which they shall
have certified as belonging to the cargo of each vessel, and
having closed and sealed them, shall remit them by the
hands of the captain of the said vessel to the administrator
of the Custom-house of the port to which the ship is bound.
" 5. If the captain of a ship which sails for a Spanish port
shall, either of his own accord, or from force, enter a foreign
port and sell part of his cargo, he shall present a manifest or
deelaraticin of the part which he shall have discharged to the
Consul, who shall give him a certificate thereof. In the same
'tanner when a ship shall go to complete her cargo in any
foreign port, those who puts goods on board, me, the captain,
shall perform the same duty with the Consul as he had done
in the port from which he had first sailed.
"6. When a ship shall not have completed discharging her
goods in a Spanish port, being required to convey part thereof
to another Spanish port, the administrator of the Custom-
Louse, shall facilitate for the captain documents to prove what
has been discharged.
" 7. All bales, cases, and whatever may be found in the
"'Ps not included in the statement of the Consul, shall be
eonfiscated.

" 8. When there shall be wanting any bales or part thereof,
as comprised in the statement of the Consul, the penalty
shall be imposed which is marked down in the existing regu-
lations, and which shall be carried into effect until after the
reform of the penal law, on which a special commission is now
engaged.
" 9. The Consuls or Vice-Consuls shall remit monthly to
the Consul-General under whose superintendence they are,
and where there is none direct to the Minister, a statement of.
the -manifests which they shall have certified during that pe-
riod. In o4ter that the Consuls, or Vice- Consuls, may be
certain that the ships do not convey more cargo than was
stated before them, they will consult the lists and commeicial
Papers published in the ports of their residence, and make o n
their Contents appropriate observations and comparisons, in
order that all may punctually reach the knowledge of the Go-
vernment.
" 10. The Consuls-General shall form a statement of all
the particular statements which shall have been remitted to
them by the Consuls and Vice-Consuls under their superin-
tendence, and shall address them with all possible speed to the
Government.
" 11. The Consuls-General shall draw up ry six months a
resume of the monthly statements, and shall also remit them to
the Government ; that of the last six months of the year shall
Comprise that of the preceding half-year.
" 12. In the monthly statements which the Consuls shall
remit of the entry and departure of ships belonging to the
e..ernmere'd.of Spain, they shall not forget to give an account of
Those that have started in ballast fn. the Peninsula.
" 13. The Consul or Vice-Consul shall receive one dollar
'°r each certificate which he may issue.
" 14. At the end of each year the Consuls are to send a
Memorial to the Government, and which is to contain not only
e statement of the actual commerce of the ports under their
;,superintendence in Spain, but also such observations as may ap-
' Pear to them conducive towards encouraging it.
" 15. These regulations shall also have their due effect in
_Pespeet to all ships sailing From ports situated within the Penin-
sula, and from the adjacent ones, from Bayonne to Marseilles
Inclusive, and from Port Vendres, and as far as Marseilles also
inelusiVe, one month after the publication of this order ; for
all ships coming from the other ports of France and Italy six
necks after its publiv.;tion ; for all ships coming from England
th;vo months ,• for all other ports of Europe ten weeks ; and for
ose from America fcurmonths.
( Signed with the Royal Signature.)
"JUAN ALVAREZ Y MENDIZABAL.
14
At the Prado, Nov. 28, 1835.
The following address to the Queen Regent is also remark-
tble, inasmuch as it is a prelude to a decree which professes
nlao
`4Y the foundation for the improvement of the Spanish
Madam,—The defeats suffered by our fleet in the wars
Yith Great Britain anterior to the Freatch invasion, and the
;incessant arrival of disasters which since that unlucky period
4" been heaped upon our country, have diminished sue-
r'ssively the Spanish marine, and reduced it to such a state of
wness and destitution, that all the zeal of the Government,
and. all the power of the nation are really requisite in order to
iraise it from its ruins. That calamity is so notorious, and
4as been here so energetically described by a deserving Mi-
dster, at the opening of the late Cortes, that I shall not
lay in drawing a new sketch of it, to sadden, with painful
recollections, the maternal heart of your Majesty. The
nullity to which the navy has been reduced by the old mistakes
fin; the administration, and the misfortunes common to the
reached to such a height, that the Government perhaps
tl'ghted this most important force of the state, and the people
:(Accl upon it as a dead ember, which it was best to abandon
,litteless. Thus, the first mistakes and the misfortunes con.
jecluent thereon arc propagated and perpetuated by engender-
rig new errors. •
" If Spain could forget the never-fading glory received by