IX. In favour of the latter Creditors, the Office of Liquidation shall issue a Certificate, testifying the production of their Documents; which Certificate, in addition to other uses hereafter to be mentioned, shall serve as a temporary Voucher until the Claims shall be liquidated.

X. The interest due on the Debts shall be punctually paid, halfyearly, on the 1st of July and the 1st of January, out of the proceeds arising from property set apart for that purpose, and described in Statement No. 3; and out of such as may be hereafter appointed, commencing from July, 1821.

XI. The capitals of the Debt not bearing interest shall be extin guished out of the proceeds of the property and funds described in Statement No. 4, and out of such as may hereafter be appointed for that purpose; which shall be disposed of by public auction; any other mode of liquidation, especially that of cash payments, being excluded. XII. The payment of the proceeds of these Sales shall be made in equal portions, at three different periods; the first immediately upon the Sale being concluded; the second at the expiration of 1 year, and the third at the end of 2 Years. Preference shall be given to those Bidders who offer shorter dates and better conditions; but more especially to those who propose to pay in cash. The sales on Credit shall be immediately completed, the necessary Deeds of sale made out, and the purchasers put in possession of the estates; the latter binding themselves to pay to the Department of Public Credit, 2 per cent. annually, on the amount agreed upon and remaining to be paid, and giving security for the capital and interest until they shall be liquidated.

XIII. The Owners of Bonds bearing interest, who may wish to extinguish them in this manner, shall be allowed so to do, and to decide, previously to the 1st of July, 1821, whether they will have their Debts consolidated, or transferred to the Debt bearing no interest.

XIV. Those who make choice of the former, shall be inscribed on the Great Book of the Consolidated Debt, which the National Junta is to open, and shall receive, instead of the Documents they may possess, equivalents, which shall be entitled "Inscriptions of the Consolidated Debt," which Inscriptions shall be of 4 classes: viz.-of 2,000, 6,000, 10,000, and 20,000 reals each.

XV. In order that the Holders of Government Bonds may be left at full liberty to act as they think proper, with regard to the terms of the 2 preceding Articles, all the existing Bonds of the ordinary class shall be restored to them; the interest of the unconsolidated Debts shall be paid in paper, from the time they were placed on that footing in 1818, and the consolidated Debts in specie.

XVI. From the 3 preceding Articles are excepted, Annuities terminating with the lives of the present Possessors, and Debts connected with property in mortmain, or of which the capital is not disposable, but not property belonging to private Individuals, or rents arising therefrom.

XVII. In the liquidation and issue of the new Documents, great attention must be paid to the following points,

1. The Debt of capitals and interest belonging to the Town Lands and Granaries of the Monarchy, shall be retained, and incorporated with the bulk of the national property.

2. All the landed property, rights, rents, and shares of pious endowments, now vacant, or which may hereafter become so, and which are not entailed on any family, as well as all hermitages, sanctuaries, co-fraternities, brotherhoods, memorials, or foundations (not converted into Church Property, or appropriated to ministers of the altar,) as well as all other pious Establishments, (except hospitals, houses for foundlings and orphans, infirmaries, houses for education, or such as may belong to private families and individuals, or are appointed as dowries for spinsters,) shall, from the present time, be applicable to the extinction of the Public Debt; and the National Junta of Public Credit shall take possession of and sell the same, administering them till sold, and paying, in the mean time, the necessary expenses; but no compulsory process shall be instituted against farmers, miners, and other persons, in the Ultra-marine Provinces, for the Capitals they may have borrowed of Charitable Institutions and Convents, upon irregular securities, and at a certain Annual Interest, so long as that Interest shall be punctually paid.

3. The proceeds from the sale of property belonging to the abovementioned Establishments, and the Interest that may be due, (minus what is owing to the Chaplains,) together with the monastic property, shall therefore be retained and amortized.

4. The Junta shall present to the Cortes, in the Legislature of next March, a full and explanatory Statement of all that concerns this large portion of the National Debt.

5. The National Bank of San Carlos, the Philippine Company, and the 5 privileged Trading Companies, called Gremios, shall receive the equivalent of their Claims in Bonds, the distribution of which, by the two former Bodies, among their Shareholders, and, by the latter, amongst the Holders of Stock, will enable the Parties to inscribe their respective amounts, either on the consolidated Debt, or on that not bearing interest, conformably to the regulations prescribed in Articles XI and XII.

XVIII. The Decree and Royal Orders prohibiting the agio on Government Bonds, and Paper Money, are hereby revoked and annulled, and all Bills shall freely circulate at the rate of exchange and value which circumstances may assign to them; and bargains and contracts of every kind shall be subject to such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon between the Parties concerned.

XIX. Certificates attesting that the Documents in proof of Claims have been produced, within the prescribed period, at the Office of liquidation, shall be received in the purchase of National property; with

this proviso, that the Contract shall not be closed until the said Certificates have been presented in payment, after the due liquidation and recognition of the Documents referred to in them; for which purpose they shall, in every case, be liquidated in preference to all others, any loss being guaranteed by the Claimant.

XX. A Sinking Fund for the gradual reduction of the Consolidated Debt, shall be formed out of the following means:

1. The annual surplus of the produce of the appropriations already made, or intended to be made, for the payment of the interest of the Consolidated Debt; the same being applied, by means of a Lottery, to the paying off of such a number of inscriptions, to be drawn by lot, as shall be equal to the said surplus.

2. The national edifices, and property which cannot be readily and advantageously disposed of by public auction, shall be put up to raffle; the whole amount of the Subscriptions, which are to be in Consolidated Stock, being equal to the value of the objects to be raffled

for.

3. Reserved Annuities, glebe-rents, ground-rents, masses, and pensions, as well as all perpetual or temporary charges, which, by virtue of the reform of the Regular Orders, have become National or public Property, the hereditary possessions of the Crown, the property of the Inquisition, fund for the redemption of Captives, temporalities of the Jesuits, pious Institutions, Sanctuaries, Memorials, and Foundations, and property and incomes held in private right, the proceeds of which may have been already applied, or may be hereafter applied! to the payment of the Public Debt, shall be redeemable in Consolidated Stock.

4. The Capital of the Revenue known by the name of Regalia de Aposento on the houses of Madrid, shall be redeemable in like manner.

5. It shall also be allowed to redeem in Consolidated Stock, the Taxes known by the name of Poblacion de Grenada and Cánones, paid by the inhabitants of the Sierra Morena, and the new Settlements in Andalusia.

6. To this Sinking Fund shall also be applied, all Debts due to the Treasury for lanzas and medias anatas up to the end of 1819, which the parties may pay, in Consolidated Stock, from the present time until January, 1822; after the expiration of which period Cash-payments only will be received.

7. Consolidated Stock shall be received from Towns, in payment of arrears up to 1819; after the other measures of the Cortes, for discharging them, shall have been carried into effect.

XXI. The redemption of charges of a temporary character, or redeemable at the option of the Parties upon whom they are imposed, shall be effected at the rate of 33 per 1000; and at the rate of 663, for the foros, land-tax, or other charge that may be perpetual, either by its own nature, or by the stipulations of the Contract; and the

capitals of both shall be paid over in Consolidated Stock, to the National Junta of Public Credit, and become extinguished.

XXII. The National Junta of Public Credit shall be entrusted with the execution of this Decree, and of all others having for object the extinction of the Public Debt, the payment of the progressive interest, and the establishment of the National Credit; two Counsellors shall also be named by them, to be consulted on such legal doubts as may arise in the disposal of the National Property, or in the redemption of charges and imposts.

XXIII. The independence of this Junta, with regard to the manage. ment of public property, shall not prevent it from being, as it will be, under the inspection and supreme vigilance of the Government; through whose medium all communications must be made to the Cortes, and to whose authority it belongs, to nominate Candidates for the Office of Directors, and to forward the recommendations for Accountants General, which latter offices are to be created by the Junta, and filled up by the Cortes.

XXIV. The Junta shall present to the Cortes, in the first Legislative Session, a plan for the administration of the affairs entrusted to them ;-for the establishment of the Offices in the Capital and Provinces, the appointment of the Clerks, and the Salaries to be assigned to them; in order that a system may be established, which, while it ensures the proper execution and despatch of Public Business, shall, at the same time, prescribe that attention to economy which the situation of the Monarchy imperiously demands.

XXV. The Government, and the Junta of Public Credit, respectively, and with the approbation of the Cortes in matters not within their province, shall take all the necessary measures for the early liquidation and acknowledgment of the Debt of the Ultra-marine Provinces, and for the administration and sale of the property which, in virtue of the present Decree, is applicable in those Countries, as well as in the Peninsula, to the extinction of the Debt; informing the Cortes, in the next Legislative Session, of the most advisable plan to be adopted with regard to payments in specie for property sold in those Countries, and of whatever else may be expedient on this subject.

XXVI. In order that the plan of Public Credit may be carried into effect in the Ultra-marine Provinces, 2 Subaltern Juntas shall be established,-one in Mexico for the whole of North America, and the Islands adjacent, and the other in Lima, for the Southern Division; each composed of 3 Persons, with their necessary Offices, so that they may act in their respective Districts, in the same manner, and under the same Regulations, as the National Junta in the Peninsula.

XXVII. Those Subaltern Juntas shall be dependent on the National Junta, shall correspond with it, and be held answerable to it, for the observance and execution of the orders given for the incorporation and sale of property applicable to the National Credit, under the same rules as in the Peninsula; and they shall forward to it, annually,

their Accounts and Statements, in the mode and form which the Na

tional Junta shall prescribe.

Madrid, 9th November, 1820.

JOSEF MARIA CALATRAVA, President. MARCIAL ANTONIO LOPEZ, Deputy, Secretary. MIGUEL CORTES, Deputy, Secretary.

(No. 1.)-Public Debt of Spain, bearing Interest.

ITEMS.

INTEREST. 17,999,905. Perpetual Annuities

6,608,327. Alcabalas; 4 per Cents. and Ordinary Service abolished..............

5,023,036. Compensations for Offices abolished Portion of the Infant Don Pedro

CAPITALS. 1,260,521,565

224,507,286

....

250,000,000

30,000,000

180,223,602

1,525,686,964

937,500. 2,750,311. Debts and Pensions of Philip V....... 61,027,478. Royal Bonds......... 50,131,056. Property of Pious Foundations and Establishments, and Entailed Estates .... 1,671,035,232

17,144,000. Foreign Loans...

... .....

291,750,000

24,393,109. National Bank, the 5 Gremios, Philippine Company, and Canal of Tauste

502,451,539

235,966,639 Reals

Reals...... 6,814,780,363

(No. 2.)—Amount of Debt, not bearing Interest, arising out of Interest unpaid, and Floating Debt of the Treasury.

3,834,161,825

35,000,000

900,000,000

Royal Bonds

.....

Consolidated Inscriptions......

Arrears of the Treasury up to the Year 1815.......

Floating Debt of the Treasury.

Total Debt not bearing Interest.... Reals... 7,205,792,028

NOTE. Neither in this, nor in the preceding List, are included the Arrears of the Debt due to Holland, the Government and the Cortes being yet undecided as to the means of discharging them, conformably to the recommendation of the latter.