No. 5. Tabular statement showing the exportations of wool and tallow from the port of Odessa for the year ended December 31, 1862. Tabular statement showing the number and nationality of sailing vessels and steamers employed in the export trade of Odessa for the year ended December In 1861, number of sailing vessels 973; number of steamers 171; total, 1,144 Decrease in 1862 of 193. H. Ex. Doc. 41- -22 No. 7. Comparative tabular statement showing the movements of grain at the port of Odessa for the year ended December 31, 1862, with the totals of the year In answer to the circular from the Department of State, No. 29, on the subject of consular authority to administer oaths in Russia, I respectfully submit a copy of my letter to the new governor general, Kotsebue, and a copy of his reply. I also enclose a translation of the same correspondence. From this it appears that false swearing under oath administered by consuls does not constitute the crime of perjury in the sight of Russian laws, and that consuls are not recognized in this country as having authority to administer oaths. I shall, therefore, comply with the instructions of the circular before mentioned, requiring oaths to be taken hereafter before a legal authority of the country. No. 59.] UNITED STATES CONSULATE, MR. GOVERNOR GENERAL: Presenting my respects to your excellency in this first official communication, I beg you to do me the honor of giving definitive answers to the following questions: First. Is the consul of the United States (or of other countries) recognized by the laws of Russia as having authority to administer oaths? Second. Does false swearing before a consul constitute, in accordance with the Russian law, the crime of perjury? Third. Persons who have sworn falsely, after having taken oath before a consul, (whether they be subjects of Russia or foreigners,) can they be succesfully prosecuted for the crime of perjury under the aforesaid Russian laws? I improve this opportunity to assure your excellency of my high considera tion. TIMOTHY C. SMITH, SUPERIOR ADMINISTRATION OF NEW RUSSIA AND BESSARABIA. No. 52.-Odessa.] DIPLOMATIC BUREAU, Mr. Consul of the United States of America, at Odessa: In answer to the favor which you have had the kindness to address to me, dated 5th-17th January (February) last, under No. 59, I have the honor to inform you, in advance, before referring the matter to the imperial minister of foreign affairs, that by the general tenor of the Russian law the power of administering oaths in Russia for Russian subjects is limited exclusively to the authorities of the country. This principle established, it remains for me only to add, in answering your other two question concerning the character of a false oath taken before a consul, and the process to be instituted according to Russian law, that it does not interfere with the proceedings of foreigners, with their respective consuls, so long as there is no infringement of it, and that it pursues for perjuries only when committed before the authorities of the country. The Governor General, Aide-de-camp General, MARCH 25, 1863. I enclose herewith a statement exhibiting the commerce of Taganrog during the year 1862. From this statement it appears that 1,042 vessels of different nations have visited that port during the year; that they have brought imports to the amount of 3,660,420 roubles, and have taken away exports to the value of 19,398,465 roubles. Taganrog may be considered, I think, after Odessa, the most important port in the south of Russia. The growing commerce and opening communication by way of the Don and the Volga with the Caspian provinces and the western and central regions of Asia will make it in a few years still more important on account of its situation at the limit of river navigation on the one hand, and at the beginning of sea navigation on the other. I think, moreover, that the natural impulse which free labor gives to the growth and business and industry of all cities will, in a few years, be manifest in Taganrog, as well as in the other cities and towns of Russia. I enclose also a rude plan of the present harbor of Odessa and the proposed improvements. The work of paving the streets is beginning. The contract for gas-lighting the city is yet open to all bidders. Projects for bringing the water of the Dneister into the town are debated, but are not yet matured. I would give something of an idea of what serfdom has done, and would be likely to always do, for Russia, if continued, were I to write that nine-tenths, if not nineteen-twentieths, of all the water for drinking, for washing, for the use of the fire-engines, and for all other purposes, is still brought into this city in barrels or hogsheads, by watermen with horse-carts, day after day, and taken to every house at so much per month, (according to the quantity used,) averaging, perhaps, three to five roubles per month for each family. Cistern water, a luxury that all might enjoy, at present only a few understand. APRIL 19, 1863. I have to inform you that the contracts for the construction of a railway from Odessa to Kiro, on the river Dnieper, by way of Kryjöpol, with a branch road to the river Dniester, through Tirappol, have been confirmed. The work on the railway must begin within one year, and be completed, the first half, by the year 1868, and the second half by the year 1870. The government guarantees to the company five per cent. net revenue during the term of their privilege-eighty-five years. The estimated cost of the road is fifty-five millions of roubles, or eighty-five thousand roubles for each verst, the distance being 647 versts. The work of paving the streets of Odessa with granite parallelopiped blocks has begun, and is to be finished by the year 1870. The contract is for three millions of roubles. The commercial world still complains of dulness and inactivity in business. No American vessels have visited this port during the past quarter, and the number of vessels of other nations which have arrived here has been, compared with other years, small during the same time. MAY 12, 1863. In my despatch No. 3, dated March 7, 1863, I enclose copies of a correspondence with the governor general relative to consular authority in Russia to administer oaths. In that correspondence it was decided, in general terms, that consuls have not authority to administer oaths in Russia, and that false swearing before consuls does not constitute the crime of perjury. I have now received another letter from the governor general, in continuation of the same subject, by which the decision before mentioned is modified, so far as American citizens are concerned, in cases of litigation arising from disputes between the captains and crews of American vessels. In such cases consuls of the United States are decided to have authority to administer oaths, and false swearing, in such cases, under oath taken before their consul constitutes a crime which can be prosecuted for, and punished under the laws of Russia, but only at the special request of the consul himself. I enclose a copy of the letter alluded to and a translation. I enclose also a copy of a translation from the "Odessa Journal" of a government document establishing the duties on sugar at two and a half roubles, and at four and a half roubles the pood, and taking off the prohibition to entry from crushed or pounded sugar, and sugar in lumps, which has heretofore existed, and making the placing banderoles on loaves of Bugar imported henceforth unnecessary. GENERAL GOVERN No. 205.] VERNMENT OF NEW RUSSIA AND BESSARABIA. DIPLOMATIC BUREAU, Odessa, April 28, 1863. To the Consul of the United States of America: SIR: In continuation of my note of February 15 and 27 of the present year, under No. 52, I have the honor to inform you, in answer to your communication of the 5th-17th of the same month, No. 59, that the imperial government, confirming the opinion expressed in my aforementioned note, finds that 1st. "Regarding your question, whether the consul of the United States is recognized by the Russian laws as having authority to administer oaths." The consul of the United States of America, in virtue of article VIII of the treaty of 6th-18th of December, 1832, concluded between Russia and the United States, has the right of constituting himself judge and mediator in every kind of litigation between captains and crews of ships of his government; consequently, the Russian law recognizes in the consul of the United States, as well as in the consuls of the other nations who have concluded declarations and treaties of commerce and of navigation with Russia, containing the clause conformably to article VIII above mentioned of the treaty of 6th-18th December, 1832, the right in these cases to administer oaths exclusively to their countrymen. 2d. For the question "whether, according to the Russian laws, false swearing before a consul constitutes the crime of perjury?" If the consul of the United States is recognized, in the cases given, as judge, that is to say, having the right to administer oaths to his countrymen, a false oath taken before a consul by one of his countrymen, in litigations aforesaid, must be considered according to our laws as a crime. 3d. For the question, finally, "whether individuals, Russian subjects or foreigners, who have sworn falsely, having taken oaths before a consul, can be prosecuted for the crime of perjury according to the Russian laws." Russian subjects can take oaths only before their local authorities, but a citizen of the United States of America having taken, in the cases mentioned above in an inquiry, a false oath before his consul, can be prosecuted under the Russian laws as having committed a crime within the limits of the empire, but only after a formal request of the consul himself. The Governor General, Aide-de-camp General, Consul of State Actual, Diplomatic Agent, The 14th of the month (April, 1863,) his Majesty the Emperor has deigned to sanction a decision of the council of the empire, of which this is the enacting clause : 1st. For commerce by the European frontiers, the duty of entry upon unrefined sugar imported by way of the land is fixed at 2 roubles 50 kopecks the pood, and the duty of entry upon refined sugar imported by sea at 4 roubles 50 kopecks per pood. In consequence of these arrangements, that one established in 1862 is and remains abolished, according to which these kinds of sugar imported by railway for paying the duties at the custom-houses at ports, and at |