DISCOURS du Prince Régnant, à l'Ouverture de l'Assemblée Législative de la Roumanie.—Bucarest, le 29 Novembre, 1860.

MESSIEURS LES Deputes,

A L'OCCASION du voyage que j'ai fait à Constantinople, j'ai acquis la conviction que, plus que jamais, la Roumanie peut compter sur les sympathies de la Sublime Porte et des Puissances garantes.

Soyons énergiques, fortifions notre pays, inspirons de la confiance à l'Europe et l'avenir, même un avenir prochain, se chargera de la réalisation de tous nos vœux et de nos besoins légitimes.

Dans le court intervalle depuis la clôture de votre dernière session, mon Gouvernement a mis à exécution la plupart des lois votées par l'Assemblée et sanctionnées par nous.

Nous sommes dans la première année de notre réorganisation intérieure et nous avons eu des difficultés multiples à surmonter; j'espère que vous tiendrez compte à mon Gouvernement de ces difficultés dont la plus grande a été celle d'initier le pays à un système de contributions basé sur le principe de l'égalité.

Messieurs les Députés! Une série de projets élaborés par la Commission Centrale sont prêts à vous être présentés; quelques-uns d'entre eux vous ont déjà été envoyés pendant la dernière session. De ces projets celui qui doit avant tout faire l'objet de vos délibérations, est celui qui a trait à la révision de la loi qui règle les rapports des propriétaires terriens avec les cultivateurs; cette question, ayant en vue l'amélioration de l'état des paysans, est d'un intérêt vital, majeur pour nous et réclame, avec urgence, votre plus scrupuleuse attention.

Il y a encore une réforme pour laquelle mon Gouvernement demandera bientôt votre coopération, c'est, Messieurs, la réforme électorale, afin que la Chambre puisse représenter plus complètement les intérêts du pays.

Messieurs les Députés! Une expérience de deux années vous a convaincus, je crois, ainsi que le pays et moi-même, que nous devons oublier les luttes du passé, bannir de nos rangs l'esprit de parti et nous donner tous franchement la main pour nous occuper de la réorganisation du pays.

Le temps des faits est arrivé et principalement celui de l'application sincère de l'Article XLVI. de la Convention, car c'est sur cet Article que repose tout l'avenir national et social de la patrie. Mettez-vous, donc, sérieusement à l'œuvre.

Quant à moi, Messieurs les Députés, je vous promets tout mon concours; la cause du pays n'est-elle pas aussi la mienne? Puis-je réclamer l'affection de mes concitoyens et une page dans les annales Roumaines, autrement qu'en employant toute ma volonté et toutes mes forces au développement et au bonheur de mon pays ?

Ne perdez pas de vue, Messieurs les Députés, que plus une nation développe ses forces à l'intérieur avec calme et énergie, plus elle est forte et respectée à l'extérieur.

On doit regretter que sur quelques points du pays, le respect qui est dû aux lois ait été enfreint; mais grâce à l'énergie déployée par les autorités locales, grâce au courage de notre jeune armée qui a fait partout son devoir, la tranquillité a été aussitôt rétablie.

A cette époque de transition difficile pour nous, je vous promets, Messieurs, le maintien de l'ordre matériel et je suis convaincu que vous me prêterez tout votre concours en fortifiant mon Gouvernement et en vous occupant sérieusement de toutes les mesures propres à assurer la prospérité du pays.

En vous adressant ces paroles, j'accomplis un devoir sacré.

J'ai la conscience de ma mission et je sais et n'oublierai jamais que je représente le principe de l'Union; la réalisation de ce principe salutaire dépend principalement du patriotisme, de la concorde et de la prudence politique de tous les corps de l'Etat, comme aussi de l'esprit d'ordre, de paix et de progrès réel dont tous doivent être animés et qui doit présider à tout.

Que Dieu bénisse vos travaux !

La session de l'Assemblée est ouverte.

ALEXANDRE JEAN.

CONVENTION between Spain and Bavaria, for the mutual Extradition of Criminals.-Signed at Vienna, June 28, 1860.

[Ratifications exchanged at Vienna, September 4, 1860.] (Translation.)

HER Majesty the Queen of the Spains and His Majesty the King of Bavaria, being desirous of preventing by means of a Convention, the impunity which criminals seek to obtain by escaping from one country to the other, have authorized, with full powers for that purpose, the undermentioned persons:

Her Majesty the Queen of the Spains, Don Luis Lopez de la Torre Ayllon, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal and distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, of the Royal American Order of Isabella the Catholic, of the Order of Merit of the Crown of Bavaria, &c., Senator of the Kingdom, &c., her Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to His Majesty the Emperor of Austria;

His Majesty the King of Bavaria, the Count Oton de BraySteinburg, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of San Miguel, Commander of the Order of Merit of the Crown of Bavaria,

Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Saviour of Greece, &c., his Chamberlain, formerly Minister of State, Counsellor of State employed on Extraordinary Service, Hereditary Senator of the Kingdom of Bavaria, his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to His Majesty the Emperor of Austria;

Who having previously communicated to each other their respective full powers, have agreed on the following Articles:

ART. I. The Governments of Spain and Bavaria bind themselves by the present Convention to deliver up to each other reciprocally, with the single exception of their own subjects, all persons who, for the more or less serious crimes enumerated in Article II, shall have been indicted or sentenced by the tribunals of the State, in the territory of which the crime shall have been committed, and who from Bavaria may have taken refuge in Spain or her colonies, or from Spain and her colonies in Bavaria.

II. The more or less serious crimes for which extradition shall be reciprocally granted are as follows:

1. Parricide, murder, poisoning, homicide, infanticide, abortion, rape with violence, outrages against modesty carried into effect or attempted with violence, or those carried into effect or attempted without violence on a person under 12 years of age, or with circumstances which would give such an outrage the character of a serious crime.

2. Maltreatment of a minister of religion, when in the exercise of the functions of his ministry.

3. Arson.

4. Robbery in gangs, highway robbery, or robbery at night in an inhabited house, robbery with violence, escalade, or with the use of housebreaking tools, forcible entry into a house or apartments, robbery by force in uninhabited places, and finally all thefts committed by servants or salaried dependants.

5. Swindling.

6. The fabrication, introduction, or uttering of bad money, or of the instruments which serve to coin it, the falsification or alteration of paper money, and the emission or introduction into the kingdom of false or altered paper money, the falsification of the dies or stamps by which gold and silver are assayed, the falsification of the seals of the State, and of all kinds of stamped paper, although it may have been done out of the country which demands the extradition.

7. False testimony and bribery of witnesses to a serious crime; forgery committed in public, private, or commercial documents, excepting those forgeries which are not visited with corporal punishment.

8. Robbery of effects committed by depositaries named by the

public authority, and who by reason of their charge have them in

their power.

9. Fraudulent bankruptcy.

III. The extradition shall not take effect for political offences, whether more or less serious.

IV. Extradition shall be deniable if the term of legal limitation of judicial action, in conformity with the laws of the country where the defendant may have taken refuge, shall have expired since the perpetration of the more or less serious crime imputed to him at his trial, or since sentence was passed upon him.

V. If the person whose extradition is demanded should be undergoing a trial or sentence for a more or less serious crime, or be arrested for debt, or any other obligation of civil right, in the country where he has taken refuge, it shall not be granted until he is acquitted or has undergone his sentence, or been on the other hand released from arrest.

VI. If the person indicted or sentenced should happen not to be a subject of that one of the two Contracting States which demands him, his extradition may be deferred until his Government shall have been consulted, if necessary, and requested to produce the reasons which it may have to allege in opposition to his extradition.

In that case it shall be at the option of the Government to whom the demand is made to follow the course which it considers best, and to give up the criminal to be tried, either to his native country or to the country where the more or less serious offence may have been committed.

VII. The demand for extradition must always be made through the diplomatic channel, and shall not be entertained without the communication of a warrant or other document of an equal value in justice, drawn up in accordance with the legal forms of the State making the demand for extradition, and declaring at the same time the nature and gravity of the crime, and also the punishment applicable to it. The description of the person demanded must also, if possible, accompany the said documents.

VIII. All the stolen articles which may be in the possession of the person whose extradition is to be effected, and all those which may serve to prove the crime, shall be delivered up at the time when the extradition takes place.

The articles shall also be given up, if the criminal shall have hidden or deposited them in the country where he may have taken refuge, and they be afterwards found or discovered.

IX. The expenses incurred by the arrest, detention, and maintenance of persons whose extradition shall have been granted, and also their removal to the place where they are to be delivered up,

shall be borne by the Government of the country where such persons may have taken refuge.

X. When there shall have elapsed from the day on which the refugee shall have been placed at the disposal of the Government making the demand, a space of 3 months, with respect to persons taking refuge in the European provinces of Spain and Bavaria, and of 6 months for those taking refuge in the Spanish colonies, without the said Government having taken steps to assume the charge of such persons, the extradition may be denied, and the persons set at liberty.

XI. The High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves to settle by mutual agreement and according to the nature of the cases, the formalities which shall be observed for the delivery of criminals, and to decide at what points of their territory the said delivery shall be effected, and also the other accessory measures which may appear necessary for the complete and punctual execution of the present Convention.

XII. Whenever the examination of witnesses appears necessary for the investigation of the facts or any similar proceeding on a criminal trial, due course shall be given by the competent authority of one of the two States, and in conformity with its laws, to the requisition which shall be forwarded there for that purpose through the diplomatic channel by the competent authority of the other State.

Such a step shall not, however, be claimed if the investigation of the case be directed against a subject of the State to whom the demand is made, and who shall not yet have been arrested by the Government making the demand, or if the offence for which he is indited be not punishable by the laws of the State of which the examination of witnesses is demanded.

The respective Governments renounce any claim which may have for its object the payment of the expenses arising from the execution of such requisitions.

XIII. If in a criminal case the personal presence of a witness should be found necessary, the Government of the country to which the said witness belongs shall request him to present himself before the tribunal claiming his presence; and if the witness consents, the expenses of his journey and residence shall be paid to him in conformity with the tariffs and regulations in force in the country where he shall have to make his declaration.

XIV. The present Convention shall begin to be in force 10 days after its publication in the form prescribed by the laws of both States.

It shall be obligatory for the space of 5 years, reckoning from the day of its ratification, and shall continue to be in force for