No. 62.
Mr. Partridge to Mr. Fish.
(Petropolis,) Rio de Janeiro, August 24, 1874. (Received Sept. 21.)
Sir: On the 18th instant notification was given and published by the minister of foreign affairs, addressed to the minister of justice, that on [Page 95] the 20th of this month the consular conventions which had heretofore been in force, (having been prolonged from year to year by consent since 1871,) between Brazil and France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, in virtue of which the settlement of estates of subjects of those countries dying intestate here had been made by the consuls of those countries respectively, had ceased to exist, and that, in consequence, all such rights as were thereby secured would hereafter be determined by the law of the 8th of November, 1851, (decree No. 855.)
Of this decree regulating the interference of consuls in such matters, in cases where a reciprocity was granted in their respective countries to Brazilian consuls, I have already given account to the Department in my No. 97, there stating, also, that as the matter now stands between the United States and Brazil, our consuls may still intervene, under the previous law of 1845, in the nomination of curators, &c., and to compel an account before the regular tribunals.
I have, &c.,