Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1875, Volume II
No. 540.
Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.
Madrid , July 17, 1875. (Received August 4.)
Sir: I communicated to you in my No. 431 copy and translation of a decree of June 29, for the embargo of all property of Carlists.
[Page 1133]For the reasons stated in that dispatch, namely, that this decree is one, of the measures of more earnest prosecution of Carl is in, and that it is adopted avowedly in imitation of the policy of the United States in like circumstances, it seems to me needful you should possess a copy of the instructions just issued by the ministry of gobernacion for the execution of the decree in question, which is hereto annexed in original and in translation.
I have, &c.,
Royal order of July 14, 1875, prescribing rules for the execution of the embargo decree of June 29, 1875.
[From the “Gaecta de Madrid,” July 15, 1875.]
royal order.
The faithful and speedy fulfillment of the enactments contained in the royal decree of 29th June last, in reference to the embargo of property of rebel Carlists and their aiders, being of interest to the public peace and the weal of the state, His Majesty the King (whom may God guard) has been pleased to approve the following instruction for the execution of the above-mentioned royal decree.
By royal order I say this to you for your knowledge and the consequent effects. May God guard you many years.
The Governor of the Province of——.
instruction.
Approved by His Majesty the King, (whom may God guard,) for the execution of the royal decree of the 29th of June of this year, respecting the embargo of property of the Carlist rebels and their aiders.
Article 1. The minister of gobernacion, after having previously received the reports and information which he may deem necessary to insure right action, or on the proposal of the civil governors, will designate by means of royal orders the persons whose property has to be embargoed according to the tenor of the provisions of the decrees of the 18th of July, 1874, and the 29th of June of the current year.
Art. 2. The civil governors shall execute for themselves, or shall cause to be executed by means of the alcaldes of the towns, to whom they shall delegate their authority for this purpose, the orders of embargo which may be communicated to them by the ministry of gobernacion.
Art. 3. The governors, or the alcaldes, according to the cases of the preceding article, so soon as they receive the superior mandate, shall proceed to effect, without loss of time, the legal operation of embargo, after previously summoning the proprietor, custodian, or person in charge of the property. This summons may be made by means of a subpoena served by a constable, or verbally, according to the circumstances and nature of the property which is the object of the measure.
Art. 4. If it be not known in which town the persons comprised in the foregoing provisions possess property, the civil governors shall transfer the order of embargo to the alcaldes of the towns where those persons have their legal domicile or residence: and if they be absent from Spain, or be found to be in the rebel ranks, or if their whereabouts be not known, they shall communicate the order to the alcaldes of the towns wherein they may have last had their domicile, in order that the order of embargo may produce its effects so far as possible.
Art. 5. In order to effect the said operations of embargo, the authority charged there with shall present himself in person, assisted by a notary, the secretary of the town-board of the town wherein the property lies, and three witnesses, of not less than twenty-five years of age, who shall be residents of the place and of known probity. In default of a notary, one more witness shall always attend, and the secretary shall certify the act, (or minute of the proceeding.)
[Page 1134]Art. 6. The governor, or alcalde, accompanied by the functionaries and witnesses spoken of in the preceding article, shall draw up the act (or minute) of having effected the embargo, including therein an inventory, wherein shall appear in a succinct and orderly manner the circumstances, class, and number of the properties embargoed.
Art. 7. Of this act, which shall be made of official record in the corresponding notarial office, or which shall, in default thereof, be filed in the archives of the secretary’s office of the town-board of the place in which the embargo shall have taken place, three authenticated copies shall be taken, of winch one shall be remitted to the ministry of gobernacion, another shall be of record in the secretary’s office of the governmental headquarters of the province, and the third shall pass to the power of the special administrator charged with the service.
At the end of each one of these three copies shall be inscribed the record of the administrator’s having taken charge of the property.
Art. 8. The embargo being completed, the governor shall give cognizance thereof to the registrar, or registrars of property in the respective judicial districts, in order that these may make in their books the corresponding annotations conformably to right.
Art. 9. There shall be deemed subject to these embargoes all properties of every kind belonging to the persons designated; by the term “property” being understood:
- 1st.
- Rural or city lands, with all the appurtenances for their use, improvements, and means of working the same.
- 2d.
- Movable property and live stock.
- 3d.
- Manufacturing or industrial establishments, with all their dependencies, stock, tools, and products on sale.
- 4th.
- Revenues and public stocks. 5th. Shares of the Bank of Spain.
- 6th.
- Shares or stock of societies, companies, and mercantile and industrial enterprises.
- 7th.
- Accounts-current in societies, companies, public establishments, and business houses.
- 8th.
- Salaries, incomes, pensions, vested rights, and feudal dues, and any other rights, shares, and credits which may appear, or shall be discovered to be, the property of the said persons.
Art. 10. Of property held in usufruct, shall only be embargoed the produce or revenue.
Art. 11. The occult at ion of properties, incomes, stocks, accounts-current, salaries, or receipts which, in any conception, may be enjoyed by the persons comprehended in these embargoes, constituting a real fraud on the interests of the State, those who denounce such occultations shall be paid a certain percentage, which the minister of gobernacion shall fix, after hearing the governors and upon the proposal of the special administrators, taking into account the entity of the revenues or products of the property discovered and the prescriptions established by the public treasury for analogous cases.
That portion of their property occulted by the persons who shall have suffered embargo shall alone be the object of the denunciation.
Art. 12. Within the three days following the entrance into possession of the special administrators, the provincial subtreasurers shall turn over to them, under inventory and with all due formalities, the full evidence of embargoes, with capitals, values, produce, and other effects which may have taken place up to that time.
Of these inventories one authenticated copy shall be remitted to this ministry, and another shall be delivered to the governor of the province, in order that he may unite it to the general expediente.
Art. 13. The special administrators shall likewise remit to the ministry of gobernacion copy of the contracts for the leasing of the embargoed lands, and shall submit for the approval of the civil governor of the province the projected forms of lease of all such estates as may not be already leased.
These leases shall be made only by means of public bids, and shall be announced, with at least fifteen days of anticipation, in the official gazette of the province, or by edicts.
Art. 14. So soon as the special administrators shall have taken charge of the property hitherto embargoed, they shall deposit the capitals and values, if such be not already deposited, in the public establishment destined to that purpose.
Art. 15. The values expressed in the preceding article, and those which shall be afterward’ paid in like conception into the establishments referred to, shall be subject to the order of this ministry.
Art. 16. The special administrators shall pass official communications to the lessees of the embargoed lands, informing them of the obligation under which they lie to pay over to the new administration the revenues corresponding to the said property, and notifying them that in the fixed time of fifteen days they shall exhibit the contracts, [Page 1135] or articles of lease, or shall manifest the form in which they may have effected the same.
For these purposes the special administrators shall act in agreement with the alcaldes of the respective towns, but, however, through the medium of the civil governor of the province.
Art. 17. The administration of these properties, as well as the sale of the produce and effects coming from the same, shall be conducted in strict subjection to the formalities and rules established by the ministry of hacienda for the properties of the State, subject, however, to the alterations which this ministry may see fit to make, and which shall be opportunely communicated to the special administrators.
Art. 18. The special administrators shall be dependent upon the subsecretary’s office of the ministry of gobernacion; but their communications, accounts, and other documents shall always be addressed through the channel of the civil governors of the provinces, who, at the same time, while exercising vigilance and inspection over their administrations, shall lend to the same all necessary aid, proposing and reporting to the ministry whatever they may believe to be conducive to the best service.
Art. 19. The amount of the property embargoed in each province being known, the minister of gobernacion, on the proposal of the civil governors, and after hearing the subsecretary’s office, shall fix the amount of security to be given by the special administrator thereof, as well, as the premium which is to be received by the administration, the cost of the material and personal staff of the latter being defrayed by it.
Art. 20. All the capitals and values produced by the embargoed property shall always remain in the conception of deposit or account-currect, according to the nature thereof, in the Bank of Spain or in the branch establishments of the same.
Art. 21. Of the products of the said property shall be formed a general fund, defraying there with—
- 1st.
- The expenses of administration, personal staff, informers’ rewards, and other charges comprehended in the existing enactments; and
- 2d.
- Indemnification for injuries caused by the Carlists to the towns and to private parties.
Art. 22. Every three months the subsecretary of the ministry of gobernacion shall prepare a general account of receipts and expenditures duly justified, which, with the indorsement of the minister of gobernacion, shall be submitted to the approbation of the council of ministers. After approval, it shall be published in the “Gaceta de Madrid.”
Art. 23. The accounts being approved and the expedientes of indemnification being completed, the subsecretary shall issue the proper warrant of payment at the charge of the Bank of Spain.
Art. 24. In the ministry of gobernacion, and under the direct dependence of the subsecretary, shall be established in due time, by means of royal decree, a special department charged with this service, whose functions and powers shall be fixed in virtue of a system of regulations.
Art. 25. The minister of gobernacion shall issue the further general or special instructions which may be necessary for the development and execution of the different points comprehended in the orders and regulations in force in this matter.
Art. 26. The instructions of the 1st and 5th of August, 1874, for the execution of the decree of the 18th of July of the same year, in so far as they are opposed to the present instruction, are hereby repealed.
Approved: