be made by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and on the part of Spain shall be subject to the procedure required by her laws.

III. The present Convention is concluded for a period of five years dating from the day of the exchange of the ratifications.

IV. The present Convention shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof; and by His Majesty the King of Spain. The ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible, and the Convention shall take effect on the date of the exchange of its ratifications.

Done in duplicate, in the English and Spanish languages, at Washington, this 20th day of April, in the year 1908.

ELIHU ROOT.

R. PIÑA Y MILLET.

EXCHANGE OF NOTES between Spain and the United States supplemental to the Commercial Agreement of August 1, 1906.—Washington, February 20, 1909.*

SIR,

(No. 1.)-Mr. Bacon to Señor Don Ramón Piña.

Department of State, Washington,
February 20, 1909.

In order to meet the wishes of your Government in the matter of the extension to Spain of the authorized reduction in the tariff duties of the United States on Spanish sparkling wines, and in order to remove any possible ground for the exercise by your Government of the right under Article III of the Commercial Agreement signed between the two countries on the 1st August 1906,† to rescind any of its concessions made therein to the United States, I have the honour to inform you that the President of the United States deems the concessions made by Spain in favour of the products and manufactures of the United States as reciprocal and equivalent to the grant by the Government of the United States of the reduced duties on all the articles of Spanish production and exportation enumerated in section 3 of the Tariff Act of the United States, approved on the 24th July, 1897.‡

I have therefore the honour to inform you that the President of the United States will issue his Proclamation§ suspending the duties on sparkling wines produced in and exported from Spain,

+ Vol. CI,

* "United States Treaty Series," No. 517.

621.

page Vol. XC, page 1248. § Proclamation issued February 20, 1909. [1908-9. CII.] 3 F

and substituting therefor the reduced duties authorized by section 3 of the Dingley Tariff.

I should be glad to be informed by you as to whether this action, supplementary to the Agreement of the 1st August, 1906, will meet completely the wishes of your Government in the

matter.

Accept, &c.

ROBERT BACON.

(No. 2.)—Señor Don Ramón Piña to Mr. Bacon.

(Translation.) MR. SECRETARY,

Spanish Legation, Washington,
February 20, 1909.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of this date, in which, while advising me that in order to meet the wishes of your Government in the matter of the extension to Spain of the authorized reduction in the tariff duties of the United States on Spanish sparkling wines, and in order to remove any possible ground for the exercise by my Government of the right under Article III of the Commercial Agreement signed between the two countries on the 1st August, 1906, to rescind any of its concessions made therein to the United States, you also informed me that the President of the United States deemed the concession made by Spain in favour of the products and manufactures of the United States as reciprocal, and equivalent to the grant by the Government of the United States of the reduced duties on all articles of Spanish production and exportation enumerated in section 3 of the Tariff Act of the 24th July, 1897, will issue his Proclamation suspending the present duties on sparkling wines produced in or exported from Spain, and substituting therefor the reduced duties authorized by section 3 of the Dingley Law. I thank your Excellency for the proposed action which you were pleased to make known to me, and I agree in every particular with the way suggested by your Excellency for this additional part of the Agreement of the 1st August, I avail, &c.

1906.

R. PIÑA Y MILLET.

MARRIAGE LAW of Sweden.-Stockholm, November 6,

(Translation.)

WE, Gustaf, &c.

1908.

THE Riksdag having passed the Marriage Law with certain alterations from the Bill on the subject laid by us before the

Riksdag, and the General Church Convocation having signified its assent to that portion of the Riksdag's proposal which concerns the right of being married within the Swedish Church and the celebration of such marriage, have also sanctioned the portion of the proposal which differs from our original Bill, and ordain as follows:

SEC. 1. If members of the Swedish Church desire to contract marriage with one another here in the kingdom, and if both the man and woman have taken Holy Communion or have received Confirmation instruction from a clergyman of the Church, and have been found by the latter, after Confirmation, to be fit to receive Communion, the marriage may take place before a civil authority or in church.

The same law shall apply when a marriage is to be contracted between parties who beth belong to the same foreign religious community whose clergy the King has considered may be entrusted with the legal performance of the marriage ceremony, and to whom he has granted the privilege of so doing.

In all other instances the marriage shall be performed here in the kingdom before a civil authority.

2. The civil authority before whom a marriage may be contracted is, when the marriage is to take place in a town, the Magistrate or a qualified member of the magistracy, and when in the country the local High Sheriff. The obligation of such authority to perform the marriage ceremony does not depend on whether the man or woman have their domicile within his jurisdiction. If the High Sheriff is resident in a town he has equally to perform the ceremony within the town.

A marriage before a civil authority shall be performed in the presence of relations or other witnesses. The authority shall require of the man and the woman their voluntary consent and agreement, and shall then declare them to be truly married. Such proceedings shall be recorded in a special protocol concerning such matters, and the protocol, when the marriage is contracted before the High Sheriff or member of the magistracy, shall be attested by witnesses.

3. A marriage between members of the Swedish Church shall be celebrated by a clergyman within a church, in accordance with the prescriptions of the Prayer Book in use in the Church. Those who desire to be married may choose the clergyman of the church whom they themselves may desire to perform the ceremony, but only the clergyman in whose parish a man or woman have their domicile is obliged to marry them.

A marriage between members of a foreign religious community shall be performed within that community according to the Church custom of such community.

4. Before a marriage may be contracted, either before a civil authority or by Church ceremony, the banns shall be published in the manner decreed in the parish belonging to the Swedish Church in which the wo n is domiciled.

5. When a ma

performed otherwise than by a

2

ceremony in a Swedish church, the civil authority before whom such marriage is contracted, or the person performing the Church marriage ceremony, must without delay report the marriage to the rector of the parish where the banns were published, and likewise must report, where the married couple belong to a foreign parish whose head or clergy are lawfully bound to keep a register of the members of the parish, to the person who keeps the parish register.

Special regulations exist as regards the duty of a clergyman of the Swedish Church to report marriages for their entry in the church register.

6. It is specially laid down that in certain cases a marriage contracted here in the kingdom before a Diplomatic or Consular official in the service of a foreign State shall be considered as performed in proper form, which also applies to the legality of marriages contracted abroad.

By the above Law the following are annulled :

The circular of the 15th September, 1773, in so far as it concerns the right to choose the clergyman for the celebration of marriage;

Section 3 of the Ordinance of the 20th January, 1863, respecting marriages between Christians and persons of the Jewish faith;

Sections 4 and 5 of the Ordinance of the 31st October, 1873, respecting those of a foreign religion and the exercise of their religion; also section 9 of the Ordinance in so far as it concerns the reporting of a marriage celebrated, and likewise what is laid down in section 19 of the Ordinance respecting the publication of the banns of marriage in certain cases;

Section 2 of the Ordinance of the 31st October, 1873, respecting the alteration of certain parts of the Church Law with the statutes belonging thereto;

The Ordinance of the 15th October, 1880, respecting the celebration of marriage in certain cases before a civil authority; The Law of the 13th May, 1898, respecting the right to receive Church marriage union in certain cases;

And any other or special statute which may conflict in any particular with the present Law.

This Law comes into force on the 1st January, 1909.

Let all those obey, &c.

Given at the Palace of Stockholm, the 6th November, 1908.

Department of Justice,

ALBERT PETERSSON.

GUSTAF.