16th October, 1835, mel al San Felipe de Austin. The convention was termed Lhe "Consullalion of Texas," which on the 7th of November unanimously adopted a declaration of righ is selling forth the causes that induced the people Lo lake up arms. On the lOLh of Lhe same month, the plan of a provisional Government, to consist of a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Council, was adopted; and on Lhe 12th the several officers were elected, and the oaths of office administered in presence of lhe consultation. The proceedings have been neither published nor fully copied, but the Comptroller of the Treasury is supervising the arrangement of them in proper form. As all Lhe steps of a new nation, from its political birth to the maturity of its being, are interesting to those who look upon history as an inslructive species of philosophy, I have copied the captions of the most important of the manuscript ordinances, which I now present; and though principally of a fiscal nature, they are so many presages of future system. . The first acts of legislation by the provisional Government were lo create a loan of $100,000. The nexl, to raise a regular army, and create a navy; one lo regulate the militia, to purchase munitions of war, grant registers lo vessels, organize auxilliary corps of volunteers; and one requiring the Governor to instruct commissioners Lo the United States of the north. On the 12th December, 1835, a General Posl Office Department was created. The law was carried into effect by lhe appointment of a Post Master General, and various routes were established, which had got into parlial operation, from the mouth of Rio Brazo to the different frontier settlements. The system was interrupted by the incursion of the army, and is now only beginning lo be renewed. The aggregate distance proposed in the courses was 1,536 miles in direct lines. Duties on imports and tonnage were laid by several ordinances, and an act passed prohibiting the migration of free negroes and mulattoes into Texas. It is remarkable that the Stale attended lo the regulation of its commercial revenue within a month after the eslablishrnenl of a pro,~sional Government, while that of the United Stales did not create a tariff for thirteen years after the declaration of its independence. The "provisional Government," which contained the three separate ingredients of good policy, an executive, le~islative, and
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