142 EEPORT ON EXCHANGES. 



the diplomatic channel and by the latter Government to all the other 

 states signing it, 



Aet. 10. The present convention shall be ratified and the ratifications 

 exchanged at Brussels as soon as practicable. It is concluded for ten 

 years from the day of the exchange of the ratifications, and it shall re- 

 main in force beyond that time, as long as one of the Governments shall 

 not have declared six months in advance that it denounces the same. 



(The signatures of the delegates of Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, 

 Spain, United States of America, France, Italy, Portugal, Boumania, 

 Servia, Switzerland, follow.) 



[Inclosure 0. — Translation.]— (B.) — Draft of convention for the immediate ex- 

 change OF PARLIAMENTARY DOCUMENTS. 



Brussels, April, 1883. 



Article 1. Apart from the obligations arising from article 2 of the 

 general convention of April, 1882, concerning the exchange of official 

 documents and of scientific and literary publications, the respective 

 Governments agree to cause to be forwarded to the legislative cham- 

 bers of each of the contracting states, as soon as they are published, a 

 copy of the official journal and of the parliamentary annals and docu- 

 ments which are made public. 



Art. 2. The states which have not taken part in the present conven- 

 tion are admitted to adhere thereto upon requesting it. 



This adhesion is to be notified by the diplomatic channel to the Bel- 

 gian Government and by the latter Government to all the other states 

 signing it. 



Art. 3. The present convention shall be ratified and the ratifications 

 exchanged at Brussels, as soon as practicable. It is concluded for ten 

 years from the day of the exchange of the ratifications, and it shall re- 

 main in force beyond that time, so long as one of the Governments shall 

 not have declared six months in advance that it denounces the same. 



(The signatures ol the delegates of Austria-Hungary, of Belgium, of 

 Brazil, of Spain, of Italy, of Portugal, of Ronmania, and of Servia fol- 

 low.) 



Remarks by Mr. Boehmer, on the proceedings of the Brussels Conference. 



| The principal desire of the delegates to the conference at Brussels 

 (at least of those of European powers) appears to have been to central- 

 ize — by the establishment of bureaus of exchange — in a single library 

 in each of their countries all the official documents, parliamentary and 

 administrative, which the contracting Governments publish, and those 

 publications of the learned bodies and of literary, scientific, and artistic 

 societies, &c, which they may be able to procure. 



Although M. Charmes (delegate from France) said, " To confide to an 

 institution the exchange of all that may interest science is a chimera, or, at 

 least, a very complicated affair? the Smithsonian Institution has shown 

 that such a thing is possible, and had the Institution the necessary 

 means it would not be a very difficult task, with its experience of thirty- 

 four years and constant improvements on the system, to demonstrate the 

 feasibility of a universal exchange, comprising all scientific societies in 



