286 APPENDIX. 
efficient, and the funds ample ; that, from the date of his arrival until a 
few days since, these labors were continued and prosecuted with success, 
when they were suddenly brought to a close by an order of the Mexican 
Government — as unexpected as unjust — whereby the operations of the 
survey were required to be' discontinued, and the members of the survey- 
ing parties were compelled to leave the country, or obtain other sanctions 
for their protection, while remaining, than those which had from the first 
been sufficient, and a portion of the work of the greatest importance left 
incomplete, thereby detracting materially from the value of the whole 
survey ; that the said order by which the works were stopped, and the 
engineers required to leave, was in the form of a letter from the Governor 
of Tehuantepec, dated 3d June, A.D. 1851, transmitting from the Gov- 
ernor of the State of Oaxaca an order from the Minister of Relations of 
the Supreme Government of Mexico, requiring the discontinuance of the 
works in consequence of a law, which was inclosed, passed by the Mexi- 
can Congress, and signed by the President of the Republic, the 2 2d May, 
A.D. 1851, which said law declared the grant under which the survey 
was being conducted, forfeited and null, on the ground that the Provi- 
sional President of the Republic, Salas, in the year A.D. 1846, trans- 
cended his powers in extending the time for the commencement of the 
work, whereby, as it is asserted (the works not having been commenced), 
the rights under the concession were forfeited. And the said Barnard 
and Sidell, agents as aforesaid, declare and say that the said law under 
which the order prohibiting the further prosecution of the work was is- 
sued, is, in their view, unconstitutional and unjust, for the reason that 
the said President, Salas, was, by the decree of his appointment, fully 
invested with the necessary power to extend the privileges under said 
grant, and his acts were subsequently legitimated by the regularly con- 
stituted authorities of the Republic, and the legality of the said exten- 
sion fully recognized on divers important occasions by the Government 
under different administrations ; and that if even these reasons did not 
exist, no judicial decision has been given against the validity of the con- 
cession, by which alone, and not by Legislative or Executive action, can 
the rights accorded under the grant be invalidated. And the said Bar- 
nard and Sidell, further protesting, say that the survey having been un- 
dertaken on the faith of the most solemn and public recognition of the 
rights under the concession, and with the especial favor and good-will 
of the Government, and with orders from the said Government to the 
local authorities to give every aid, protection, and assistance, it was right 
to assume that the works would not be violently interrupted before com- 
