reas it is provided by section 13 of the act of Congress of March 3,
1891, entitled "An act to amend Title LX, chapter 3, of the Revised
Statutes of the United States, relating to copyrights," that said act
"shall only apply to a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation
when such foreign state or nation permits to citizens of the United
States of America the benefit of copyright on substantially the same
basis as its own citizens, or when such foreign state or nation is a
party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in
the granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United
States of America may at its pleasure become a party to such agreement;"
and

Whereas it is also provided by said section that "the existence of
either of the conditions aforesaid shall be determined by the President
of the United States by proclamation made from time to time as the
purposes of this act may require;" and

Whereas satisfactory official assurances have been given that in Italy
the law permits to citizens of the United States the benefit of
copyright on substantially the same basis as to the subjects of Italy:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States
of America, do declare and proclaim that the first of the conditions
specified in section 13 of the act of March 3, 1891, now exists and
is fulfilled in respect to the subjects of Italy.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 31st day of October, 1892, and of
the Independence of the United States the one hundred and seventeenth.

BENJ. HARRISON.

By the President:
JOHN W. FOSTER,
_Secretary of State_.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

The gifts of God to our people during the past year have been so
abundant and so special that the spirit of devout thanksgiving awaits
not a call, but only the appointment of a day when it may have a common
expression. He has stayed the pestilence at our door; He has given us
more love for the free civil institutions in the creation of which
His directing providence was so conspicuous; He has awakened a deeper
reverence for law; He has widened our philanthropy by a call to succor
the distress in other lands; He has blessed our schools and is bringing
forward a patriotic and God-fearing generation to execute His great a