Whereas there is imminent danger of a recurrence of a cholera epidemic in Europe, which may be brought to our shores unless adequate measures of international or local quarantine and maritime inspection are taken in season, which measures of preventive inspection are proper to be considered by the aforesaid conference, to the end that their efficiency in divers countries may be secured: 

Now, therefore, in virtue of the discretionary authority conferred upon me by the aforesaid act of Congress, I hereby designate and appoint Major George M. Sternberg, surgeon in the United States Army, to attend said conference at Rome as the delegate thereto on the part of the Government of the United States, under the directions and instructions of the Secretary of State; and I hereby direct the Secretary of War to detail the said George M. Sternberg to perform the special service to which he is thus assigned, with full pay and allowances as on active service; and I further direct that the reasonable and necessary expenses of travel and sojourn of the said George M. Sternberg in proceeding from Washington to Rome, and during his attendance there upon the sessions of the said conference, and in returning, upon the conclusion thereof, from Rome to Washington, be adjusted and paid from the appropriation available under the aforesaid act of March 3, 1885, upon his statement of account approved by the Secretary of State.

Done at the city of Washington, this 25th day of April, A.D. 1885, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and ninth.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

By the President: 
  T.F.  BAYARD,
    Secretary of State.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, May 12, 1885.

Under a provision of an act of Congress entitled “An act making appropriations for fortifications and other works of defense, and for the armament thereof, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, and for other purposes,” approved March 3, 1885, a board, to consist of the officers and civilians hereinafter named, is appointed to “examine and report at what ports fortifications or other defenses are most urgently required, the character and kind of defenses best adapted for each, with reference to armament,” and “the utilization of torpedoes, mines, or other defensive appliances:”  Hon. William C. Endicott, Secretary of War, president of the board; Brigadier-General Stephen V. Benet, Chief of Ordnance; Brigadier-General John Newton, Chief of Engineers; Lieutenant-Colonel Henry L. Abbot, Corps of Engineers; Captain Charles S. Smith, Ordnance Department; Commander W.T.  Sampson, United States Navy; Commander Caspar F. Goodrich, United States Navy; Mr. Joseph Morgan, jr., of Pennsylvania; Mr. Erastus Corning, of New York.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 26, 1885.

Under the provisions of section 4 of the act approved March 3, 1883, it is hereby ordered that the several Executive Departments, the Department of Agriculture, and the Government Printing Office be closed on Saturday, the 30th instant, to enable the employees to participate in the decoration of the graves of the soldiers who fell during the rebellion.