in all the sciences, he speaks and writes with admirable eloquence and facility. Following in the steps of Franklin, he began his career by editing a journal, entitled "El Amigo de la Patria," for the purpose of instructing his countrymen, and of elevating their minds for the reception of independence. Nominated in 1822 to serve as a deputy in the congress of Mexico, he omitted no opportunity to speak aloud for the independence of his country. In October 1822 he was, with several other deputies, arrested by the usurper Iturbide; and, by one of the singular caprices of fortune which are usually concomitant with despotism, was liberated from incarceration by the tyrant, who had imprisoned him, to be invested with the portfolio of minister of the interior and foreign affairs. On the overthrow of the despot, he strenuously exerted all his influence to obtain the independence of Guatemala; and his countrymen rewarded his patriotism by appointing him president of the republic, which office he filled till last April. He was subsequently elected vice-president, which situation he declined accepting, as he conceived himself to have been fraudulently deprived of the presidentship, to which he had been re-elected by a majority. His fortune is considerable. He is of high stature, in the prime of life, and ardent in his wishes to procure the felicity of his country. His courtesy to foreigners is the theme of admiration; in short, he is one of those men who, by their virtue and talents, suffice to give fame and splendour to a nation.

It is now time to redeem the promise we gave in our article in the preceding number, and to show what the government of the new republic has already done for the public good, and what it still intends to do.

We will begin with Public Instruction. On this point every credit is due to the wisdom of the government, which, from the first moment, invariably acted on the principle, that the instruction of the people constitutes the true foundation of virtue and liberty. The local authorities were directed to present the list of the schools existing in each province, and, to propose the means best fitted to augment similar seminaries. In the city of Guatemala are ten schools for reading and writing, in which nearly 700 young men are educated. The government, anxious to establish the system of mutual instruction, directed its minister at the United States to procure a professor capable of transplanting and diffusing that plan in the republic, while it disseminated throughout the provinces a pamphlet printed in Mexico, in which the new method was explained; and a committee was selected to translate the projects of Fourcroy, Condorcet, and Talleyrand, on the subject of public instruction.

A chair of mathematics, of botany and agriculture, and another of architecture, were endowed in the university: and in order to propagate the knowledge of agriculture and botany, so essential in a country highly favoured by nature, and so shamefully neglected by man, young persons were brought from all the provinces to be instructed in those sciences. As a proof of the laudable impartiality of the government, it is worthy of remark, that six black young men of Omoa and Truxillo are educated at its expense.

The cultivation of cochineal in the different provinces is greatly encouraged by the ruling powers; and, by their direction, pamphlets

have been circulated, disclosing the most approved methods of cultivating that valuable production, as well as printed essays on the rearing of cocoa and indigo. The latter article, which in former years had fallen in value, rose in 1824 to a price unexampled for many years. The plantations of cochineal recently cultivated in the republic make great progress, and in a short time this production will be one of the principal sources of national wealth.*

Mines.

In this part of America, Nature has been prodigal in mines containing an abundance of wealth. Besides the mine of Alotepeque, which we have already described, another, called Del Corpus, lies in the territory of the republic, from which branch many veins were actively worked till 1810, and only then abandoned by reason of a want of money and machinery sufficient to drain off the water which had inundated them. The riches of these, mines must have been considerable;-in proof of which position it is merely necessary to state, that during a period of six years, they produced eight millions of dollars. In the vicinity of these subterraneous works, five thousand Indians were resident, who for two reals a day were employed in the excavations; considerable forests were also at hand, and a river at the distance of two leagues. The mine of San Martin, when in a state of labour, was one of the richest ; nor were those of San Antonio and Santa Lucia much inferior in value. In the state of San Salvador was situated the mine of Tapanco, also very rich. The vast extraction of metal from these mines in times past, and their position in the same ridge of mountains, in the bosom of which are situated the mines of Peru, Potosi, and Mexico, induce a belief that their wealth is not much inferior to that of those celebrated veins of ore. Many of these, it is true, have not yielded a comparatively equal produce, having uniformly been abandoned, at a certain point, in consequence of the scarcity of scientific mineralogists and expert miners-a drawback which has never ceased to exist throughout the kingdom of Guatemala. This deficiency in so requisite a science may be attributed to the want of a good school of mineralogy in the country-an advantage which, even under the Spanish sway, was only enjoyed by Mexico; on which account its mines were always better stocked with machines and experienced workmen. The new government of the republic, aware of this obstacle, and anxious to invigorate and protect so important a source of wealth, began, among the first acts of its administration, to put into effect every possible method for the improvement and prosperity of the mines. It caused printed instructions to be distributed among the miners, and circulated an essay on the separation of metals, bringing at the same time a professor of mineralogy from Mexico, and urging the agents of two English commercial houses to establish a company for the purpose of undertaking the proper working of the mines.

Roads and Canals.

Whoever has travelled in Spain, need not be told that the Government there is no promoter of the facility of communication between place and place. Can it therefore be a matter of wonder, that the court of

* Vide Memoria presentada al Congreso General de los Estados Federados de Centro America; por el Secretario de Estado encargado del despacho universal al comenzar las sesiones del ano de 1825.-Guatemala.

Madrid, which allowed the parent monarchy to continue destitute of roads and canals, should never have turned its attention to opening and facilitating the means of communication between colony and colony?. The Republic, from this neglect of its former rulers, found itself imperiously called on to commence the labour of making communications between the provinces within its jurisdiction; a work which Spain had long neglected to commence, and in all probability never would have undertaken. The principal road, and the one most frequented, is that from Omoa to the capital. The Chamber of commerce of Guatemala, in one of its reports, declared that the merchandize which arrived at Omoa from Europe, could not, in many instances, be transported to the seat of government in less than eight months, although the distance is no more than ninety leagues, partly by water and partly by land. In consequence of this representation, the attention of the government was directed to the facilitating a communication between these places; for which object it has already commenced the founding of the post of Isabel, and other small establishments, along that line of road.

It is also the intention of the government to permit a company to undertake the formation of a canal, which, by means of the lake of Nicaragua, will unite the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Several North American and London commercial houses have applied for permission to carry on the enterprize, some of them having actually amassed considerable funds, and sent engineers to examine the spot: and from the calculations made by late travellers and experimental workmen, under the guidance of the scientific knowledge of this improved age, there is little doubt that the undertaking, by adopting the proper mode, will be found perfectly practicable.*

The Army.

The Republic of Guatemala, by not organising a well-appointed and disciplined army to guard against the attacks of Spanish despotism, has been guilty of the error committed by all the people who in this country have struggled to regain the blessing of liberty. By the avowal of the minister Zebadua himself, the army of the republic is in a very dilapidated state; badly clothed, armed, paid, and 'disciplined. Muskets are much wanted, and the fortresses require a thorough repair to put them in a state of defence. The harbours are

*Our readers may be amused by the following quotation from a work entitled "Bosquejo Politico Estadistico de Nicaragua," which gives some idea of the opinions prevalent in the last century concerning this project :

"Much bas been said and written on the subject of this canal: but few persons are aware of the existence of a memoir printed in London, containing the plans and observations of Captain Smith, and Colonels Hodgson and Lee, the arguments of which volume decided the Cabinet of St. James to attempt the invasion of that country, which took place in the year 1780, and was attended with an unfavourable result. The Court of Madrid, alarmed by the rumours propagated, ordered a scientific survey to be taken by the engineers Isasi, Cramer, and Colonel Maestre, who not only asserted that there was no communication, as some supposed, between the lake and the Pacific, but that between the respective shores high mountains intervened, and many other obstacles, which effectually prevented human industry from opening a navigable canal from one place to the other. Besides, from the trigonometrical measurements which they used, they discovered that the greatest depth of the lake was forty-three feet above the level of the Pacific, which fact they affirmed to be clearly proved by the precipitous current of the river San Juan till the moment of emptying itself into the sea of the north." Republished in Guate

mala in 1824.

unprotected by batteries.; and barracks are so much wanted for the soldiery, that, with the exception of one newly erected in Guatemala for the cavalry, there may be said to be none in the republic. This report of the minister of war, it is thought, will induce the government to expend a part of the loan contracted for last year, in providing for the defence of the state. In the mean time, a school for officers and a military college have been endowed. The Spanish government was very careful not to communicate to the Americans any military knowledge. Passive obedience was their duty, and to command was the prerogative of the Spaniards. The chiefs of corps, the subaltern officers, and even the serjeants, were sent from Spain; and in consequence of this system of mistrust, under the Spanish sway, the foundation of a military college in Guatemala was not permitted.

Finances.

Under the Spaniards, the revenue of the kingdom of Guatemala amounted to a million of dollars; but peculation was carried to such an extent, that the Court of Madrid received little or no benefit from that sum. Amidst convulsions and changes of government, financial concerns always undergo an unfavourable mutation; nor could Guatemala, in its unsettled position, be expected to stand forward as an exception to this rule. Order and economy are now beginning to be re-established, and the revenue of the government will ere long keep pace with the progress and increase of the national wealth. In order to make the present institutions more palatable to the people, recourse was had to the hasty and imprudent plan of abolishing some of the taxes which filled the public treasury. The contributions which the natives paid, under the name of tribute, have been taken off, and likewise the tax on playing cards, and snow, not to mention the duties derived from bulls, the fifth of gold and silver, the half of the secular annats, the two per cent. on tobacco, and various other imposts which have been diminished or expunged. By reason of these reductions the public treasury became so empty, that the government was constrained to contract in London for a loan of seven millions and a half of dollars, by the assistance of which sum it will gain time to re-establish by gradual process some branches of the public revenue, and be enabled to undertake at the same time many works advantageous to the state.

The revenue destined for the general expenses of the republic has for some time past been derived solely from imposts on powder, postage, tobacco,* and clearances from the maritime custom-house. We cannot say whether the produce of these four objects of taxation are sufficient to maintain the general expenses of the republic, which, according to Señor del Valle, rarely exceed 500,000 dollars. But should there be a slight deficiency in the revenue to meet the expenditure, this will be but a momentary evil, inasmuch as the government, besides daily adopting economical experiments, is proceeding slowly with the augmentation of the taxes, in quotas which will fall but lightly on the people, and be a mere nothing when compared with the sums which

* The statement of the revenue shows, that in the five years from 1813 to 1817, 509,071 dollars were collected. The quality of the tobacco of Guatemala is excellent, and by many considered superior to that of Virginia. By reason, however, of the difficulty and expense of exportation, from the badness of the roads and the tediousness of communication, it cannot as yet compete in price with the tobacco of North America.

were exacted from them in times past. The fact is, that the inhabitants of Guatemala pay less taxes than any other people of the present day in Europe or America. Señor del Valle having compared the contributions of Mexico with those of Guatemala, proves that in Mexico each person pays eleven reals, and in his country but two and a half.

Colonization.

The 12th article of the constitution declares that "the republic is a sacred asylum for every foreigner, and the country of any one who desires to inhabit its territory.' The government, aware of the necessity of inviting foreign industry to establish itself in the republic, by a decree of the 12th January, 1824, (which on account of its length we cannot now extract,) offered the most liberal advantages to foreigners who colonized there. Land is easily obtained, and its possession is accompanied with exemption from taxes for twenty years, and the right of citizenship after three; besides which, the most careful protection is given to every foreign agriculturist.

This, then, is the position which the Guatemalian nation presents to the eyes of the world: agitated no more by revolutions and destructive changes, it advances in a steady manner towards wealth and civilization. "The government of Guatemala," to use the words of Señor del Valle,* "has never for an instant lost sight of the welfare of the nation; an object which it has forwarded with foresight, and without dangerous precipitancy. A laborious peasant may now recall his toils, and look on the profits derived from them with pleasure. The benevolent exertions of a zealous government in behalf of its citizens, are satisfactory to the governors and the governed. I have laboured strenuously for the public last year, and shall labour still more in the present. The people have confided their destinies to me, and I shall live wholly for the people. A tear less, an ear of corn more, or a shoot from a plant not cultivated before my administration, will place me at the summit of felicity."

At this moment the Grand Congress of all the new American republics is assembling at Panamá; whence will undoubtedly be diffused an electric fire, which will impart new impulses to the infant states, and tend to quicken their prosperity. What a powerful influence may not that free and confederate continent, in a century to come, exercise over Europe! +

* Speech of the President charged with the executive power, on the opening of the Federal Congress of Guatemala, on the 25th of February, 1825.

Without wishing to detract from the works of M. de Pradt upon the Colonies, we take leave to quote a passage from the writings of the Italian philosopher Genoveri, who, about the middle of the last century, predicted the emancipation of the American colonies; adding another prophecy, which we hope will not be verified so literally as the first. His words are these: It is nevertheless true that those who have founded extensive colonies in the new world, thought, as is the custom of mankind in general, more of present utility than of future consequences. These colonies, in process of time, cannot but organise themselves after the European model, and become anxious to possess all our arts and sciences; and, when this happens, they will inevitably make themselves independent of the mother country, whose gains will then be at an end. Nor do I deem it beyond the pale of probability that these colonies may one day become our masters. Every thing in the world is subject to mutations, and assumes a new aspect in the lapse of time. Who could have imagined, in the days of Augustus, that the country of the Italians would dwindle into colonics of the southern nations!"