superintendence-if, instead of the Foreign and Domestick Debt, created by 11 Years of War, which I received instead of a Treasury, I had found the Republick without obligations of any sort, and had to leave it compromised and overwhelmed with the weight of an immense debt, wasting in decay under injurious engagements-then, and then only, I should have to seek an asylum, wherein to hide my shame, and my heart would fail me in imploring the pardon of my Fellow-Citizens. But, thanks to the Providence which has watched over the destinies of Colombia, the Republick in 1826 differs widely from what it was in 1821, and, without attributing to myself the merit of that difference, I may console myself with the reflection that, in filling the first Post in Colombia, I have not been an obstacle to the accomplishment of so much good. The gratification of having avoided a Civil War in the present disturbed state of the Country, and the honour of having been the first to whom the Representatives of the Colombian People confided the difficult task of establishing the Constitution-twice associating me with Bolivar in the Supreme Magistracy-would, under any circumstances, have entitled me to publick esteem, had I even performed no services to my Countrymen, during the 16 Years of our glorious regeneration.

FRANCISCO DE PAULA SANTANDER.

Bogota, 2d January, 1827.

MESSAGE of the Vice-President, on the opening of the Congress of Colombia. 12th May, 1827. (Translation.) FELLOW CITIZENS of the SENATE AND CHAMber of Representatives, THE 5th Session of the Congress of the Republick was to have been opened on the 2nd of January, of the present year, and on the same day my functions as Vice-President of Colombia were to have ceased :— the Law had regulated both the one and the other. For that reason I had prepared and printed the ordinary Message of the Executive Power, previous to the 2nd of January. Very peculiar circumstances, which did not come within the sphere of my controul, have interfered to prevent the assembling of the Legislative Body by the presence of all good Patriots, until now, when, fortunately, the Nation is worthily and constitutionally represented in Congress. Great and important are the objects which you have to investigate; great and well-founded are the hopes of our Constituents and those of the Government.

In the Message of the 2d January, I communicated information respecting the state of the Republick in all its branches-I have now to inform you of the events which have occurred since that period.

My continuance in the exercise of the Government has been owing chiefly to two circumstances-first, because the Liberator, President, thought it expedient, in the agitated state of the Republick, to suspend the Law which fixed the cessation of the functions of the President and

Vice-President at 12 o'Clock of the 2nd of January, in the last year of the Constitutional period; and my heart counselled me not to op pose, under circumstances of so much difficulty, the arrangements of the Liberator; and, secondly, because my continuance in Office was the least illegal act that I could commit during the late crisis, after the doubts which had been admitted by the President of the Senate, respecting the duration of his authority. The documents respecting this transaction will be submitted to Congress. My first care has been, to watch over the publick tranquillity, to support the power of the Laws, to assist in the Measures adopted by the Liberator for the re-establishment of order, which has been disturbed in some of the Towns of the North, and to provide for the assembling of the present Congress. The extraordinary Powers with which I was invested have been exercised so mildly, that, I am well assured, the tremendous authority I have held has been scarcely felt in Colombia.

Our relations with Foreign Powers have continued to extend. A Consul-General and a Vice-Consul to reside in this Capital, and a Consul for the City of La Guayra, have been duly nominated by the King of The Netherlands. The Executive has expedited the corresponding Exequaturs, and will profit of this occasion, to establish, on a footing of the most perfect friendship, the relations between Colombia and the Kingdom of The Netherlands.

The Person appointed by order of the Government of France, to act as a superior Agent for French Commerce, has lately received the title of Inspector of Commerce in Bogota and its Dependencies, which has been given to him by the Minister for Foreign Affairs; but the Executive, finding new difficulties in granting him its Exequatur, has suspended it, until the relations between the Government of Colombia and that of His Most Christian Majesty shall have been defined with clearness, and according to Publick Law.

The Kings of Denmark, Prussia, and Bavaria, have evinced a disposition to open relations with the Republick, and to establish them permanently, for the advantage of the respective Countries. The Executive have met this disposition in the most favourable manner, without, however, compromising the national dignity, or departing from the rules which have been adopted, with respect to the Nations with which we have entered into Publick Treaties.

The Liberator President proclaimed in a Decree, promulgated at Maracaibo, that his duty enjoined him to employ the armed force, to bring under the obedience of the National Government the Towns which had separated themselves from it, and all his measures were calculated speedily to bring about so laudable a result. From Boyaca, Maracaibo, and Carthagena, auxiliaries of every description were sent. General Urdaneta directed his course to the westward of Venezuela, and the Liberator President to the Town of Puerto Cabello, which was already separated from the refractory Party. The Towns hastened to proclaim

their obedience to the Liberator President; and the dissentient Au thorities of Venezuela laid down their arms, and submitted with the rest. These successes will be made more particularly known to Congress, by the Documents which will be laid before it, as soon as they are prepared. In them will be seen the loyalty of the Districts of Mantecal, Guadaulito, and other Towns of the Province of Apure, at the head of which the faithful and brave Colonel Inchazu placed himself; it will also be seen, that the influence of the Liberator President, with the mildness and indulgence with which he accompanied all his Acts, quenched the flames of Civil War, re-established the divine sway of the Laws, and brought tranquillity to Colombia. The Congress will not fail to appreciate the immense blessings of domestick Peace; under the protection of which it can discuss the interests of the Nation, and listen to its complaints. Instead of the disasters, lamentations, and tears, which the Civil War had caused, nothing will now be seen but anxious endeavours to heal the wounds of our Country, and to attend to its true happiness. Destruction appeared inevitable: in Cumana, the precious blood of Colombians had already flowed; the fratricidal cannon had thundered in Puerto Cabello; and a disastrous conflict was preparing in Apure, between the very Soldiers who had overcome the Spanish Army; hatred, revenge, and division, threatened to involve the Republick in ruin and desolation. But, owing to the experience which the People had already had of the evils they suffered, to the voice of the Liberator, the presence of his Troops, and to his assurances, order has succeeded to confusion, hope to despair, confidence to fear, reason to passion, and Peace to War. Such is the state of the Northern Departments, according to the most recent communications, received from the Secretary-General of the Liberator.

I have to urge upon Congress the necessity of revising the organic Law relating to Schools. The reproaches which have been cast upon them are notorious, and the Executive recommends that you should examine the subject, in the counsels of your wisdom, in order that publick education may be spread throughout the vast extent of Colombia, and that there may not be a Colombian who cannot enjoy its benefits. The plan of publick instruction decreed by the Government, being merely provisional, its reform and amelioration depend upon the amendments which may be made in the Law, and upon the lights which experience may furnish.

It is satisfactory to me to acquaint the Congress, that the produce of the Publick Revenue during the last Year, from the 1st of July, 1825, to the 30th June, 1826, was greater than that of the preceding Year; and that the estimate of the expenses for the present, is so much below that of the past Year, that it will not equal the Revenue. It is easy to conceive all the malignant influence that the disturbed political state of the Country, which we so much lament, must have had on the National resources. Had we been free from that evil, considering the above

mentioned state of the Revenue, it is evident that the increase of our income, and the reduction of our expenditure, would have been such, that we should, at length, not only have balanced our expences and receipts, but should have maintained Publick Credit, and have consolidated the floating Debt, without burthening the People with the Taxes, which, in former Years, had pressed so heavily upon them. I recommend this matter to your careful consideration, premising, however, that there exists at present such disorder and confusion in the National Finances, that it is impossible to provide, both for the expense of the Administration, and the obligations of the Republick. The Finance Minister will lay before you the last measure adopted by the Executive to pay the interest of the Foreign Debt, which it was not possible to do during the last Year, and which caused great pain and anxiety to the Government.

Nothing has occurred with respect to the Army, except the movement in the auxiliary Division of Peru, which took place in Lima, the 26th of January. The Division on that day deprived the Officers, whom the Liberator had appointed with the full authority of the Government, of their command. The acting Authorities of that Division have solemnly renewed their former oaths of submission and obedience to our Constitutional Laws; a renewal which gives assurance of the fidelity of those Authorities, and which the Division could not have given, had it not previously separated itself from its Chiefs. The Congress will see, in the Documents which will be laid before it by the Secretary of War, the prudence with which the Executive has acted in this delicate affair, and the critical situation of those Authorities. The subject will be separately considered on another occasion.

The co-operation of the Government in execution of the resolutions of Congress, so far as they conduce to the publick good, is an obligation on its part, the fulfilment of which you may expect under any circumstances. The Nation has placed its confidence in you, and you have deserved it, and in that confidence it has appointed you to legislate for its dearest interests. Make yourselves worthy of it under the blessings of the liberal World; and consecrate yourselves, with zeal and firmness, to the radical cure of our political wounds. Your honour and that of Colombia—your fortunes and those of the people you represent-your fate and that of your Country, a Country worthy of all our sacrifices,-depend upon your labours. Your determination is the life or death of Colombia. Europe and America contemplate you, and posterity waits with justice to bless or execrate your memory. For myself, being the First Representative of the Republick of Colombia, its First Magistrate in the actual exercise of Government, an old Soldier of liberty and a faithful subject of the Laws, I cannot, nor will I, barter the glory of my Country and its Institutions for ruin and anarchy.

Bogota, May 12th, 1827.

F. DE PAULO SANTANDER.

PROCLAMATION of the Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar, respecting the Neutrality of Great Britain towards the Belligerent Subjects and Vessels of Europe and America, in British Ports.-12th October, 1826.

BY HIS EXCELLENCY SIR George Don, &c. &c.

His Majesty being determined, in consonance with the state of Peace happily subsisting between Great Britain and the Powers of Europe and America, to observe and cause to be observed, the strictest neutrality towards all Belligerents whose Subjects or Vessels may frequent the Ports of His Majesty's Dominions; the Lieutenant-Governor has been instructed by His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, to make known these His Majesty's sentiments within this Dependency. All Subjects of any of the said Belligerents are, therefore, hereby prohibited making the Port of Gibraltar a place of rendezvous for any warlike purpose, or with a view of obtaining facilities of equipment; and further, are prohibited bringing in (except in case of disstress) any prize, or any part of the cargo of prizes, which they may make on the commerce of their Opponents; and all Persons residing in Gibraltar are hereby forbid, under pain of His Majesty's high displeasure, aiding or abetting the armed Ships of any of the Belligerents, in carrying on hostile operations against the opposing Party, should such armed Ships attempt to rendezvous in this Port.

Given at Gibraltar, this 12th day of October, 1826.

By command,

G. DON, General and Lieutenant-Governor.

R. MARTIN, Acting Civil Secretary.

NOTIFICATION of the French Government, respecting the Blockade of Algiers.—27th June, 1827.

Circular to the Ministers of Foreign Powers.

MONSIEUR L'AMBASSADEUR, Paris, le 27 Juin, 1827. J'AI eu l'honneur d'annoncer, le 7 de ce mois, à Votre Excellence, le départ d'une division navale que le Roi avait jugé nécessaire d'envoyer devant Alger, pour demander satisfaction des torts dont le Dey s'était rendu coupable envers la France. Cette réparation n'ayant point été accordée, le Commandant de l'Escadre de Sa Majesté s'est conformé à ses ordres en effectuant le blocus d'Alger, qui a dù commencer le 13 de ce mois. J'ai l'honneur de prévenir Votre Excellence de cette disposition, en conséquence de laquelle toutes les mesures autorisées par le droit des gens seront prises et exécutées à l'égard des vaisseaux neutres qui tenteraient de violer le blocus. Je prie Votre