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heart been made glad to see a Chief Justice of the Courts gird up his loins for a journey of circumnavigation, walking swiftly through the Reports, then stepping into the uncertain marshes from which flows the Common Law, and wallowing through these juicy bogs into the statutes of the Picts and Saxons; then ascending to the marble vestibule of the civilians, and treading the cold colonnades of that imperial temple; thence exploring Egyptian, Jewish, and Hindoo codes, and reappearing to the view of an alarmed public with curiosities as unwieldy as obelisks and Assyrian sculptures. It is also a goodly thing to see some mathematician, in the expectation of finding a short cut into certain mysteries, attempt voyages to which poor Sir John Franklin's is a joke. I have seen them wedged in by the icebergs, (as one

the Royal Academies, (as woodsmen are re- | warded by the Board of Supervisors for trapping wolves and panthers,) it cannot be expected that enterprising young men will stop to gossip with ancient chroniclers about queens and chamberlains who have been Just these thousands of years. When compounds which could have blown Babylon sky-high are to be mixed daily in chemists' laboratories, who is going to undergo the seventy years' captivity again, like some profound Hebraists we wot of? No; earth, air, and the heavens are to be investigated, and for other things there is no time. The learned world, not long ago, got on the scent of some new planets, and whole universities set off ravenously after the poor little things which had done nobody any harm, like villagers turning out to rid the neighborhood of foxes. They have bagged some half-may say,) and besieged by morses and white dozen, I think, within five years. It was dreadful to see what an appetite was roused by success. The rage seems to have somewhat abated at present; at least, the multitude have gone back to their business, leaving a few inveterate old Leatherstockings still hunting with their smooth-bores in the haunts of these wary orbs. Even the ladies sallied out in the great hunt. Miss Mitchell, as is well known, performed the Amazonian exploit of "settling" a fine comet one bright evening, and wears the Prussian medal (or Danish, is it?) in testimony there

of.

bears, (to continue the Polar illustration,) till one would, without hesitation, pronounce the good gentleman's case quite hopeless. But at length the barriers crack, the growling besiegers are baffled, and the stout adventurer presses on to other perils. All are not equally fortunate, however. Occasionally you will meet one, who, like the Ancient Mariner, seems to have shot an albatross somewhere, contrary to the marine Game Laws, and must needs go around with his narrative, fastening himself upon wedding guests and other honest people, who have plenty to do besides hearing strange and uncomfortable tales of far countrees.

These are not Book-Rovers, but BookTravellers. Shall I tell you what Book-Rovers are?

To recall our wandering wits to the subject of this disquisition. As certain inducements, besides the mere fun of the thing, seduce our merchant and divine into outlandish places, so, when certain objects are -Genius of Nonsense! I have listed to be gained thereby, some men are even under your flag, I fear, and of course feel tempted to undertake desperate and dis- bound to wear off my fingers up to the couraging pilgrimages into the Wilderness knuckles, or even higher, in your service, of Books. How many sturdy monks and whenever required so to do. If, however, weather-beaten theologians has the world such an humble recruit might presume to seen trudging, staff in hand, through my- take the liberty of an old pensioner, I would thological deserts, ransacking dusty scholas- suggest that you ought to be satisfied with tic catacombs, and agitating the dry bones my exploits for the present, and grant me of prophets, and fathers, and hierarchs, a furlough. By your leave, therefore, great (falling to blows not unfrequently, in sor-Genius, I will go my way. If you disaprow be it told, and bruising each other scandalously with their knotty cudgels,) and returning from their wanderings in old age with ponderous spoils. How oft has our

prove of the desertion, and dispatch a corporal's guard to apprehend me, allow me to advise you, send the fastest one in the barracks.

G. H. M.

THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, AND THE EXTERNAL POLICY OF ENGLAND.

THE following article requires a word of explanation. It is from a French gentleman, long a planter in Venezuela. We admit it into our columns for its many points of interest, and for the boldness, eloquence and force with which the writer's views are given, notwithstanding his deficient knowledge of our language. Some of these views we do not agree with, but it will do no harm to submit them for the consideration of our readers. The author should have fortified his charges against Great Britain by some documentary or historic proof. We give it as it comes to us, with all its peculiarities of style and idiomatic expressions, trusting that our readers will agree with us, that these add to its raciness, and in many places give it additional force.-ED.

THE continental system, originating in | the mind of Napoleon, ought not to be considered as a conception of a superior order, whether regarded in a political, industrial, or humanitary point of view. It is an oldfashioned idea, confined to a narrow sphere, which, under the powerful lever of the inflexible will of Napoleon, and under the influence of the vast genius of this modern Charlemagne, has taken colossal dimensions, and made an immense development.

But we must admit that the continental blockade promulgated in 1806, at Berlin, by his decree, was but a sanguinary response to the declarations of the blockade, by which Great Britain pretended to interdict to neutrals the entry of every port which it pleased her to put under subjection, without having the ability to blockade them in reality. It was this fulmination, a species of excommunication, emanating from the palace of St. James's, which pretended to circumscribe such cities and sea-ports as were not in the good graces of the British.

The 15th March, 8th April, and 16th May, 1806, they declared under blockade the coasts of the continent, from the Elbe to the port of Brest, and all the ports of the Adriatic. To such a violation of all recognized principles, what answer could be given? From Berlin Napoleon responded to the cabinet of St. James, that he, on his privileged authority, as Emperor of the French, declared under blockade all the British Islands.

Great Britain would not remain quiet. On the 7th of January, 1807, she declared

under blockade all the ports of France and of her colonies. Moreover, on the 11th and 25th November in the same year, she proclaimed that all cargoes, accompanied by a certificate of origin not English, and presented by Frenchmen, would be seized by her ships.

France replied, proclaiming that all neutral vessels that should submit to be visited by England, or should put into an English port, would be denationalized and seizable in all places as English property.

In the face of this embittered struggle-of this unjust procedure on the part of the two governments, who had declared a war of extermination, and who recoiled not from any means by which they could injure their enemies, whatever might be the injuries done to other nations, so feeble that they had to remain spectators of such violations of all the laws of international right and of humanity-what were the seas but a series of dangerous rocks, where it was impossible to escape the unrestrained privateers of one of the belligerent nations without falling into the legalized piracy of the other?

The Americans at last grew tired of being victims. Accordingly, acts of Congress, under date of 1st March and 9th August, 1809, were passed, in which they resolved to abandon Europe, and not to send any more of their vessels there.

The governments of France and Great Britain became themselves ashamed of their proceedings. They saw the necessity for justifying such excesses, and published manifestoes, each of them endeavoring to throw

the blame on the other. Latterly another war came to distract the arms of France, and she was forced to confine herself to the continent.

At length two treaties of peace were made; the one in 1814, the other in 1815. These treaties did not, any more than the treaty of the peace of Amiens, speak of neutrals, notwithstanding all the powers of Europe were there, and particularly Russia, who had so often proclaimed the sanctity of the principles of neutrality. Why this silence in these treaties? Why has the right of neutrals been left unsettled, depending in the event of every war on the degree of passion of the combatants? Why these things and not others? Beaumarchais would demand, why? I am ignorant of it. Were the framers at this epoch more interested in legitimacy than in humanity and in commerce? Did they fear to wound the feelings of the British Government? Is it forgetfulness, or is it confidence in the duration of peace? Whatever it might be, it is considered as a great oversight-the absence of certain rules upon so important a point of international rights.

Should a new war occur either with France or any other nation of Europe or of the world, the sea would again be transformed into an arena of incessant rapine, fruitful of the fury of the belligerents, consulting no other law than their anger. It is indispensable to the commerce of all nations, that it should not be at the mercy of all kinds of governments, who should feel themselves disposed to engage in war.

It is a very proper time, in the midst of profound peace, and when the eyes of all nations turn with disgust from the scenes of disorder by which Great Britain and France disgraced the civilization of the nineteenth century,—it is a very proper time, that the governments of those nations, who are considered the first, should agree upon some terms which they would respect themselves and cause others to respect likewise. Nothing is more easy than to make a code of neutrality. Let all the legislative assemblies be interrogated upon this important matter, make it the subject of appeal to all nations, and you will have a response from every side. Blockade must sometimes exist, but in an actual blockade, the flag should cover the merchandise; the munitions of war only should be prohibited.

VOL. VIII. NO. III. NEW SERIES.

These are not new principles; they have been admitted repeatedly at various and at all times, when nations have been dispassionate. Napoleon himself, when, burning with anger, he wrote, at Berlin, in 1806, at the point of the sword, the terrible decree of the continental blockade, well knew that it was absolutely necessary to respect the rights of humanity; for that reason, he desired to make Great Britain responsible for the consequences of the continental blockade by combating his eternal enemy with her own arms. He himself proclaimed that the right of conquest ought not to be applied but to those who belonged to the State of the enemy, and not to the property or to the merchandise and vessels of individuals; that the blockade should be real, and confined only to fortified places. He proclaimed all contrary conduct monstrous and in violation of international law, as acknowledged by civilized nations.

The time has now arrived when the governments of enlightened nations should give security to the commerce of the world, and respond to the appeal which reflecting minds among all nations have urged, so that this generous end may be attained.

The continental blockade was not accepted, but submitted to by the several cabinets of the continent. Subsequently by force of his victories Napoleon successively constrained Austria, Russia, and Prussia to acknowledge the continental system.

This blockade, which was for the continent in general, but for France in particular, a source of prosperity, by favoring the several nations of Europe in the development of their manufacturing industry, gave a fatal blow to the commerce of Great Britain. The ports of Europe closed against her vessels-the prosperity and production of the East Indies always increasing numerous manufacturers working without cessation and without markets sufficient for their products-such was the critical position in which Great Britain found herself. statesmen were then obliged to find some means by which to remedy this deplorable state of affairs. In these circumstances, to what expedient was the British Ministry under the necessity of having recourse, to heal the commercial wounds inflicted by the continental system-to create new resources-in fine, to open new markets and to find a sufficient outlet for the goods of her

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Her

merchants and the productions of her manufacturers? For this purpose they turned their attention to the colonies across the

seas.

From the consideration of the foregoing facts, we will find, upon examination, that she was forced to adopt a political system with regard to the colonies of the European nations, for the purpose of placing them in more direct commercial connection with herself, and so bring them to a state of greater or less dependence upon her.

All the colonies belonging to France were induced to separate by force from the mother country, and also those belonging to Spain to throw off the yoke of colonial vassalage.

She endeavored to destroy in these countries monarchical principles, and substitute in their place democratic-to convert all these States into small republics, offering them effectual support on the express condition of forming with her commercial treaties; developing in these young and feeble republics, who did not create on account of their weakness any feeling of jealousy, the germs of industry and of civilization; in fine, creating among them new wants, and, in reality, instigating a consumption of her products greater and more multifarious.

Such was the admirable political plan that Pitt, Fox, and their successors adopted in regard to the colonies.

By being mediators between the colonies and the mother country, the British Government could maintain the conservative principles of European governments. But this way of mediation was not in harmony with the politics of the British Ministry. The English merchants, as soon as they entered into treaty with the revolted subjects for the exploration of the mines, despoiled the Spanish crown of the revenue of twenty per cent. to which it was entitled according to the old charters. Great Britain did not deny to the mother country her legal right. But, in pursuance of political events, which were not well enough explained, the mother country was not able to exact this right. Thus, although the feeling of reciprocal wants the same religion, and the same habits, tended to unite the Spanish of the New World with the mother country, England, stimulated by the allurement of new outlets which were offered to her industry, encouraged, by her example and

| by the influence of her politics, an emancipation, which not only presented to her many actual advantages, but which yet ravished from Europe the benefits of her commercial balance. It is very probable that America will be able to learn to dispense with the productions of Europe, before Europe can free herself from the usages and from the wants which will render it her tributary.

Amongst the colonies which have shaken off the yoke of the mother country, and which have conquered their independence, there is one which chiefly deserves to fix the attention of the historian, not only in respect to the vast extent of her territories and to the fertility of her soil, but also for the full and vivid blaze of glory, which Bolivar, the Washington of tropical America, has spread over its politics and over its history.

After this, it is easy to perceive that I intend to speak of Colombia. I propose in this article to give a succinct history of Colombia, and to conduct the reader gradually across the diverse phases which have caused this vast country to throw off the yoke of Spain, and which have occasioned her division into several small Republics; to consider, in a new aspect, the incessant action which Great Britain has exerted on this colony, and the direction which she has known how to give to the politics of this country for the interest of her commerce.

In order to initiate the reader into the intimate details of the history of Colombia, and in order to give to him an exact idea of the diverse transformations which this country has gone through, I regard it as indispensable to get at the fountain-head, and to broach the chief political events which signalized the last years of the eighteenth century. The existence of Colombia is of recent date, and the causes of this existence do not go beyond the last years of the past century.

It was in 1781, at Socorro, in New-Grenada, where, in reference to the duty of Alcavala, the first spark of the fire and conflagration, which ought to have destroyed for ever the dominion of the kings of Spain in this part of the world, was kindled. This movement was soon suppressed; nevertheless, the agitation among the people, and the desire for independence, had

already made such progress as to warrant another outbreak.

In 1794 the state of France was known. The fermentation was general, and the rights of men, proclaimed by the French Republic, were printed in Santa Fé de Bogota. But this start towards freedom was arrested. Until 1806 Caraccas and Santa Fé remained subject to Spain. At this time Miranda. At this time Miranda armed, partly at San Domingo, partly at New-York, an expedition for seizing them. But this expedition was unsuccessful, because the forces at the disposal of Miranda were not sufficient. The troops which he had disembarked were taken prisoners, and some soldiers were sentenced to death.

In 1808, the imprisonment of the King of Spain was a sufficient pretext for erecting the standard of revolt in all the provinces. In 1810 the invasion of Spain by the French army gave to the chief inhabitants of Caraccas occasion to separate from the mother country. New-Grenada took example from Caraccas.

All the provinces took up arms, under the pretext of throwing off the yoke of France and of maintaining the rights of Ferdinand. But soon after, the province of Caraccas was the first to declare that she never should recognize any king, and that she would not adopt any other form of government but such as should be organized by her representatives. Santa Fé followed this example. The Captain General and the Chiefs of Audience were confined in prison. A little while sufficed, and each province elected representatives and formed a government, and shortly Congresses were established at Caraccas and at Santa Fé.

The new government assumed the name of the Venezuelian Confederation. The Regency and the Cortes of Spain acted then with rigor. In this state of things Congress made, on the 5th of July, 1811, a proclamation, declaring formally the independence of the country. The cause of the republicans seemed to be triumphant, and they gave to themselves a constitution. In the meanwhile, Monteverde, the Spanish General, in 1812, taking advantage of an earthquake which had produced a profound impression on the superstitious minds of the inhabitants, attacked Caraccas, and after having defeated Miranda, he forced all the provinces to submit to him.

In 1813 the Confederation sent troops

under the command of Bolivar, and Caraccas was again declared free.

In 1814 the royalist party received numerous reinforcements and had some suc

cesses. General Boves expelled Bolivar; but the tyranny which the Spanish chiefs exerted against the revolters had for its only result an increase of the rebellion. The mass of the population took up arms. Bolivar, thanks to his genius and to his perseverance, surmounted all obstacles. After several bloody battles, the royalist troops were exterminated or dispersed, and Bolivar entered triumphantly into Caraccas on the 26th of August, 1815, at the head of the independents. Several diverse circumstances and events caused the dissolution of the Congresses established at Santa Fé and Caraccas. Be that as it may, it is the same man, Simon Bolivar, who gloried in forming, on the 17th of December, 1819, with NewGrenada and with Caraccas a single State, which assumed the name of the Republic of Colombia, and in reuniting a Congress.

The General Congress of this Republic assembled on the 6th of May, 1821, at Rosario de Cucuta. The old Republic of Colombia, founded by Bolivar, was composed of New-Grenada and Caraccas. It was the most powerful of all the States of Southern America which had shaken off the yoke of Spain. In reality, vast territories, an immense extent of coasts on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the harbors of La Guayra, of Puerto Cabello, of Maracaibo, of Coro, of Cumana and of Chagres, on the Caribbean sea and on the Atlantic ocean; the harbors of Panama, of Santa Martha, of Porto Bello, of Magdalena, on the Pacific ocean; a population of about three millions of souls, a very fertile soil, and generally a very healthy climate.

As it is seen above, this immense Republic possessed all the elements of power and of prosperity. For the government of that State, the frontiers of which were so much extended, only one President, one Congress, one Ministry, one army were needed. The public revenue was composed of custom duties, of the monopoly on tobacco and brandies, and of post duties.

I repeat it again, this immense extension of territories, this great number of harbors on the two oceans, constituted for this Republic many fruitful elements of prosperity and of power. But these boundaries, which

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