should have been for the young Republic of Colombia a fruitful element of success, did not suit the political views of Great Britain. This immense Republic, flourishing and well administered, would have had too heavy a weight in the political balance of the two Americas, and would have been able yet to thwart and perhaps to compromise, in the future, the influence of Great Britain in that portion of the world, by cementing a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance with the United States.

Again: The present and even the future interests of the immense commercial factories and colonies which Great Britain possessed, not only in North America but in Central and South America, put her under the neces sity to sap the foundations of this edifice, which was built of such vast dimensions and which had so many elements of strength and of durability, and to build again in its place, with the same materials it is true, but on a more frail and less solid basis, several smaller edifices, isolated from each other, without style and without harmony. The British Government resolved then to parcel out the Republic of Colombia into several small Republics, and to destroy, consequently, at any price, the admirable work of the illustrious Bolivar. This new combination entered perfectly into the political views of Great Britain. In fact, it became more easy to her to manage to her taste these small, poor, resourceless and unrevenued Republics than a rich and powerful one. For that purpose the British Government credited, by her agents, throughout the country, the impression that the immense territories of Colombia, the limits and boundaries which she had at that time, were of too considerable extent, the effect of which was great difficulty of communication; that in consequence thereof the central government spent too much time in sending their orders to the several departments; that the public affairs consequently suffered therefrom in an inconceivable manner; and that it was therefore highly advantageous to divide this vast country into several Republics more closely compacted. The short-sighted statesmen of Colombia, who encompassed General Bolivar, fell head down into that specious trap which was set for them by the policy of Great Britain. They were full of admiration for this new Machiavelian measure, thrown to

them by the cabinet of St. James, and promulgated throughout Colombia. They were so blind that they did not discover the fatal consequences which would necessarily result from this project of division. At least, said they, when Colombia will be divided in several Republics, the machinery of the government will work better; the orders of the government will be transmitted to its agents more quickly and seasonably. Undoubtedly, the orders of government will be forwarded to their destination with more celerity; the circulation will be more active, because the sphere in which each Republic will move will be more narrow and confined. These Talleyrands and these Metternichs on a small scale considered this grave question but on one side, and examined it not at all on the other. If they had considered that serious question in its double aspect, they would have been able to comprehend the bearings of that impolitic measure, and they would have been afraid of the disastrous results which would be the unavoidable consequences of it. In effect, on one side, a circulation, to speak the truth, more active, a population more compacted; but, on the other side, no harbors, no coasts towards the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as they had before, no more, or few, very few, of custom duties. Instead of one President, one Vice President, one Ministry, one Congress, one army, one budget, there were two Presidents, two Vice Presidents, two Ministries, two Congresses, two armies, two budgets; therefore, thanks to the Machiavelian combination, the profits were diminished by half, and the influence, in both the Americas, was lost; and the expenses of all kinds and descriptions were augmented by half. In fine, by the strength of these machinations and intrigues, Great Britain succeeded in getting adopted a political plan which harmonized so well with her ulterior views, in effecting the division and parcelling out of the Colombian territories. celling in several small, unextended, uninfluential Republics of that immense Republic was decided upon, and therefore the work of the immortal Bolivar, the Colombian Republic, was destroyed.

The par

To assist us in our purpose, it will perhaps be necessary to take a further rapid comparative glance of the policy of Great Britain and of France.

Great Britain and France may be consid

ered as two immense rival manufacturers, constantly desirous of finding customers.

In respect to management, there exists a very marked difference between the policy of Great Britain and that of France. In Great Britain commerce directs her politics. In France politics direct her commerce. Here is the Gordian knot.

But why is it that the interior politics of Great Britain, sometimes magnanimous and generous, seem so often in opposition to their exterior politics, and place the destiny of nations in the same balance with their commercial interest? It is because of habits and an education, the tendency of which is to divert Englishmen from all that presents the aspect or appearance of abstractions, and confines them to a sort of empiricism, which incites them to consider objects but on their physical side.

Decidedly, the spirit of affairs, which has a very great influence over the moral energy, holds the exterior politics in dependence, and produces evils which strangely contrast with the pride and magnificence of a nation which, in some respects, has acquired unquestionable rights to our admiration. The British nation was the first to proscribe the slave-trade by branding it with the stamp of infamy. It is beautiful, undoubtedly, to see religious zeal propagating, in the various States of America, the principles of Christianity; but why is this same zeal, whose purpose it is to convert souls to the faith here, not acting also in Hindostan? Why does not the British Government, at the same time that it propagates the advantages of its civil and political institutions, for instance, the trial by jury, &c. &c., establish in the East Indies the most fundamental institution of all-religion? If it is because the worship of Brahma and of Mahomet renders these people more disposed to obedience than this unjust, domineering disposition, fearing that a purer morality, by elevating and purifying the souls of those who receive it, would not enable the people to bear the yoke of servitude, sacrifices the most sacred rights, in order to satisfy their insatiable cupidity, then the spirit of their religious dogmas is nothing but that inflexible "règle de plomb," leaden rule of right, which the celebrated author of Anacharsis speaks of in his writings, that bows the mind at the shrine of interest and policy.

In the midst of wars which have deluged Europe in blood for almost seventy years, in the midst of despotism which has laid her heavy and destructive hands on various portions of the continent, Great Britain, sheltered from the storm which she had the skill to create, protected by laws which she does not permit to be violated with impunity, competitor of all the industrial world, has judiciously known how to turn to her own benefit the false systems of politics followed by other European cabinets, and has been, therefore, in position to enable her to improve her manufactures, her agriculture, to extend her industry, and to develop her commercial resources. By frightening the fearful thrones, she has put them in a false position; she has known how to direct to her profit events in order to extend her possessions, to increase her commerce. In fine, she has augmented her power and the power of such States as do not inspire her with fear, in order to weaken France, the only country which has always given umbrage to her. It is true that Great Britain has incurred, more and more, a large amount of debts; but at the same time she knew that the other States would also augment their debts in a very considerable degree, and that they would not have at their disposal, for paying them, all the resources which she possessed.

The gradually increasing prosperity of the British empire comes from the superiority of social organization, comparatively with the social organization among the other continental nations, from the ability of the British cabinet, which always directs to the interest of the British nation European affairs, which foresees events, and makes them subservient to her views of aggrandizement and of dominion. In fine, the system which was adopted by all the European cabinets, has created the commerce and the power of Great Britain. This truth, which few persons understand or are willing to avow, will become fully recognized, when the two Americas, penetrated and imbued with the feeling of their dignity and of their strength, governed by the general interest, will be able to reclaim the rights which belong to all nations, the social advantages derived from their trade, from their industry, and from their activity. The niggardly system followed on the continent, the prohibitions and obstacles of all kinds, the arbitrariness, the ignorance in which the continental nations

of the Archipelago, has ceased to be adverse to Greece, and suddenly the harbors of Peloponnesus have found again their liberators in the posterity of the Heraclides. From Corinth to Tenedos, the sea, which conducts to the Bos

The potency and stability of empires arises chiefly from the affection of the people for their governments, and in our age this affection cannot take place, but where it is based on a wise liberty and on laws instituted for the general interests of the social body. This fundamental truth has been very well understood by the British Government, and, on the contrary, has been misconceived by all others. Therefore, the continent has never ceased to be shaken by political convulsions. It has but little improved, as it has remained stationary, while Great Britain, profiting by the faults and errors committed by other nations, has risen in the midst of the universal agitation and troubles; she has seized the commerce of the globe, which has been almost abandoned to her, and has in that manner reached a degree of prosperity, of riches and of power unexampled in the history of nations. Great Britain, wise as she is ambitious, holds the keys of all continents, establishes there many advanced outposts, which, according to her fortune and according to circumstances, are sometimes centres of refuge for retreat, and always centres of enterprise for a trade, which, braving all dangers, knows of no

repose.

Let us stop a moment and view a spectacle unexampled in the history of nations. In Europe the British empire touches towards the north Denmark, Germany, Holland, France; towards the south Spain, Sicily, Italy and Western Turkey. She possesses islands, at once, in the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas; she commands the passage of the Black Sea as well as that of the Baltic. Momentarily the navy of Great

gonauts the way of victory to another golden fleece. In America the British empire confines Russia to the side of the poles, and the United States to temperate regions. Under the torrid zone, Great Britain domineers in the middle of the Caribbean Islands, encircles the Gulf of Mexico, and is facing the new States, which she has first secured from the yoke of the mother country, in order to put them under the dependence of her mer cantile industry. At the same time, in order to terrify, in the two worlds, all who should attempt to take from her the flambeau of her genius and the secret of her conquests, Great Britain has in her possession, between Africa and America, on the way from Europe to Asia, the rock of St. Helena, a safe and very favorable stopping place, in every respect, for her vessels returning from the East Indies,-formidable rock, where her hands enchained the modern Prometheus!— while from the island consecrated of old, under the creed of the cross, to the safety of all Christian flags, the British empire commands in Africa respect for her power from the Barbary States. From the foot of Hercules' Pillars, from the top of Gibraltar's rock, it spreads terror to the remotest parts of the Moorish provinces. On the shores of the Atlantic ocean Great Britain has built forts on the Gold Coast and at Sierra Leone. From thence she watches, with the eye of an eagle, the trade between the black slave merchants of the coast and the European slave traders, and seizes her opportunity to pounce down upon the captured Africans, binding to the glebe the freed men whom she has captured from the traders. On the same continent, beyond the tropics, and in the most remote part towards the austral pole, she has seized a shelter under the Cape of the Tempests. In the countries where the Spanish and the Portuguese had perceived but a place to stop at,-where the Dutchman had established but one plantation,Great Britain colonizes a new British nation.

Joining the activity of the Englishman to the patience of the Dutch, she extends around the Cape of Good Hope the limits

of an establishment which is destined to grow in Southern Africa, in the same manner as the States she has founded in North America. From that new focus of action and of conquest, Great Britain casts her eye on the route to the East Indies; she discovers and seizes the stations which are suitable for her commercial purposes. In order to establish with powerful elements of fixedness, of guarantee and of regularity, her communications with the East Indies through the Red Sea, she begs with the hat in hand and with a very humble politeness, of the vice-King of Egypt, the privilege of making at Aden, at Djeddah, at Moka, at Cossier, and at Suez, deposits for her coal.

Latterly she takes possession of Suez and of Aden, these two keys of the Arabian sea; she erects fortifications in these two harbors, and renders herself the exclusive ruler of the African sea-ports of the Levant and of another hemisphere. In fine, as much feared on the Persian Gulf and in the Erythree Sea as on the Pacific Ocean and in the Archipelago of the East Indies, the British empire, the possessor of the finest countries in the eastern world, is proud to see her East India Company now become a mighty instrument of power and gain.

The conquests of her merchants began in Asia, where the conquests of Alexander ended. To-day, from the shores of the Indus to the frontiers of China, and from the mouths of the Ganges to the apex of Thibet, all is subjected to the law of a mercantile company, confined in a narrow street of the city of London.

Thus, from a single centre, by the vigor of her institutions and by the improved state of her civil and military arts, an island which, in an oceanic archipelago, would scarcely occupy the third rank, impresses all the extremities of the four parts of the world with the influence of her industry and with the weight of her power. She, besides, peoples and civilizes at once a fifth part of the world, which will adopt her laws, will speak her language, and will become familiar with her arts and with knowledge, admitting her customs and her commerce. That immense dispersion of colonies and of provinces, which would cause the weakness and the ruin of all other nations, constitutes the welfare, the life and the strength of the British nation.

From these colonies and provinces, Great Britain imports her raw materials, and these

colonial commodities she re-exports after they have been refined and prepared, and with which she supplies all European nations.

In these same countries, almost all unaequainted with manufacturing industry, Great Britain transports and sells at a very low price goods of all kinds. To these same countries Great Britain transports, without competition, the products of her paper-mills, of her foundries, of her hardware, and prepared leathers.

In her diverse possessions, and merely in the interest of her own commerce, Great Britain employs on an average thirty thousand ships, and two hundred and fifty thousand seamen.

But the colossal power of Great Britain shall last but for a time. It shall have a duration but essentially ephemeral, because her existence is based, not as France, on the territorial and landed property of her soil, but on the soil and on the commerce of her colonies, which sooner or later will be lost to her. Great Britain is destined to submit gradually, in the future, to her epoch of decay. In regard to the present time, as long as Russia continues enslaved, owing to the backward state of her civilization, her Emperor will repulse all efforts of enfranchisement in Europe. The influence of Great Britain is therefore necessary, according to my opinion, for maintaining the equilibrium in the political balance of Europe, and, in one respect, for the progress of the cause of Liberty.

It matters little to Great Britain, when the necessity, the circumstances, and the interest of her commerce demand it, whether to establish in the countries which she intends to put under the dependence of her mercantile industry either constitutional monarchies or republics. In order to supply proof of what I advance, it will suffice to exemplify by an instance. Great Britain, in order to create uneasiness among the planters of the West Indies, to paralyze the production of sugar in these colonies, and to monopolize the cultivation and the fabrication of cane sugar in the East Indies, has separated from the mother country some of the West Indian colonies, and has therein substituted the republican to the monarchic element. For the same purpose, she has emancipated at once in her own colonies eight hundred thousand slaves.

I have not the Anglo-Saxon monomania. But, above all, right must be done to every one who deserves it. I honor as much the English merchant in his probity, in his prudence, in his skilfulness, as I detest the British policy in her Machiavelism, in her perfidy. The zealous partisans of British policy will tell you: "The British policy is such as it must be. The elements of that policy are, for Great Britain, a condition sine quâ non; it is as the 'to be or not to be' of Shakspeare. If you change the elements of that policy, you bring Great Britain to her ruin." Be it so! let it be so! But, notwithstanding the opinion which I have stated before concerning the existence of Great Britain, I tell it with a stake in the interest of the happiness of my country, and in the interest of the prosperity and of the tranquillity of all nations among the world, if Great Britain should persevere in the same way, if Great Britain should be for the entire universe a focus of troubles and of dissensions, it would be, indeed, an opportune occasion to apply to Great Britain that bitter word of the talented Fouché, minister of the general police under the reign of Napoleon. Fouché had been informed that a young gentleman, belonging to a very honorable family, and combining in his person, to the advantages of a very agreeable and pleasing exterior, the accomplishments of a finished education, exercised the profession of thief in the elegant world and high circles. He sent to him to come in his cabinet; he gave to him some counsels, and asked him if he was not indeed ashamed to exercise the profession of thief, which, sooner or later, would cause him to be delivered up to the police, and of being put into jail? This young gentleman answered to Fouché: "But, Sir Minister, by some means or other it is necessary that I live." To this answer Fouché replied, with that glacial accent of voice which characterized him: "At that price, I don't see the necessity of it." I, too, would say like Fouché: "At that price, I don't see the

But, ere the time arrives that this sovereign master of the world undertakes to parcel out, and to give to each nation the part she reserves for them in the future, if it is permitted to me to read in the book of destiny, if it is permitted to me to speculate as to the fortune of nations, what a majestic and consolatory spectacle presents itself to my vision!

Notwithstanding my weak sight, I discover in the distance Great Britain dispossessed of the East Indies, which, in the same manner as the United States, have freed themselves from the British yoke; but with which (and mark you how great is the forecast of the British statesmen, and with what admirable sagacity they know how to profit by the experience of the past!) with which, I say, Great Britain, instead of making, without any advantage, expenses of war, has been in haste to cement with this young republic, for her benefit and to the detriment of the other nations, very advantageous treaties of peace and of commerce.

I discover in the distance the United States, growing incessantly in their strength and in their freedom, embracing, in their immense circumscription, Canada and Mexico; confined to the south and to the east by the Atlantic ocean, confined to the west by the Pacific ocean, and to the north by the Russian and Danish possessions, peopled by a population exceeding two hundred and fifty millions of souls; divided, at least, into one hundred and twenty States, and having for that immense confederative republic only one WASHINGTON as seat of government, one President, one Congress, one army, one cabinet, but millions of militia.

I discover in the distance Great Britain struggling fruitlessly in the middle of the convulsive throes of an unrestrained competition, contesting with France and the United States naval supremacy; giving to them, in the last agony of her colossal dominion, the final maritime battle in the Caribbean sea, near the shores of Central America; and, being conquered, depositing, weary of the struggle, in the hands of these two powerful rivals the sceptre of the seas, unable herself to bear it any longer.

I discover in the distance Russia, withdrawn from the formidable rivalry of Great Britain, which has lost henceforth her preponderance, taking possession of ancient