proclamation of the Vice President. And even this, it is not improbable, would have taken place although perhaps not so soon, had Guerrero continued to fill the presidential chair. In fact the little importance of the revolution, as it is called, considered with reference to its effects upon the policy and condition of the republic, is proved by the facility with which it was accomplished, and the remarkably short period in which perfect tranquillity was restored. It remains to be seen how long the Government

of Bustamente is to continue, and whether and to what extent his administration is likely to advance the interests and improve the condition of the people. Up to the present time (August, 1830) everything has gone on well and harmoniously. No incident of importance has occurred_since the installation of the new President, and he is represented as popular, and being actively and successfully engaged in the arduous task of restoring the finances, and augmenting the wealth and power of the republic.

C

Cushing

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THE history of Colombia during the period which falls within the history of this year is so interwoven with former events, that for the purpose of a full understanding of its political relations, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate.

In the last volume of the Register will be found a detailed account of the manoeuvres which resulted in the appointment of Bolivar as Supreme Chief of the republic. In this station he remained until the 4th of May, 1820, at which period the Constituent Congress having received his eighth and last renunciation, elected Senor Joachim Mosquera, President of Columbia.

During this last administration of the Government by Bolivar, certain facts occurred, which as having an important bearing on the subsequent history of the

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country, we will now proceed to detail.

The Liberator having been invested with unlimited authority, named a council of State to assist him in the administration of the public affairs, composed of the following inidviduals:

Jose Maria Castillo, President of the Council, Jose Manuel Restrepo, Secretary of the Interior, Gen. Rafael Urdaneta, Secretary of War,

Istanislao Vergusa, Secretary of Foreign Affairs,

Nicolos Fanno, Secretary of the Treasury, and Geronimo Fornes, Joachim Mosquera, Jose Felix Valdivia, the Archbishop of Bogota, Maotin Santiago of Ycusa, and Colonel Domingo Espinar, Secretaries.

Mosquera unwillingly accepted

the appointment at the urgent request of Bolivar and after three months sent in his resignation and retired.

During the first session of the council, Senor Castillo, submitted the project of a Constitution, which throws some additional light upon the motives and designs of the dominant party. According to this project the executive power was vested in a President without responsibility and five ministers of State to be appointed by him and responsible for all the acts of the executive.

ap

The legislative power was to be composed of two chambers, one of senators, who were to be pointed by the President, who could remove them at pleasure, and the lower house of representatives, one to be chosen by each province.

There was also to be an executive council of State composed of the Vice President, who was to be elected by the Provinces, and the Secretaries of State and a number of deputies from the chamber of representatives. All the councillors, with the exception of Mosquera, approved of this basis. Mosquera expressed an opinion adverse to the project founded on various reasons, of which the principal ones were, that in his judgment, allowing that the acts of the people were the expression of their free will, still they had conferred the dictatorship upon Bolivar, only until the next assembly of the national representation, and that these words were an express reserve of the right of constituting a Congress of Deputies of their own free choice. He also observed,

that the Colombians had generally manifested their opposition to a Senate subject to the pleasure of the executive, and although it would be joined by a chamber of duputies, they were few in number and utterly disproportioned to the population of the provinces.

Finally he explained the causes, which induced him to believe that if such a Constitution were given to Colombia, it would produce another revolution.

The Liberator then said, that although there was but one vote in opposition, the reasons advanced by Mosquera gave him great pain and he would take time to deliberate.

On the following day he declared to the council his opinion agreeing with Mosquera and the project was abandoned.

The Supreme Chief then published the organic decree of the 27th August, 1828, which was to serve as a provisional Constitution until the second of January, 1830, for which period he offered to convoke the national representation for the purpose of giving a new Constitution to the Republic.

After the termination of the war with Peru, by the treaty of peace concluded in Guayaquil on the 22d September, 1829, public attention was directed to the meeting of the constituent Congress convoked for the 2d of January, 1830, with the view of giving a complete and efficient reorganization of the republic upon a firm and permanent basis.

On arriving at this epoch, which has terminated in universal confusion, we will briefly review some of the most remarkable facts which

have thus placed Colombia on the brink of ruin and shaken her political fabric to its foundation.

During the absence of Bolivar in the South, the administration of the Government was placed in the hands of his council of Ministers. It had before been suggested, that the most appropriate form of government for Colombia, was a Monarchy, and the present moment wrs seized upon to effect the change.

M. de Bresson and the Duke of Montebello had just arrived at Bogota as Commissioners of the King of France, and the project was proposed to them, with the understanding that if France would render her assistance, they would propose the coronation of a French Prince.

This treasonable project was mainly supported by Gen. Rafael Urdaneta, a member of the council and Istanislao Vergusa, Secretary of Foreign Relations.

The French Commissioners merely replied that they would inform the government of the proposal, as they had no authority to act in an affair of this character, and the French Government up to this period has not interfered.

This affair constitutes one of those blots in the career of Bolivar, which the memory of his good deeds is scarcely sufficient to efface.

That Bolivar knew of the project there is no doubt, that he disapproved of it is equally true; but his subsequent conduct clearly indicates that his disapproval was grounded not on his opposition to a monarchy but to a French monarch.

General Urdaneta wrote to Paez at Venezuela communicating to him the designs of the council of ministers, and as will presently appear, produced an excitement, which was only quieted by the separation of that ancient province from the Republic of Colombia.

Meanwhile, Jose Maria Cordova, general of division, arrived from the South and placing himself at the head of some patriots in the province of Novita, raised the cry of liberty. The Governor of the province of Novita followed his example; but the movement was partial and ineffectual.

The council of ministers, knowing the intrepidity and patriotism of Cordova had prepared themselves for the emergency. And a strong column was immediately despatched from Bogota against him, headed by General O'Leary, by whom he was defeated, and mortally wounded, not without suspicions that his wounds were not received in battle.

Bolivar, who was still in the South, and who knew full well the disposition of Cordova, received from him a letter in which he declared with frankness and energy

his firm resolve to die if necessary in defence of the liberty of his country and the republican system.

The inflammatory state of Venezuela and the causes which were there preparing another revolution were equally known to him, and filled with alarm and disquietude, he set out on his march for the Capital. The precarious situation of public affairs and the increasing distrust of his own motives and designs, at length determined the

Liberator again and for the last time to retire from the civil command, still however offering to sustain with his sword the Constitution which the new Congress should give to the republic.

In the department of the South, the popular choice fixed upon Mosquera, who was then in Papayan, having withdrawn himself from public affairs since his retirement from the office of State Councillor. Bolivar on his march from the South visited Mosquera in Papayan and urged upon him his wish, that he would consent to become a candidate for the chair of State.

It was said, that Mosquera at first declined the dangerous honor, pleading his ill health and his repugnance to undertake so arduous a charge as that of reconciling the discordant materials of which Colombia was composed.

It certainly was a difficult matter for a single citizen to undertake to quiet the tempest then raging in the republic, and however highly we think of the patriotism and talents of Mosquera, we are disposed to question his power to have controlled the independence of the immense number of military chieftains with which the country was harassed, and which had in fact rendered it a military republic..

Bolivar arrived at Bogota on the 15th of January, 1830, and on the 26th of the same month installed the Constituent Congress of the republic.

In his message to Congress of the same date, he makes use of these remarkable words:

'If it had not been my lot to possess the honorable advantage of calling upon you to represent the rights of the people, that in conformity with the wishes of your constituents, you might remodel our institutions, this would be the place to exhibit to you the fruit of twenty years' exertions consecrated to the service of my country. But it is not for me to point out what all the citizens have the right to demand from you. I alone am deprived of this civic privilege, because having called you together and explained your duties, it is not permitted me in any manner to influence your counsels. It would be superfluous to repeat to the delegates of the people what Colombia has written in characters of blood. My only duty is reduced to unrestricted submission to the laws and the magistrates you may bestow upon us, and my fervent aspiration is that the will of the people may be proclaimed, respected and fulfilled by its delegates.'

After recommending in the strongest terms the necessity of naming another individual for the chair of State, he proceeds. Believe me, a new magistrate is indispensable for the republic.

'The people wish to know if I shall ever cease to command. Show yourselves, citizens, worthy of representing a free people by banishing every idea that upposes me necessary to the republic.

'A state dependent on one man ought not to exist, and will not exist. Hear my supplications Save the republic! Preserve my