them to a cause much more ge nerally popular. Taking advantage of the public feeling which existed in favour of a federal form of go vernment, and of the popular jealousy of the central government of Bogota, he proclaimed himself as seeking only these popular objects, the independence of Venezuela, purity and reform in the administration, and the immediate convocation, for the purpose of obtaining them, of the grand convention of the Colombian provinces, which the constitution had fixed for 1831. He professed, at the same time, and probably felt, the most submissive disposition towards Bolivar, and urged his return as a certain means of securing to the province the fulfilment of its wishes, without encountering the evils of a civil war. The most important cities of the province, all sharing the same feeling, followed willingly so powerful a leader in a cause to which they were cordially attached. Victoria and Puerto Cabello were secured by his officers Marino and Cala. In the city of Caraccas, a general assembly of the municipality and inhabitants unanimously adopted the resolutions of Valencia. They declared it to be necessary to invest general Paez with authority for the main tenance of public order, for raising armies, and preserving regularity in the public administration. This authority he was to retain, under the title of "Civil and Military Chief of Venezuela;" until, on the return of Bolivar, the people should be convoked to deliberate on a form of government more consonant to the locality, the customs, and the productions, of the province. It was,

likewise, resolved to despatch a messenger to Bolivar in Peru, to hasten his return, and request him to use his influence with other departments to procure the immediate convocation of the grand convention. Paez proceeded to exercise the powers conferred upon him. He was in the singular situation of having become a popular leader, in consequence of his disobedience to orders which had been directed against him, in obedience to popular clamour; and he had the boldness, under the shadow of his irregular authority, to venture upon the very measure which had excited that clamour against him, when he acted as the organ of the constitutional government. He issued a decree, ordaining every person between the ages of sixteen and fifty to appear, to be enrolled in the national militia. To assist its operation, he declaimed upon, and magnified, the dangers of invasion to be apprehended from the Spanish squadron which was still hovering in inactivity about the shores of Cuba.To raise money, he called upon the merchants of La Guayra and Caraccas to grant a voluntary loan to the provisional govern ment of 24,000 dollars, for the payment of the troops, by monthly instalments of 4,000 dollars, to bear interest at the rate of onehalf per cent per month. Some small sums were subscribed; but the authorities, seeing that they were altogether inadequate, changed the voluntary, into a forced contribution, every man being rated according to the arbi trary estimation of the intendant.

Amid all these proceedings, every one of which was utterly

subversive of the Colombian constitution, and inconsistent with any idea of an existing central authority, the government of Bogota was miserably helpless. Congress was compelled to see the public officer whom it had impeached, treating their authority with scorn, and setting them at defiance with arms in his hand. The executive saw its commands disobeyed, and its authority usurped, by the subordinate functionaries of one of its own provinces, usurped, too, for the very purpose of destroying its own existence. In July, the government issued a manifesto, addressed not only to the republic, but, as it was somewhat pompously added, "to the world," detailing the history of the Colombian confederation, and denouncing Paez as having scandalously violated his duty and his oath. They reminded the people, that, although the distress in which the republic had been involved by its long and ultimately successful struggle, was great, and although, even with the assistance of the loan from England, it could scarcely meet its engagements, yet the generals and officers, who had fought for its independence, were treated with the utmost consideration and generosity, and had received all the honours and emoluments that the gratitude of their fellow-country-men could devise or afford. Paez, the general in chief, more than all the rest, had been the object of the preference of the executive government: he had been authorized to grant whatever promotions he saw fit in the army under his command; and though he had made most unsparing use of that privilege, the government,

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from its unhesitating confidence in his prudence and discretion, had confirmed all his appointments. But, although his ingratitude had produced momentary confusion, the government expressed its conviction, that the conduct of the public functionaries, and of the towns under the command of Paez, was to be attributed solely to their incapacity to resist armed violence, and its confidence that, with the exception of a few blind partisans of his seditious projects, the bands of Venezuela were not contaminated with the spirit of mutiny or disobedience. The assertions of Paez, that he spoke the voice of the people, were utterly falsified, said the manifesto, by the conduct of the authorities, civil and military, of the neighbouring departments, whose conduct, at such an eventful crisis, gave unquestionable proofs of the stability of the republic, and afforded a speedy prospect of the re-establishment of internal tranquillity. Finally, the government declared, that Paez had violated every article of the constitution which had for its object the maintenance of order, tranquillity, and good go- | vernment, and that by his conduct the social compact had been torn, and the constitution trampled under foot.

and to dissolve the sect of which Paez had prudently declared himself to be the head, was hopeless. Paez declared frankly to Bolivar his determination to resist to the uttermost any force which might be sent against him. "I cannot answer for tranquillity," said he, "if the government of Bogota have the imprudence to discharge a single shot. I have undertaken the protection of this people; I have sworn that they shall not be molested, till their enemies have passed over my body. I will not be the aggressor, but I will take vengeance for any insults which may be offered to them, until they forsake me. Without your excellency, civil war is inevitable; and, should it once commence, I feel that, from the character of this people, there is no hope of its termination, until all be reduced to ashes." Such was the language of the Colombian government held by one of its own officers, and such the deplorable condition of its civic union. While it was compelled to stand by in idleness, the example of Venezuela was rapidly spreading. The desire to shake off their dependence on the central government spread from province to province. The municipality of the department of Guayaquill addressed an application to the government, praying that the constitution should be immediately revised and altered. The government replied, that the executive could not, without a breach of duty and a violation of oath, anticipate the period originally fixed for that purpose; that the federal form of government demanded by the discontented was essentially weak; and that the disobedience of

Venezuela alone, and part of the province of Apure, furnished no reason why the other states composing the republic should consent to the violation of a fundamental law. But to Venezuela and Apure was now added Guayaquill itself: they were speedily followed by the departments of the Isthmus, Azuay, Zulia, Magdalena; and, in a few months after the first defection of Valencia, no fewer than seven departments had declared themselves ready to throw off their connection with the central government, and to frame for themselves a new constitution. So unsteady and inconsequent were some of these Neophytes in the cause of regular liberty, that, at Quito, they voted that all liberty should be suspended, and Bolivar de-, clared Dictator; expressing a hope. that the other departments would unanimously adopt a similar mea sure. To such communications, Santander, the vice-president, answered, that he recognised no acts inconsistent with the political code which the executive had received from the Colombian people,»» and that, so long as a single town adhered to it, he would support it with his life and fortune; that there was no necessity for the "absolutely detestable" proposition to create a Dictator; and that the president, as chief magistrate, would find in the constitution itself, all the powers necessary to save it from foreign or domestic assaults.

Venezuela, in which the discord had begun, proceeded more formally than any other province to remodel its institutions. In consequence of a report by the recorder of Caraccas, which re

presented, with a melancholy de gree of truth, that, by the late political events in the departments to the westward, the republic of Colombia had been resolved into its original elements, that a new compact was, therefore, to be formed, and that all the resources of Venezuela and Apure, which had uniformly acted in concert, would be demanded by the crisis, a meeting of the authorities took place at Caraccas, at which Paez presided. At this meeting it was proposed, and carried by acclamation, that the departments of Venezuela and Apure should debelare themselves to be pure federal nstates, and invite the other departments of the dissolved repubHic to confederate with them. Paez declared, that since the 30th of April he had sworn not to obey the government of Bogota, and was determined to keep his foath a plain avowal that he at least acted from motives of personal irritation; but he was willing to resign the power with which he had then been invested, if his continued possession of it were any obstacle to the formation of a new government, As a matter of course he was successfully intreated to retain, in the mean time, his civil and military supremacy; and he was requested to issue, at his discretion, the necessary orders for the sassembling of the existing electoral colleges, and for the formation of them where none existed, in the provinces under his command, in order that, by conforming in this particular to the existing constitution and laws, regulating the number and qualifications of the representatives, forming the conEgress of Colombia, a proper number might be elected for the pur

pose of assembling at such time and place as his excellency should appoint. A similar invitation was to be given to all towns and cities comprehended within the ancient limits of Venezuela; should they think fit to concur in this com pact, they might send their representatives, who would be received as brothers, even although the session should have already opened. The meeting further resolved that, till the new assembly could be convoked, the government should remain as it had been settled by the municipality of Valencia on the 30th of April, the laws of Colombia being retained in every thing consistent with the present reforms and alterations; and a resolution declaring that whatever may be the political situation and rank which Venezuela may hold among the States of America, she will be always faithful to the obligations contracted with foreign nations and individuals, by diplo matic treaties, or pecuniary contracts, in such proportion thereof as belongs to her, in common with the rest of Colombia," was received, when scarcely announced, with such deafening acclamations of applause, as prevented all discussion or examination, as if the pompous promulgation of a promise, and the actual payment of a debt were synonymous.

Paez, in conformity with these arrangements, promulgated a decree on the 13th November, regulating the election of the deputies. The qualifications already required in the electors and candidates to the general congress were retained; but he decreed that the number of deputies returned by each electoral college should be doubled, and the constitution was

rendered more purely democratic by the suppression of the senate. The deputies were to be paid out of the funds hitherto set apart for payment of the deputies of Bogota. One sweeping article in the decree, which ordained that "all persons, without exception, who should directly or indirectly oppose the elections, or any part of the decree, should be fined and punished as a traitor," placed the life of every man at the mercy of a wild and vague law, administered by fiery party zealots. The assembly was to meet at Valencia on the 15th of January, in the following yearand thus the republic of Colombia found that its members neither had, nor thought they had, any common interest, and that it was utterly impotent in itself to prevent local jealousies, or personal ambition, from dashing it in pieces. It was fortunate that the revolution had proceeded so far without bloodshed. Some lives, indeed, had been lost at Truxillo, in the department of Zulia, but the affray was more the result of a drunken quarrel between the garrison and some of the troops of Paez, on their march to Varmas, than the open contention of opposite political opinions. The only attempt to support by force the authority of the government of Bogota, within the revolted provinces, was made by general Bermudez, who, from Carthagena, had thundered forth threatening and impotent proclamations, announcing the speedy annihilation of Paez and his rebellious adherents. Cumana having declared for the federal system adopted at Caraccas, Bermudez contrived to make himself master, with about four hundred men, of one of the VOL. LXVIII,

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batteries at the mouth of the Cumana river, where he was joined by general Monayas, who commanded in the town. The greater part of the inhabitants expecting a bombardment, fled, some to Bermudez, and others to the opposite shore; but the great mass of the population determined to resist; and, as the militia had joined the federal cause, colonel Ruiz, who took the command after the desertion of Monayas, found himself at the head of several thousand men. He made a sally on the 19th of November, and defeated Bermudez, who, after sustaining considerable loss, retired to Barcelona, leaving the town unmolested. ༠ ༣ ༠ བ

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It was only the influence and authority of Bolivar that could check these ruinous dissentions; and Bolivar was lingering in Peru, where the war had been already triumphantly finished, detained partly by the discovery of a conspiracy directed against himself, and partly by a wish to secure his power more firmly than the spirit which produced that conspiracy seemed willing to permit. Early in August, however, he had despatched a confidential person to the Intendant of Caraccas, to explain his views regarding the present state of affairs in Colombia, and proposing that the constitution which he had just framed for the new republic of Bolivia should, with some modification, be adopted at home. He left Peru in the end of August, and arrived at Guayaquil on the 12th of September, where he immediately issued a proclamation, taking upon himself all the blame of the dissentions which had occurred, and speaking of them much more in [2 D]