Palace of the Government of Colombia in Rosario de Cùcuta, August 6. 1821. Let this be executed-J. M. del Castillo, for his Excellency the Vice-President ad interim of the Republic.-The Minister for the interior and justice, Diego Bautista Urbaneja.

III.-EDUCATION OF GIRLS.

Decree on the establishment of schools in the convents of nuns, for the education of girls. The Congress of Colombia considering,

1st, That the education of girls requires the particular protection of Government, that class of society being so numerous, and its influence so great;

2d, That as, in the actual state of war and desolation, it is impossible that the Government of the Republic should be able to apply the necessary funds for the schools or houses of education for the girls;

3d, Lastly, that the Kings of Spain, through similar motives and through a just and religious policy, having by a bull and brief of the Pope, dispatched to the countries now composing the Republic of Colombia, before their political change, and also lately a brief, inserted in the decree of July the 8th, 1816, in which it is ordered that houses of education for girls should be opened in all those convents of nuns where it may be thought possible; the Pope

having commissioned the most reverend archbishops, and reverend bishops, and other prelates, to grant the necessary dispensations for the establishments of schools and houses of education-decrees as follows:

Article 1. Schools or houses for education of girls shall be established in all the convents of nuns. Such institutions shall be governed according to the brief of his Holiness, inserted in the Spanish warrant of the 8th of July 1816,

Article 2. The executive power, in union with the most reverend archbishops, and reverend bishops, and other prelates belonging to their respective episcopal dioceses, from whom the most active co-operation is expected, shall proceed to the establishment of the said schools, overcoming all the difficulties that shall present themselves.

Article 3. The executive power shall also make the necessary regulations for the economical government of the schools and houses of education already established, and of those which shall hereafter be established in the convents of nuns, in union with the ordinary ecclesiastics, in all in which these ought to interfere.

Article 4. In observance of the brief of his Holiness, the respective prelates shall inform the nuns of the importance of the service they will render to their country, by dedicating themselves, with that willingness and ardour

which is to be expected from their love for virtue and for the public good, to the education of young and grown up girls.

Article 5. The regulation of which Article 3. treats, and the doubts which shall occur to the executive power, shall be laid before the next Congress.

{ Let this be communicated to the executive power, for its execution.

Given in the palace of the General Congress of Colombia in the city of Rosario de Cùcuta on the 28th of July 1821.-The President of the Congress, Jose Manuel Restrepo.-Deputy secretary, Francisco Soto.-Deputy secretary, Miguel Santa Maria.

Let it be executed-Jose Maria del Castillo, for his Excellency the Vice-President of the Republic.-The Minister of the interior and justice, Diego Bautista Urbaneja.

SECTION V.

STATE OF MIND IN COLOMBIA.

THE truth is, that the Creoles of Tierra Firme possess a quick penetrating mind. From their successful application in the schools, and the facility with which they acquire a perfect knowledge of the civil law, one may judge that

nothing is wanting for the improvement of their disposition, but a direction towards objects, the knowledge of which tends to open the understanding, form the judgment, and adorn the mind. Till the present period, the education of the Spanish Creoles partook of those national prejudices, which inspired contempt for every thing that did not originate amongst themselves. They were fully persuaded, that there existed no just sentiments, no solid principles, nor sound morality, but amongst the Spaniards, and consequently that they would incur a loss by a mixture of their own productions with those of foreign nations. But a happy revolution of opinion is now on the eve of being accomplished, and every thing announces, that the succeeding generation will exhibit to the astonished world the spectacle of a moral amelioration, achieved by the increased energy of the national wisdom, in consequence of the admission of whatever is useful in the principles of other nations. Indeed all the Creole youth, fully sensible of the insufficiency of their education, apply with avidity to the reading of foreign books, to supply the deficiency of domestic instruction. Among these, very few are to be seen who do not, with the aid alone of a dictionary, make shift to translate English and French, and use every exertion to speak them both, but particularly the former. It is at present agreed, that commerce contains a theory

more worthy of being attended to than it has yet been among them. They begin to be less ashamed of studying its regulations, and even of pursuing it as an occupation. Their extravagant passion for distinction is the only prejudice which seems to maintain its ground; but that in its turn will naturally yield to the progress of reason.

The report of Humboldt on this subject is very important. "We had great cause, says he, of satisfaction in the reception we met with from all classes of the inhabitants. I feel it a duty to cite the noble hospitality exercised towards us by the chief of the government, M. de Guevara Vasconzelos, then Captain-general of the province of Venezuela.-Although I had the advantage, which few Spaniards have shared with me, of having successively visited Caracas, the Havannah, Santa Fé de Bogota, Quito, Lima, and Mexico, and of having been connected in these six capitals of Spanish America with men of all ranks, I shall not venture to decide on the various degrees of civilization which society has attained in the different colonies. It is easier to indicate the different shades of national improvement, and the point toward whch the unfolding of the intellect tends in preference, than to compare and class things that cannot be investigated under the same point of view. It appeared to me, that a strong tendency toward the study of the sciences prevail.