with ports, their geographical situation which approximates them so much to Europe,―every thing combines to convince us of the great advantages which individuals, possessing capital, liberal ideas, and commercial activity, would reap in course of time from their intercourse.

The climate of most of those extensive countries is salubrious and pleasant; the soil is in most places fertile, and in some so varied, that it nurses every plant, from the pine-apple and the indigo of the burning zone, to the moss and the lichen of the remotest north; the mines, too, are rich to a proverb; and the facilities for commerce (whether on account of being washed by the Atlantic and the Pacific, and thus having access alike to the arts of the East and the West, or on account of the mighty rivers which roll their tides for thousands of miles) are greater than those enjoyed by any other regions of equal extent.

Well might the Abbé de Pradt, to whom gratitude is due for his efforts on the subject of South America, exclaim, "Let us not dispute the fact, but candidly confess, that, as yet, America is discovered only in name, and geographically. The treasures it contains are still buried riches, which its freedom alone can discover to the Old World. When we yield to the contemplation of those blessings with which the independence of this immense continent will overwhelm the universe, the imagination is sterile to conceive, and language too weak for their description!"

Their independence once established, the Colombians will not delay opening a trade with Japan, China, and India. Their coasts, bordering on the Pacific Ocean, give them great advantages in such a trade over European nations. Porto Bello and Nicaragua will be, in some years, the staples where all America bordering on the Atlantic, and probably Europe itself, will go to purchase Indian merchandise. This change in that great trade will produce one as considerable, in the relative wealth and power of states, as that of the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. The Americans themselves will take to Bengal and China the metals which they furnish to Europe for maintaining this trade. The day when commerce shall take this new direction, and that day is not so distant as many suppose, will be that of the independence of the nations of Asia as well as of America, not to mention those innumerable advantages which necessarily result from unshackled commerce. The Americans of the United States have carried on the East India trade, for more than fifteen years past, with greater relative profits than the English. Those of Colombia will have only a third of the distance to sail, and will navigate on cheaper terms.

Nor is this all. The Atlantic will be joined to the South Sea by more than one canal. Nine easy communications between them are pointed out by M. de Humboldt, in his political essay on New Spain. Since 1788, boats have sailed up

through the ravine of La Raspadura to Choco, by which they have passed from the Pacific Ocean into the Sea of the Antilles. A canal across the Isthmus of Panama, would be a matter of no great difficulty. An isthmus of only thirty miles between two oceans, cannot be an insuperable barrier to the inventive genius and perseverance of man in the present age; and the ground is generally thought by late travellers to be more suitable for an enterprise of this kind, than the academicians have reported.

To this industry of commerce it may be objected, that indolence and procrastination are faults of the South American character. On this very account, however, it is, that the country offers the greater encouragement to European knowledge and activity.

Unhappily the policy of the cabinet and the interests of the merchant are but too frequently separated; nor were they ever more at variance than in this instance they have been.

Let us examine the policy on which this may have been founded, and consider the advantages which the Recognition of Colombia would afford to Spain, as well as to the other European nations.

I. A STATE remote as Spain is from her former colonies, cannot govern them well. Of all the forms under which despotism can wither the liberties, drain the wealth, and consequently paralyze

the industry of man, the vice-regal form is the most obnoxious. "The sun is light and warm, but the shadow is dark and cold," says the old proverb, in which Musselmaun have declared their opinion of the direct government of the Kaliph and the delegated government of Pashas; and what became a proverb under the crescent, might also have become a proverb under the cross. The real monarch, if he be hereditary, feels toward his kingdom as a proprietor toward his estate: the love of his own offspring (a love which even the tiger feels) conspires with his natural feeling of justice, and even comes in the place of that feeling, should it be wanting, to wish to continue the prosperity of his people. The viceroy, on the other hand, is a tenant at will: he accepts his office for the love of gain; and, like all other tenants at will, he strives to make the most of his time. These propositions have had ample demonstration in the conduct of the Spanish Viceroys in South America; and the demonstration may yet be found in the state of the country.

When distant colonies, moreover, become populous and revolt, they are always lost to the parent state. She is generally soon beaten by land; and her blockade by sea is contemptible. In the case of Spain and her former colonies, let any one take the map, and run his finger from the Colorado to the Marañon, (even omitting the few patches that are British), and from Puerto San Francisco, round by Cape Horn, to the estuary of the Plata: b

VOL. I.

many

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Let him count how grees are in that line of coast; let him take note of the creeks, and bays, and gulfs, and navigable rivers of great length, that are formed around them; and then let him count the number of ships that would be required for the complete blockade of such a coast. The fact is, that to talk of such a thing is equally absurd and dangerous-dangerous, because of the enemies which Spain would by its means raise up, and the small power that she has of contending with those enemies. If she were fool-hardy enough to do so, then must she determine to lose both the sovereignty and the trade of South America by the same policy. By such a proceeding she could hurt only herself. Colombia and the other new states have nothing to fear at her hands: they have beaten her already both by sea and by land; and if she is to have any thing to do upon the waters, we "guess" it would be as well not to molest the ships of Jonathan. It is no doubt galling to the pride of the Spanish monarch to be obliged to doff the proud addition of "King of the Indies;" but he should remember that our late sovereign got rid of the equally absurd addition of "King of France," after France had become republican. We think that Spain should in the same quiet way doff all her pretensions to lands which no longer suit her; and that she should especially take care not to quarrel with her neighbours upon grounds so frivolous. She