penses, and providing correspondent funds for meeting them. To those causes of fiscal embarrassment may be added at present, the necessity we have been under of increasing the standing army, with a view of opposing a vigorous resistance to the hostile undertakings of Spain. I cannot give you an accurate idea of the improvement that has been made in the treasury department, in virtue of the laws issued in the last session, owing to the short period that has elapsed since their publication. The executive has given that tone and impulse that were so essentially wanted in the general administration, the custom-houses, and treasuries of departments, always consulting, however, the strictest economy. I hope that in the course of the present legislature, you will digest a systematie arrangement of the tithe-rents, a reform in the law of direct contribution, and such other objects as the executive will point out to you in virtue of the privilege it derives from the constitution to that effect.

The various and unpleasant questions that were agitated regarding the loan of March, 1822, have been set at rest in a manner satisfactory to the parties, and honourable to the republic. For this purpose, the executive had recourse to the powers granted by you in the act of the 1st of July, 1823, and the result shall be in due time laid before you. The congress must be highly gratified in learning that our conduct in this transaction has met with the general approbation of those respectable persons in foreign countries who were best able to appreciate the difficulties which enveloped it.

I shall likewise give you a most circumstancial account of the mode and the terms on which the loan decreed on the 30th of June of last year has been raised. To those who are acquainted with the histories of other nations, the conditions of this loan have appeared highly favourable. The executive has observed, that its agents have confined themselves to the instructions they received · on leaving the capital: their operations have been conducted under the eye and direction of the Colombian minister in London, and the conduct of this public functionary has obtained the applause

of all who have observed him narrowly. It has been a source of great satisfaction to the executive, that the new loan was not negotiated until the question of the old one had been satisfactorily disposed of: and the consequence was, that the former was contracted under most favourable circumstances, which, by having been taken advantage of at the moment, saved us from the burdensome conditions to which we must otherwise have submitted. You will examine the documents which will be presented to you with accuracy and discretion, and you will receive all the necessary information thereon from the secretary of the treasury, since in this examination are comprised the interests of our constituents, the honour of the government, and the good faith of the republic. I can congratulate myself, by anticipation, with the assurance that the congress and the nation will be well pleased with this transaction.

It is essential to the public prosperity and national credit, that you employ a portion of your labours in funding the national debt. Every year that passes accumulates fresh embarrassments in this particular for the succeeding ones. The debt embraces various periods, objects and creditors, without a proper classification of each. You know well that it is absolutely necessary that a classification of those periods be made, as well as provision for the punctual payment of the interest, and the gradual extinction of the principal. Although a law on this subject was passed last session, you will agree with me in thinking that it is imperfect and informal.

The standing army continues to give proofs of its obedience to the laws. Although no enemies are to be found within the republic with whom to contend, it has remained on the war footing required by the state of European politics. The executive has carried into effect so much of the law which provided for the levying fifty thousand men as was necessary in order to reinforce the auxiliary army of Peru, to cover the coast departments, and to organize several corps of reserve in the interior.

Orders have been given for forming the national militia VOL. II. No. 4.

throughout the country, on the principle laid down by the congress of Cucuta, insomuch that several corps of citizens, who recognize the defence of the country as their first duty, are now added to our battalions. You will examine the provisional decrees which the executive has issued for the due observance of the law on this subject, and will establish a permanent system for the national militia in all the branches and objects of its organization. These measures, and the abundant elements of war which we possess, have placed the republic in a condition to present itself armed at all points, in defence of its liberty and independence.

Our naval force is undergoing that improvement and increase, which, in our immediate circumstances, it requires. The Colombian flag has made itself respected throughout the seas; and where it has encountered that of Spain, it has left a monument of the superiority which it derives from the valour of its sailors. The executive has adopted measures for fixing the strength of our navy, as well on our rivers and coasts as on the high seas, and for laying aside such vessels as occasion immense expenses, without being of the slightest service. Little, however, can be done in this department, unless education be encouraged among our naval officers, and until the laws to which I have elsewhere referred be enforced. Naval instruction is taught in Carthagena and Guayaquil, as far as the small funds which the executive can supply for this purpose will permit; but it can make but little progress until warmly protected by congress. Having already represented the state of the army to congress in my former messages, pointing out such laws as appeared to me necessary and just, I shall content myself with naming the subject, in the hope that during the present session you will take this interesting object into your consideration.

Such is the state of our republic in the various branches of its administration; possessing friendship and good intelligence with American and foreign governments; regularity in its conventions and treaties; order and tranquillity at home; respect and submission to the laws; free exercise of the liberty of the press; the dissemination and advancement of public education; well-founded hopes

of improvement in the state of our treasury; an army covered with laurels, and zealously devoted to the cause of independence and liberty; together with sufficient resources for supporting, under every event, our dignity, our government, and our laws. It be longs to you, gentlemen, to remove such obstacles as impede the rapid march of the republic to its height of prosperity, and to reform those errors which the public voice and your own judg ments condemn. If we take a retrospective view, and contemplate what Colombia was when she published her code, we shall recognize with surprise the grand career we have since run, and the enormous difficulties we have surmounted. This reflection should animate us to persevere with zeal, honour, and patriotism in the exercise of our respective faculties. The executive has reason to expect these virtues from the representatives who compose the legislative assemblies, and you may rely confidently on receiving from me such assistance as my experience in the administration may enable me to afford; and above all, the strictest punctuality in the execution of your wise resolves.

FRANCISCO DE PAULA SANTANDER.

Bogota, Jan. 2, 1825-15.

BUENOS-AYRES.

ADDRESS OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF BUENOS-AYRES, TO THE NEW NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.

Senors,-It has been the fortune of the province of Buenos Ayres to receive you as our guests; and this circumstance allows its government the honour of congratulating the national representation of the provinces of the Rio de la Plata, on the day on which it is installed. The people hope that this day wlll be a day of festivity to them and to their posterity; but this hope imposes from this day a responsibility on you. If the recollection of past

misfortunes, and the idea, perhaps exaggerated, of present difficulties, terrify you, at entering on the arduous task of re-organizing the nation, you will quickly see that prudence can take advantage of the treasures of acquired experience, and form a strict alliance with the invincible power of me. This ancient friend of holy truth appeared to have renewed his wings and his arms in the great struggle of the human race, against its oppressors, of which we are witnesses. Let truth appear, and those who act the despot in the name of heaven, or in the name of the people, will be quickly known. As soon as they are known, liberty triumphs, and the compact of the national union is formed. This compact will unalterably exist, or will change, if public reason dictates, without changing the friendship which exists among nations, or coming accompanied with desolation and ruin, for reasons sufficient for all, when men in society enjoy the right of examination and the freedom of thinking.

The province of Buenos-Ayres has made a happy trial of this truth during the long period of disunion which has preceded this. Without its support we should not to-day have witnessed the realization of the difficult object proposed in accelerating the meeting of the national congress; nor would its government have been able to maintain for so long a time such relations with foreign states in the name of the other provinces, as were indispensable to ward off the blows which their enemies unceasingly directed against them, and not to discourage their friends with the idea of a complete dissolution. That government terminates to-day such honourable functions, placing in your hands, as it does, the collection of the documents relative to business of a general nature in which it has interposed since the year 1820. These documents will completely inform you of the principles which it adopted to prepare the national re-organization, its conduct with respect to the independent states of the American continent, and the actual state of its relations with European powers.

As regards the first, it proceeded on the conviction that it is not