Ecuador, Venezuela, and New Granada. Leaving the others for a little, let us follow the fortunes of New Granada. Hardly had that unhappy country started on its own account, when the most bitter feuds broke out between the Bolivianos or partisans of the ideas of Bolivar, and the so-called patriotic party; between those who wished for a strong centralized government, and those who wished for provincial independence. This contest lasted for some years, and gave rise to many deplorable incidents, one of the worst of which was the murder of Sucré, a great soldier of the War of Independence, and the same who gave his patronymic to the capital of Bolivia. Hardly were these contests ended when the ideas instinct with change which shook our old European societies in 1848 began to spread extensively in this semi-civilized country. The result is that it has never fairly escaped from the double circle, first of its own self-generated feuds, and secondly, of the imported European feuds of opinion. The last notable incident in its history occurred in 1863, when the party which was in favour of provincial independence prevailed over the party which desired a strong centralized government, and New Granada became a confederation of nine separate political entities, under the name of the United States of Colombia.

On the constitution I shall say nothing, except that it is more or less modelled upon that of the United States of America, which, indeed, has largely inspired all the legislators who have framed the fundamental laws of the lost possessions of Spain. These constitutions have a strong family resemblance, and I think one might be justified in saying that on paper they are all pretty good, with, of course, shades of difference. The very last thing, however, which it is important to consider in examining these States is their paper constitutions, and so in the course of these remarks I shall say very little upon them. Unlike some other countries in South America, the United States of Colombia have not, since the death of Bolivar, been illustrated by the deeds of any statesman or warrior whose name has

become very famous in Europe.

famous in Europe. General and ex-President Mosquera, a man of considerable acquirement, who has written. several works upon his native country, and has been mixed up for many years in its agitated fortunes, is not unknown in London; but I could not mention another name, which would be, to Englishmen who have not special relations with this part of South America, anything more than a name. Late advices spoke of General Mosquera, who was last heard of in Peru, as about to raise a new insurrection in the State of Cauca, but nothing serious has come of it.

Like all parts of South America the United States of Colombia are very scantily peopled, and cry out for immigrants. Looking to the latest figures which I have seen, which are not very late, I should guess the present population at about 2,500,000. The hotter districts of the country export rice, cotton, tobacco, cocoa, and sugar. On the elevated plains of the interior, maize, wheat, and other productions of temperate climates are largely grown, whilst the great llanos or plains export, chiefly, hides and preserved beef. Our trade with Panama1 is very great, though inferior to that of the United States, and we have also considerable relations with most of the northern ports.

The moral and intellectual level of the population is not high. Wappäus places it very decidedly below that of Mexico. In Mr. Powles's pamphlet, already cited, will be found, however, some very favourable testimonies from English employers of labour to the good qualities shown by the lower classes when well managed. The clergy is very ignorant, but has lost of late years a great deal of its power. We shall hear the same of many other South American countries. Indeed, I suspect that, although South America is nominally Catholic, there are few parts of the fold which give more anxiety at Rome.

1 In the Brazil and River Plate Mail of October 22, there is in a letter from Panama a strange report, to the effect that the Colombian Government is about to give to the Washington Government a concession for a canal through the Isthmus, together with the right of erecting fortresses at each end of the canal.

We are represented in the United States of Colombia by a chargé d'affaires at Bogotá, and we have consuls or inferior consular officers at Buenaventura, and at the very important seaport of Panamá on the Pacific coast, as well as at Chagres and Colon on the north side of the isthmus, and at Carthagena, Sabanilla, Santa Martha, and Rio Hacha, on the Caribbean Sea.

VENEZUELA.-From the United States of Colombia we pass to Venezuela. This fine country, covering about 426,712 English square miles, derives its name from the fact, that the first discoverers found the dwellers around Lake Maracaibo living in huts supported by piles, after the fashion of those villagers in ancient Switzerland, who have given of late so much occupation to the antiquary. The Spaniards called the district in which they found these amphibious settlements Venezuela (Little Venice), and the name gradually extended itself far and wide.

It is a region which has long excited the interest of European travellers. Sir Walter Raleigh visited it in his search for the land of the "gilded king," and Humboldt explored it very thoroughly. Only this year a large octavo has been published on Venezuela by Mr. Edward Eastwick, who was sent out in 1864 on a financial mission by the General Credit Company. Mr. Eastwick gives a lively sketch of what he himself observed, and condenses the latest statistical information which is to be found about the country, the great reservoir of which are the works of Codazzi, an Italian engineer who was employed to survey the country by the famous warrior, General Paez.

A good deal of information with respect to it is also to be found in a small American book which has just appeared, under the title of The Emigrant's Vade Mecum to the Price Grant1 -the "Price grant" being a concession made in Venezuelan Guiana to a body called the "American, English, and Vene

1 London and Richmond Va. U.S.A. 1868.

zuelan Trading Company," the chief movers in which appear to be persons in the Southern States of America who are disaffected to the Federal Government, and believe that they have a future before them on the banks of the Orinoco.

Mr. Maurice Block states the population of Venezuela at about 1,400,000. Half of this number is composed of mixed races, while 300,000 are Creoles, and 400,000 Indians. Writing in 1864, he says that the largest commerce is carried on with the United States and with England; but Mr. Eastwick tells us that Germany has lately pushed us to a great extent out of the Venezuelan markets, and his testimony is confirmed, so far as the region of the Orinoco is concerned, by Mr. Joel, in his report to the Foreign Office from Ciudad Bolivar in 1867. The chief exports are coffee, cocoa, indigo, sugar, and cotton.

The United States of Venezuela consist of twenty provinces, which, declaring themselves independent States, "unite," to use the words of their constitution,“ to form one free and sovereign nation," occupying the same space on the map as that filled by the Spanish captaincy-general of Venezuela. They have a president, two chambers, and all the other apparatus of well-regulated republican government, all of which advantages do not prevent them being one of the most ill-doing communities in the New World. How badly they pay their debts, many Englishmen know to their cost; and those who do not, and are thinking of South American securities, had better read the chapters which Mr. Eastwick has devoted to this subject.

Venezuela, enjoying, from its extensive northern sea-board, many opportunities of communicating with the British colonies in North America, early caught something of the revolutionary spirit, and, as far back as 1750, showed signs of disaffection. It was not, however, until our own century that that disaffection became very formidable. Both Miranda and Bolivar were natives of this part of Spanish America, and an English legion

played a very important part in the decisive battle of Carabobo, which was fought in 1821, and which closed the long and horribly sanguinary struggle with Spain. Unhappily it did not close the wars of Venezuela, for the internal struggles of that country, and its strife with Colombia, caused hardly less misery than the War of Independence itself.

Since the last contest between the Federals and the Unitarists, which was decided in 1863, it has, however, enjoyed, till a month or two ago, a period of comparative tranquillity. This summer all has been again confusion. Marshal Falcon, who was President when Mr. Eastwick visited the country, and has been described by him, is a fugitive in the Dutch island of Curaçao; while victory has declared in favour of General Monagas, a name well known in the barren politics and bloody feuds of this unhappy country.

One might have imagined that the continual disorders of Venezuela would have tended to brutalize society, but this does not seem to be the case. Mr. Eastwick bears testimony, as Humboldt did long ago, to the kindliness and hospitality of the people; and this is all the more remarkable, because there are few parts of South America where the purely political antipathy for foreigners is so strong. If not brutalized, however, society is thoroughly disorganized, and the confusion of ranks, conditions, and social relations is, to our European notions, exceedingly grotesque.

In the following paragraph Mr. Eastwick sums up the causes which have thrown so magnificent a country into its present deplorable condition :-"C-knocked the ashes from the end of his cigar, assisted thought by putting his legs conveniently on the lap of a chair, and finally replied as follows: You see, in the first place, there is a difference in the breed. Besides, long before Lexington and Bunker's Hill, the North Americans were ripe for self-government. In South America things were very different. The Spaniards kept their American subjects in profound ignorance. Four-fifths of the