message, at the opening of the session, they had declared, that Congress "would not deviate from what the Fundamental Law of Colombia prescribed respecting the compact of union." Commissioners had been appointed on the part of the government and of the revolted province, to endeavour to negociate a reconciliation. They met at Rosario de Cucuta, and held conferences on the 18th and 19th of April, but they ended in nothing. The commissioners of Venezuela requested to be informed, in the first place, whether they were recognized in the character of envoys of the government of the state of Venezuela, as in no other case were they permitted by their instructions to continue the negotiation. The Bogota commissioners replied, that they were not authorised to make the recognition proposed, and the discussion was broken off. Congress, however, had no inclination, for it felt that it wanted the power, to enforce the union by an appeal to arms. By an act of the 5th of May, it declared its expectation that the provinces which had withdrawn their allegiance, in the belief that a monarchical was to be substituted for a republican government, would now be convinced of their error by the nature of the constitution which had just been promulgated, but announced, at the same time, its conviction, that "even should they carry their obstinacy to the extreme of wishing to form an entirely independent government, it would not be expedient or proper to attempt to re-establish the Union by force." The act, therefore, provided, that the constitution just adopted should be tendered to the contumacious provinces, and all pacific means used to induce them

to accept it. If they should refuse to accept it, unless essential or circumstantial alterations were made in it, or other conditions acceded to, the government was immediately to convoke a Colombian convention, in order to take into consideration the proposed variations, or conditions, and give such decision as should be deemed for the general good of the nation. But if all, or the greater part, of the provinces of Venezuela should absolutely refuse to accept the constitution, and reject all the means of preserving the national unity, the government was not to make war upon them to compel them to respect the original compact.

The Constituent Congress was dissolved on the 11th of May. A Congress of Venezuela had been assembled at Valencia, to settle its government, and provide for its internal administration. General Paz was retained as its military chief. Its proceedings were disturbed, ever and anon, by attempts at counter-revolution, which were made, and with temporary success, at Guarenas, Rio Chico, and some other points of the province. The disturbed districts, however, soon returned to acknowledge the authority of the new Congress. On the other hand, Quito, and other provinces of the South, where the Colombian army was commanded by general Flores, a zealous partisan of the Liberator, declared for Bolivar. Considering the new government, installed at Bogota, under the new constitution, as an usurpation, they resolved not to acknowledge it unless Bolivar was placed at its head; and Bogota itself was exposed to their attacks. In these disturbances, Bolivar himself took no part; but they were sufficient to

prevent him from executing his intention of going into a sort of voluntary exile, and he awaited, at Carthagena, the chances which might turn up in a state of society, where governments and governors were made and unmade by such violent and rapid changes. He lost a useful supporter in colonel Sucre, who was assassinated, it was believed, by the men of Obando, one of the officers who had been implicated in the conspiracy of the former year against the life of Bolivar himself. Public opinion, in Bogota, went farther, and laid the deed at the door of the new government itself.

But no

MEXICO, too, was the scene of another revolution. Guerrero, and his party, had seized the government in 1828 by a military insurrection, and had been partly indebted for success to the pusillanimity of Pedrazza, then the head of the opposite faction. The Spanish invasion, which followed, had prevented any immediate reaction; and the government, having triumphed in so important a national object, might have expected that it had thereby consolidated its own power. sooner had external safety been secured, than internal commotions again broke the repose of the country. The existing government had been created only by successful military resistance to the government which the laws had established; what one man had done by means of the army, another might do the government had been made the prize of temporary military success. The military now declared, that the safety of the state required a central government, and this demand they were ready to enforce by arms.

The revolt broke out, in the beginning of November, in the garrisons of Campeachy and Merida, and was joined by all their fellows in the state of Yucatan. The civil authorities, overawed by the military, submitted, in order to prevent bloodshed. The Congress of Yucatan dissolved themselves, declaring that, in doing so, they acted from compulsion, and to avoid the greater evils which would follow from " an indiscreet, though righteous, resistance." The revolters gave out that they acted in accordance with the inclinations of Santana, the minister of war, and of the vice-president, Bustamente, who remained at Jalapa, in the command of the army of reserve, which had been employed in the Spanish campaign. These officers disclaimed all connection with such revolutionary designs, Bustamente declaring, that although reforms were necessary, they could be made, and ought to be made, only by the recognized authorities of the state. On the 21st of November, the town of St. Juan Battista, capital of Tambasco, followed the example of Yucatan. They declared the Congress, the state government, and all other authorities, opposed to their new system, to be illegal and unconstitutional.

The president Guerrero trusted to the fidelity of the army of reserve. To conciliate public favour, he resigned the despotic powers with which the executive had been armed on the approach of the Spanish invasion, and which, in truth, now that the danger was passed away, there was no longer any pretext for retaining. convoked, at the same time, an extraordinary session of the national assembly, and put forth a

He

manifesto to the people, warning them against being deluded by pretended friends of liberty. Having adverted to his own resignation of his extraordinary powers, and the assembling of the National Congress, he added, that there was no longer even a pretext for the declarations, in regard to the civil government, which some divisions of the army had taken it upon themselves to adopt: "If they are true men, and not pre tenders, they ought to renounce every revolutionary movement, which can produce no other effects to the nation than a succession of incalculable evils. You already have had too much experience of revolutions, and what effects they produce, not to be anxiously attentive to those who create them" -words at least as applicable to himself as they could be to any others, who might wish to follow the example which he himself had set them, not twelve months before. One part of this proclamation, which was more particularly addressed to the army, seemed to imply, that the want of pay was the principal motive of the military insubordination. "Soldiers," said the president," you know how incompatible it is with your duty to dictate laws to the sovereign nation, and how strange in the ear of the laws is the threat of arms. Do not deceive yourselves with false hopes of bettering your condition, because new establishments will furnish you relief with greater promptitude and punctuality. No; the nation will be ruined by civil war, and a new revolution will annihilate the resources which we are now negotiating for your benefit, and which prove that your necessities will receive attention, provided public order is maintained."

Such was the relation in which "the sovereign people," and its government, stood to its armed servants.

But the ordinary and regular course of government, viz. a system of violent and rapid change, was not to be interrupted by considerations like these. As an insurrection had raised Guerrero, there was no reason why another should not put him down. The present government had existed a whole year; it was full time that the nation should return to its ordinary food of revolution. Bustamente, finding the army sufficiently disposed to follow him, determined that it was now his turn to seize the government. He, and the whole army of re serve under his command, declared against the government on the 21st of December, and marched from Jalapa to Puebla, of which they took possession without resistance. When intelligence of this revolt reached Mexico, Guerrero immediately left the capital, with a small body of troops, to oppose the insurgents, having appointed M. Boccanegra to supply his place during his absence. No sooner, however, had he quitted Mexico, than the troops of the garrison, which he had left behind him, joined the revolt. They made themselves masters of the capital without any serious resistance, and the officers forthwith proclaimed the abolition of the government. They declared, that the National Congress did not exist as an assembled body; that the appoint ment of Boccanegra to supply the absence of the president, should be considered null and void; that the president himself, having marched against the army of reserve, which was only doing its

duty to the country, was provoking civil war for his own personal interest; that thus the nation was left without a government, and therefore they, these officers of the garrison of Mexico, would forthwith proceed to name a new A provisional executive was accordingly formed, consisting of M. Velez, general Quintanar, and M. Alaman. The National Congress was summoned to assemble on the 1st of January of the present year.

one.

Guerrero, who had thus been ousted from the presidency, as unceremoniously as he had thrust himself into it, retired to his estate, where he was offered no molestation. His tranquillity was ascribed to a patriotic resolution not to occasion a civil war, where the great question seemed to regard only his own personal elevation n; but certain it is, that the numbers who appeared willing to adhere to him were much too small to give him any hopes of being able to maintain a successful contest. His friend Santana declared in his favour; but finding the general voice to be against him, and that Guerrero himself was not inclined, in the mean time, at least, to take the field, he submitted to the new system of things, and found no difficulty in making his peace with the new government.

When Congress assembled, Bustamente was authorized, as vicepresident, to carry on the government, and a vote was passed, that the conduct of the army, and of the garrison of Mexico, had been just and proper. Guerrero ad

dressed to the Chambers a memorial, in which he maintained the patriotism of the motives that had led him to accept the presidency, entered into a detailed account of

his administration, and expressed his determination to abide by any determination to which Congress might come. It was moved, that a law should be made, declaring him incapable for ever of governing the republic. It was read a first time; but, after some discussion, it was almost unanimously rejected. Some of his military partisans, however, whose fortunes had been linked with those of the ex-president, were less inclined to tame submission. They collected troops in the southern provinces of the Union, and occasioned considerable uneasiness to the new government. General Bravo was directed to march against them. Various trifling skirmishes took place between divisions of his troops and bands of the insurgents, which generally terminated in favour of the former-and the question, who should govern the country, and how it should be governed, had clearly become one of comparative military strength. The new government had declared, that the federal constitution should be preserved; but Yucatan, the province which had led the way in the late revolution, had declared for an anti-federal system. Το that resolution it still adhered, and the government was too weak to attempt to compel submission by force.

In CHILE, an election of president and vice-president had taken place in the end of 1829. General Pinto was chosen president by an absolute majority. The two candidates next to him in numbers, Prieto and Tagle, having neither of them one half, it lay with the Congress of the republic to select one of them as vice-president. Pinto, however, was desirous that

his friend Vicuna should be appointed to the office, although he had a smaller number of voices than either of the other two; and, by his intrigues and influence, Vicuna was declared to have been elected. Prieto refused to submit to this decision; he had recourse to arms to support his pretensions, and a civil war was the consequence, Freire taking the field at the head of Vicuna's party. Engagements took place, not very bloody in themselves, and not at all decisive in their consequences; and Vicuna, in the mean time, continued to exercise the prerogatives of vice-president.

In this character, in the absence of the president, he assembled the legislative Chambers, on the 13th

The

of September; and, in his message, he described the republic as enjoying undisturbed repose, and pursuing a course of uninterrupted prosperity. The finances alone he described as being in a situation which "would not satisfy the wishes of the Congress." revenue he estimated at 1,829,079 dollars, and the expenditure at 2,054,228, leaving a deficiency of 225,148. He entertained hopes, however, that the former might be increased, and the latter diminished, contrary to the course of things in all other South American states; and little was to be expected from an excess of revenue, when so small a republic was keeping on foot an army of 45,472 men, of whom 25,000 were cavalry.

CHRONICLE.