The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-08-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

S WHITTEN TRON COLOXDIA DURING ♦ JOVINEY
raOlt CALI %CAB TO BOGOTA, AND TUENCE TO SANTA
MARTHA, IN

At a moment like the present, when every thing relating
to the 'Republic of Colombia is so highly interesting to
Great Britain, no work can fail to be welcome which con-
tributes to put us in possession of the actual state of that
fertile country. Its treasures open a new fiehl of specula-
tion to science, while they offer an inexhaustible excitement
to commercial enterprise. The dawn of freedom which
has broken forth on the New %rorld is daily ltading to the
most important results. The agricultural industry of its
' abundant population will augment with their rational inde-
pendence ; their wealth will keep pace with their industry ;
and the it demand for manufactures will augment with their
agricultural wealth. The country from which their supply
of manufactures will be drawn is Great Britain. The ar-
. Oficial wants of mankind are in every civilized State infi-
finely greater than the real; and this country, from its
I superior advantages, will be the channel through which
the colonies of Spanish America, released from the miseries
of despotic power, will make their most prolific and most
profitable demands for manufactured goods. The letters
before us arc preccaled by the following very sensible pre-
face, which, though written without pretension, bean the
stamp of a manly and reflective mind:—
" The writer of the following letters puts them forth with no
other pretensior. than that of giving a faithful account of what he
had the opportunity of observing on his journey.
" Pretending to neither literary talent nor scientific attainment,
he would not, however, have considered mere accuracy of observa-
tion a sufficient apology for the publication, but for the want so
anis ersally felt in Great Britain of information as to the actual con-
dition of the Republic of Colombia.
" The more that rich and beautiful country becomes known, the
greater will be the interest excited towards it among all Europeans.
So extensive a field for the exercise of European industry and in-
telligence has not for ages presented itself. Nature discloses, on
all sides, inexhaustible treasures, both of the mineral and vegetable
kingdoms; the skill and labour of man are alone wanting to draw
them forth. The variety of soil and climate affords scope for every
species of production. and enables the stranger to choose those
which may suit his constitution and pursuits. The scene on all
sides is, in abort, abundantly inviting; and the traveller, in pass-
ing through the country, sees such extensive capabilities--so much
scope for improvement, that he hardly knows which object he
ought to take up first.
" The suffering caused by the Revolution has been excessive—
the desolation extreme. Both mark, in a manner highly honour-
able to the Colombians, the undeviating constancy with which, foe
fourteen years, they have persevered in a struggle, not of faction
against legitimate authority, but of lawful right against unlawful
oppression. It is, perhaps, not generally known in this country,'
that the original conquerors of Spanish America established solemn
treaties between the inhabitants of those nations and the Crown of
Spain, by which the former became subject to the Spanish Crown,
but with certain provisions and stipulations, calculated to secure to
them particular rights and privileges. These treaties were wholly
disregarded, and trampled under foot by the Spanish Government.
Remonstrance after remonstrance was made to the Court of Madrid.

They were mocked at and despised. A greater example of patient
and enduring loyalty, than that exhibited for three centuries by the
colonies of Spain, history does not furnish. It was not sufficient
that the greatest political privations were inflicted on the inhabi-
tants ; they were even prohibited ftorn cultivating some of the most
valuable frints of the earth. The vine and the olive-tree were for-
bidden plants throughout all Spanish America. And why ? That
the wine and the oil of the mother country might alone be consumed
by theiColonists. In short; a more absurd system of misrule--a
more heartless, selfish tyranny, than that exercised by Spain Over
its transmarine possessions, the world has no example of. With so
docile a people, anything like a moderately liberal system of
government would have secured these valuable countries to Spain
for ever. She has now irrevocably lost them—not by the rebellion
of discontent against the restraints of rational government, but by
her own infraction of the most solemn and inalienable engagements.
A few years of peace will !Mew how much the interests of humanity
at large have benefited by the change."
The above observatior.a arc pointed and just. In truth,
if the Members of the Holy Alliance themselves, instead of
redeeming the solemn pledge under which, in the days of
NArorrorr, they gave their subjects the promise of a free
Constitution, they continue to act on their present arbitrary
system, they will, ultimately find, to their cost, that nations
can obtain their civil rights by other means than a spon-
taneous grant from Kings and Emperors.
In p. 104 the writer has inserted the following statistical
calculations on America, from a letter addressed from Paris,
by Baron Hu M BOLDT to BOIIVA It, the Liberator and Pre-
sident of Colombia
EXTENT of TERRITORIAL SI:PERT:CIES In
square Leagues of 20 to the Equatorial Degree.

Population
in 1012.

Mexico, or New Spain . -
Bualimula
Cuba and Porto Rico - - . -
Colombia I I!" "it l" e 6
.. CW ..
Mild I •
Peru . -
('hili . -
Buenos Ayres

753
18.7

. 33,701
. 511,2
- ♦2.1;,1
14.A1
146,7 p

Possessions of the Spanish Americans - 372,111
United Sutra . . 125.441
Brazils