Star.
London, England, 1825-04-16 00:00:00

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COL041B1A:

We have received a file of BAgota Papers to the end
of January. A motion has-bamsnade.in the Congress
fir the itepeachment of Dr. Pena, Ex-President of .the
Ilighrarirt-martial, for improper conduct on the trial
of a Colonel tante, fur the murder of a Lieutenant
Pet do nto. Df. Pena" greelnesented itilniire-rififfe he
undisguised efforts to save Colonel infante from
the punishment due to his crime, and to have refused
to sign the sentence of the Court. The proceedings of
the Court-martial seem to have been complicated. The
followiniz.is the notice vshich the Cokseitutional gives
td. the affair : •
" The result of all this is, that on the 23d of July
last year, the murder 1:f Lieutenant P, rdomo was COM.
mitied ; the people unanimously, on the f. flowing
morning, accused Colonellufante as the murderer; but
the enemies of order, and the respect due to the laws,
said that m thing would be done to the Colonel;. that
there were no laws for him ; ;sod some days after the
opinion was general that he would. get quit cf it, be-
cause Dr. Pena had &eared himself his protector.
" The true friends of the Republic contradicted these
reports, so injurious to the consolidation of 'our system,
to the honour of the naton in general,. of the Field-
officers cetnipdsing the •Chnr wliic!t was to
judge the criminal, and of the first Court of Justice in
the nation, which was to examine the sentence. Ne-
vertheless, one man alone c....ntinues to act in defiw.ce
of public op:nion, of a bigllv respectable portion of the
army, of the first Court of justice in the Republic of
which he is 44 member,. and of the existing laws; and
the reports which appeared absurd five months ago, if
they have not been actually tearzed, have done us a'-
most all the harm they could in the eyes of the:nations
who are observing us. We hope that Congress will,
however, as soon as possible, remove entirely.the cause
of this most intolerable state of con:usion."

The following rema-ks on the Colomb'ars Tariff are
from the Bogota C'omstitutional of the `27th January:
"The present mode of collecting the duties on foreign
importations most imperiontly calls for the interference
of Congress. An incalculable injury to the country;
and a much larger. duty exacted from the merchant,
than was ever contemplated by the Legislature, are
the inevitable consequences of tfre sysiern at present
pursued. The Arancel, accordiiig to which the value of
the goods is estimated, is most erroneously drawn up ;'
and even were it done in the best manner possible, would
still be liable to constant objection. It is quite impos-
sible to fix in any way, by any number of permanent
valuations, however extensive these may be, the value
of an infinite variety of articles, from their quantity and
quality continually fluctuating in price.
44 Commerce is of itself so attended with risk, and in

its nature so hazardous, that it should be one of the prin-
cipal cares of a Government to increase the confidence
father than excite the diffidence of merchant,•. In
bit this argument. is doubly forcible. For our
revenue we depend lain: ipall y on th' imitate oldie cu:•
t ims,and this can (n:l.y. oe rendered cOnsiderible byetiCou-
raging foreitro merchants to send goods to our market.
But to this the arancel presents an almost insuperable
obstacle. By. , the amount to be paid on cotton
goods, one of the principal articles of import, is In
per cent. whereas we are positively assured by persons•
of undoubted 'authority, that from the valuations of the
arancel,'the amount actually paid often exceeds 27 and
`2B. No trade in the world can possibly be carried on
with duties at this rate. Theirmptatiors to smuggling
are so increased, and the faci ities in this country are
. so great, the ri k of detection is almost next to nothing,
that it actually becomes rather a matter of surprise
that any duties should be collected at all, than that
they should be so little compared with the goods im-
ported into this country."

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