Star.
London, England, 1829-12-31 00:00:00

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I

COLUMBIA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
LETTER V.


Boson, an. 17, IWO.

SI R—Carthagens having capitulated, the conquest of
tliew Grenada, menaced from the north, south, and east
offered but few difficulties, the internal provinces being
in an indefensible state, from the feebleness of the Go-
vernment and the decay of national spirit. Nevertheless,
some resolute patriots made every possible effort to
resist the enemy, but Fortune did not favour their va-
lour, and the Independent forces being beaten in,Cachiri,
,Popayan, and La Plata, the hated banner of CASTILE
again waved over the whole country.
Such were the results of our errors, of oar morbid de-
sire to be making experiments during these six years—
Constitutions prematurely adopted, and exaggerated
liberalism conducted us to civil war, and rendered us
ib
capable of opposing the common enemy.
We thus were subdued.—lt was then that bloatu.o
uireil distinction by the horrible celebrity he obtained. 1,
'mutated by the demon of vengeance, this modern
e, with his coailjutors MONTALVOS, SA MANS., WAR-
ILIITA, Mona Les, Emma, perpetrated every species of
!atrocity. These barbarians violated the most holy laws,
committed the most outrageous judicial murders, destroyed
thole populations in mass, multiplied banishments
nd confiscations—disturbed the quiet of whole families,
land insulted modesty and misfortune. The Inquisition,
!with all its horrors, was re-established ; Science herself
ould not protect within her sanctuary the most distin-
i'dlit,4 of her disciples. The splendour of genius
alarmed the destroyers, and our most learned men
!were deliverwi over to the executioners. Never did a
'greater deluge or ills, terror, and iniquity, fall upon any
country. Despotism had invaded every part, and the
Republic only found refuge in a handful of intrepid de-
fenders. Venezuela soaked--empapada, with blood,
covered with corpses, and with ruins still undaunted,
Lcontended for liberty.
Se RAZA occupied the Plains of Barcelona Cedeno,
and MONA OAS defended the banks of the Orinoco.
SANTAN DER hattacceeded in saving some remains of the
force of New Grenada. and Pass and URDAN ETA SW
tabled themeelves in Vezina*, and Casanare. With these
elements conjointly with those which had survived
Abe emigration of Carthagena, the resurrection of the
kemstry was prepared. But a centre of union was want-
. 'ing—s Chief who was capable of organising the means of
attsek—an authority, in fact, whom all would obey. It
wee then BOLI VAR re-appeared. Assisted by the PlNSi-
dent, PETION, with warlike stores, arc. BOLTV AR had
sailed from Aux Cayes with 300 companions, worthy
of being the associates of Leo:rums—and hers com-
mences the third period—the last act of the Yamanaka

Revetutien.
The armament reached Margarita, already iniurged by
the intrepid AILILIMINDI, where a new existence was
4ideon to the Republic, by a proclamation of her
laity and indivisibility, and by the appointment of Bo-
LIVAZ 55 supreme chief. With indefatigable ac-
tivity, the patriots attacked immediately the essay
front, rear, and flanks. Moat ta.o, who had
hastened with great succours from Santa N to ins-
tain the royalist party, saw his pride humbled
in the heroic island of Margarita. Bomoss, SOU.
BLETTE, PAEZ, BERMUDEZ, allowed him no repose.
From the plains of Coinere to the mouths of the Orinoco"
—from the mountains of Canaeas to the banks of the
Apure—they maintained continued combat. In their
very defeats they had learnt the art to conquer ; and if
in Lahogasa, in La Puerta, and Comma, the canoe of
IndependeTMx acquired only cypress wreaths; in Guy-
ana, in Cambium, in Sombrero, and in San Fer-
nando, it was crowned with the most luxuriant laurels.
Our soldiers were naked, wanted arms, often wanted
food ; but Liberty excited them to the most mar-
vellous acts of devoted patriotism and heroic exertions.
The results of this campaign of the year 1818, were
physically and morally most important.—Great Pro-
vinces saw themselves liberated—Foreigners, some of
qtem actuated by desire of gain, others by the noblest
ittettr• es, facilitated our acquisition of means to carry oa
the war, and others again came to expose their lives in
the contest for our independence. Europe, astonished,
contemplated the spectacle of misfortune dignified by
constancy, and the republic presented itself to the eyes
of the universe in full majesty ; when her chief protesting
against the intervention which the Spanish monarch had
solicited at the Congress of Aix-le-Chapelle, solemnly
proclaimed that " Venezuela was resolved t 0.," heiny her-
: Olf entirely in the midst of her ruins to disesiel* rights
naimpaired, eves if Spain, Europe, and t:this whole
world, should attempt to replace her under Sitrylihe of
FAIDINAND." r• - • • .
The Liberator, alfestive to the necessities iitthe
lion, and believing that the time was arrived' to bond
the public liberties, had convoked a CongriSS;.' which
assembled in Angostura in 1819. At the installation of
the Assembly, BOLIVAR made a report of hi" tadminie-
trail= of affairs, surrendered his supreme authstity, and
submitted to the intelligence of the Constituent Body his
project of a Constitution. The speech which iciempanist
contained itistrudive considerations on the cart of our
eahunities—the most profound reflections on the condi-
tiss of our people, and luminous views for the eseablish-
meat of our future political system.
' Germs' BOLIVAR at that time hasouriilllY
prod himself to incur some by pitting
. hie opinions in opposition to some of the prevailing
grisites of the day that he might confer a baiting haat
.411 his country. He on that occasion prayed the Con.
INN to abandon thefamleral form. and tie trimeniraii
—stirs power. He recommended that the Is-
power should be dispossessed et rabidity
Cir did not *Opt* belong to tai
411 Istrediters Senate should be rotekland.
*faired a new code of Laws, sad fmallyvimmtmanisi the

Union of New Granada with Venezuela. Many of his
suggestions were adopted, and produced great benefits;
and if some more of them had been listened to, a giant
step would have been taken in the amelioration of
our Institutions, and our country would have been saved''
frail many severe afflictions ; but the Liberator was far
advanced in political knowledge before his Fellow Citizens.
Being elected, however, by the Congress, Supreme
Chief of Venezuela, he departed in search of the enemy.
In May, 1819, having decreed in Mantical the resto-
ration of New Granada, he determined on carrying, him-
self, into execution, this formidable undertaking. Three
long years had these provinces groaned under s sceptre of
iroq, and implored Heaven for liberty and vengeance—
Heaven at last heard their prayer.
The imagination is bewildered with surprise when it con-
templates the means with which Bou v.'s engaged
in this enterprise, the difficulties which he had to over-
come, and the results which were produced. The same
chief who, from the banks of the Magdalena, had carried
liberty to the extreme limits of Barcelona and Guyana,
now returned with only two thousand men, to dis-
charge his debt of gratitude to New Granada, by
ressuing her from Spanish dominion. He opened
the campaign in the most rigorous season of the
winter, when Moatia.o least expected him, encountering
every kind of difficulty, privation, and danger ; and
having to pass swollen rivers, inundated plains, and
frosen deserts. The plains and the Andes being passed,
nature as it were being overcome, and united with the
force which he found in Casanare, it was then easier
to conquer, Bouvet' having an enemy, although inured
to war, and far superior in number. In fact, he did triumph
over this enemy in Garners, Vargas, and Bonze, and in
the battle Boyack (one of the most brilliant that
the military pages of our history offers,) the seal
was placed on the 7th of August to the act of the eman-
cipation of New Granada. In the moment its capital
was liberated, various important provinces in the north,
south, and west, were also freed with the most rapid
velocity. Thus the prophecy which General Bo Lt vAR
made in August 1818, was accomplished —" The sun
shall not complete the period of his course (words used
in his proclamation to the Grenadian) without seeing on
your territory altars, consecrated to liberty."
Hour ea did not remain in Santa FC longer than
was necessary to complete his brilliant work, to organize
the branches of the Administration, and to give a new
impulse to the military operations. Returning to Angos-
tura, he was present when Congress, composed of the
representatives of the newly liberated provinces of New
Granada andVenernela, established on the 17th Dec. 1819,
the union of the two countries—then " in the midst of the
ancient forests, and the vast solitudes of the Orinoco, was
created that colossal Republic, which has one foot fined
on the shores of the Atlantic and the other on the Pacific."
Its Founders, desirous of repairing an injustice which time
bad sanctioned for so many ages, resolved to raise a glo-
rious monument to the discoverer of the New World, and
give the name of Com; al Ato a noble and heroic nation.
It has been very painful for me to have been obliged,
in the course of this narrative, to record the errors of the
Revolution; but truth required my censure, and the love
of the country which gave me birth imposed on me the
duty to point out the rocks on which the vessel struck,
that future pilots charged with its direction may escape
them. Justice, on the other hand, may absolve our states-
men, from their political errors, in consideration of the cir-
cumstances which surrounded them, and of the cha-
racter of the mass they had to regulate. It must be
recollected, that if antient Greece found in her /mai-
tuitions powerful motives to sustain her independence—if
they created for her service a SOCZATES, a SIMON,
and SNARISTIDES, that, on the contrary, it was men who
bad in the first instance to found the independence of
Colombia, and then to frame abovo all her institutions.
It has been most disagreeable for me to have been
obliged to track through the whole of the struggle
the bloody steps of the ferocious agents of Spain.
Independence has, indeed, sufficiently avenged these
outrages against humanity, but history must record
them in her pages, to consign the authors to an eternal

infamy.
It is now time to reflect on this portion of triumph,
and of misfortune, of glory, and of shadow, which I
have traced. Let us repose a moment to contemplate
Oa interesting scene, which in the midst of the horrible
desbustion of arms presented itself to mitigate the general
matting. Let us review what good may be cited to the
honor of our fellow citizens, and the Governments which
existed during the period to which we have now brought
down our history.
Our Revolution may bout names that would illus-
trate the annals of any_ nation for their moral and intel-
lectual distillaioll.-.SIIIIAND_2A ZZA, CALDAS, CA-
NACHO MIIIINOZ Tenon, NARDI°, TORRES, Gu-
TIRRILEZ, Recto, CABAL, TORICAS, lIRAADOT,
RIDAVATL, POLICARPA, SALATATIIRRA, and a hun-
dred others, than wbom none in any age or country are
men deserving of esteem and fame, for their noble-
edndedneee, their enlightened understandings, and heron
virtues. The valour, indeed,with which when abandoned by
the whole world we fought for, and conquered Me- 1,
latissie Wgiven to the Columbian name an Musty&
lea that secures it the respect of mankind.
•By the act which constituted a sovereign authority in the,
etrantry, those chains were broken, which tad so long tistr
Webb. We read our rights from that epoch in the great
heck of the creation. Every man was allowed freely toe:n-
ein his voluntary inclination—whether to cultivate the
bads he pose/end, or to apply himself to worksof industry.
Our implaws were opened to all Nations, and neither the
finiener who came to dwell among us, nor the native
we any longer compelled to employ
inwhitimi-ter agency between the FATHER of the
.llntv sass end his own conscience. That tribunal
of blood and darkness was abolished, which arro-
gantly s4eW, is the name of Gon not only men's
Wiese, but disk opinions, and even thoughts ; which im-
pend silence oa ail the legal authorities, and before which
pas was made to billable.
Humanity breathed for the first time en our soil by the
progressive abolition of slavery. By the aid of the Press
a thousand tenths were made known—the governors and
the governed 11111111,11 into friendly reletione, and the
possible espy was -gins to the 0011.1
Plaelly, the occasion was Aired for ad-
tinting ail tin semen plans at Wendy and $llll/11:
end if their lint finite have been meaty aid Welk the=
is so doubt but the day will cane, der wlhii the ad%
saturated with bleed, will produce the • richest, and the
streeteet,. under the astern et the bentiemit dew of eivi,
'Unties.

LOYALTY IN ENGLAND.

FlOlll THE PARISIAN CORRESPONDENT Of
" THE MORNING CHILOWICLO."
In Great Britain the Whigs are loyal ; and Lord Grey
would scarcely be more offended at being told be was
not a gentleman than that he was not loyal. I believe the
Whip tobe as attached to the House of Brunswick as the
Tories ; and the page of history, indeed, has proved that
lam correct. I hardly know whether the Reformers,
now so small a band, are loyal or not ; but their minority,
when compared with Ihe whole population of the King-
dom, renders them but of little importance. In England
Reform is only talked of now when bread is a shilling per
loaf, or at the eve of a general election. Perhaps the
Reformers are not loyal, speaking of the mass of them,
though I very much doubt whether amongst themselves
they are not equally divided. You have also a sect of
them called Radicals, who are neither Reformers nor
Whip. They are not the former, because they do not
Snd in reform of Parliament a panacea for all their woes
--and they are not the latter, since they abuse the Whigs
with yet more of acrimony than they do the Tories. I
have seen and known some " Radicals," both in England

and abroad; !have read their writings, watched -their
proceedings, and examined their speeches; and I as
fully convinced that even your Cobbetts, Hunts, and
O'Connells, and Humes, would not only not lead, but not
even support any proposition which would go to
thariarght of the House of Brunswick or to diminish tinit
portion of power which the Constitution of Great Britain
has vested in the King. I therefore may or may not
consider these men mistaken, ignorant, and prejudiced,
or wise, patriotic, and enlightened. But I have no right
to call them disloyal.
I know The Times has always been considered one of
the most violent and determined opponents of the enemies
to popular rights and representative institutions, but I
cannot call to my mind one occasion on which it has
attacked the Royal prerogatives, or spoken with revolu-
tionary feeling, or excited to revolutionary purposes.
I read The Morning Chronicle, when edited by that
staunch Whig-Mr. Perry,whose writings will ever remain
an honour to British literature, and whose principles were
those of the most liberal, yet constitutional nature. I
have continued very frequently, and with but few inter-
vals (and theta resulting from foreign residence in distant
parts, where no English paper could be found), to read
the same Journal, and I must admit that I have never
read a line which was not loyal, and the tendency of
which was in any degree hostile to the Royal Family of
England. And, finally, not only do I find the opposition
parties and opposition press in England to be loyal, but
the opposition Electors and Members of both Houses of
Parliament.
I know not that you can find in any part of his Bri-
tannic Majesty's dominions two places where the electors
or the elected are less of a Tory caste than at Westmin-
ster and Preston. Yet, let me ask you, Sir, do you be-
lieve that the electors of either place would listen to a
man for a moment, much less vote for him, if he began
his discourse by declaring, " I am a friend to England,
but an enemy to the House of Brunswick ; I am a friend
to England, but an enemy to our limited Monarchy—to
our representative institutions, and to the existence of
Peers, Commons, and King, in the Constitution; and I
am a friend to England, but a friend also to the principles
of Republicanism, and I desire that England may become
a Republic ;" I ask you, Sir, would not the electors of
Westminster be yet more indignant against such a dis-
turber of the public peace than they were with the late
Lord Londonderry, when the Acts you called " The
•Gagging Acts" were passed' No, no, the English mob,
the very mob, is loyal.
And then as to the elected—the Members of the Howes
of Parliament! Why, Lord King would tremble, and
Lord Holland faint, at the idea of the possibility of it
being possible for any one in that House to speak with
any other feeling than that of the most profound respect
and affection of his Majesty and the Royal Family ; and
even in the Lower House, Mr. Hume, whose intrepidity
astonishes his own party, and whose industry and perse-
verance have won the respect of his antagonists—Mr.
Hume himself would rather resign his seat, cease to be a
Scotcbman, and never drink another glass of whisky toddy
north of the Tweed, than he would second, nay, even
third a motion, the object, either expressed or implied, of
which would be to reflect directly or indirectly on the head
of the august House of Brunswick, which now rules in
the hearts and over the councils of the British nation.

STATE OF THE PRESS IN FRANCE.

They say there are hie hundred and seventeen Liberal
Journals in France, and twenty-seven Royalist. Why
that is just what I said in a former letter. About nine
or ten to one. They say there are 283,000 subscribers
to the Liberal Journals, and only 34,000 to the Royalist.
Why that accords with the estimate I made of the divi-
sion of the two parties. They say there are 3,000,000
of -readers of the liberal Journals, and 450,000 of the
Royalist—and whilst the income of the former journals
is nearly 2,000,000 of francs, the income of the latter is
not half of one million.
I have a file of Departmental papers before me. They
are filed indiscriminately, and, for the sake of illustration,
I will take them off in the order in which they are filed.
Well, I have taken off a dozen, and out of that dozen
two only are loyal—the one is the Journal du Dipart-
mese du Nord, and the Journal du Gers. I have taken
them off indiscriminately. SOON day I will give you the
substance of the leading articles of a week's provincial
papeis, and then you will judge whether I am right,
when I say not merely that the Parisian but that
the Provincial Press is not loyal. And to be yet a
lids. more explicit. Are the Editors of the Comfit"-
tiesmel, the Courrier Francais, the Messages. des Chan-
dra and Le Tempt, loyal men—men devoted to liberty on
die one hand, but to the, preservation of the Monarchy
ea the other ? Pooh ! I say no more. They are mos
of talint—men devoted to their party—men, perchance,
whose hearts beat high at the sound of liberty and a re-
pine, but whose blood would freeze in their veins if ley
shy to the Bourbons should be imputed to them. They
may love their country—adore the very image and sign,
the emblem, the mere cap of liberty : bat royalty, loy-
alty, they cannot pronounce the words. They beard of
such thing when young, and when they listened to old
wives' fables ; but that was cradle politics and patriotism!.
Varivey,all these Journals are under prosecution for not be-
, and their defence is,. that it is no crime not to
loyal, though it is a crime not to be patriotic. Shall
LOlNpassages ? Shall I give extracts ? I have done
rtitiFSl might multiply them until my letter should
sa no the Petitions against Catholic limancips-
dong. wore, last year, presented to your two Chain-
hisiv; mai they would be nearly, if not quite, as useless !
Tait I~ mil!ossdann- my enervation. by one more fact.—
tegesele have enedsumed the paper called the Stuff
imai do Dom Seem, for having provoked the army to I
ahisheibesee of the King and the laws. The Seistinell
,ebess ? Fee the —fer the Beedese—
LE**Threse ? No, se. The Sestina et the people
ashamed iv the 'bribes& for this came te esi
GARCIA DV 130. I twieepriewaset.