New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-11-28

shat the Rank of Venezuela placed itself ABOVE
.ho Iow above the Government, even to the point
.hot when the Provincial Deputation decreed that
;.oobt TO nav for patent as the British Colonial
Bank had DONE it resisted the payment and sue
ceeded in obtaining a law ed hoe from Congress-
The Bank had agencies or branches in almost all
the Provinces where the same system was follow
ed up. But soon all thinking men sought for
some remedy by which they could relieve the
country from the state into which it had fallen
bill was presented in the Chamber OF Repre-
sentatives in the year 1885, creating what was
called Territorial Institute, for the purpose OF
rescuing the landed property of the country from
the grasp of the B ank and the money lenders. 10
carry the plan out 1t was proposed to make suil-
cient loan, under the guarantee of the nation, at
per cent. per annum, and lend the money out to
proprietors of mortgaeed estates ard thus make
the Government the great creditor of the country
1t was clear that this plan involved the fall OF the
Bank and the latter not being able to gain Its
point in Congress, in which the law was approved,
availed itself Of the Executive Power, which We
toed the law 1t was thss sent back to the
Chamber where it originated, and where 1t had
been passed by more than twothlrds vote ; but
now, on its reconsideration, after being vetoed by
the President, two votes were wanting to make
no the two-thirds required by the Constitution.
From that time may be dated the war OF the
Liberal party, which consists of the agrlcuturlsts,
the artisans and the people In general, against the
Government as connected with the Bank; against
the latter because it chung to Paez and against Paez
because he was the largest debtor to the Bank and
therefore from necessity defended it. Things
were in this state when the Election of 1916 took
place. The Liberal party nominated as its cand
date for the Presidency Senior Antonio L. Guz
man who, as Editor of the Venezalano had OPP
posed the Bank, the Autocrat Paez and the Gov
eminent. These three powers knowing that 1T
! was impossible to overcome the whole mass OF
the nation or even to manage the Electoral Col
| leges sought for means whereby to maintain
themselves in power, when slight revolutionary
connection occurred, as some say got up by the
Government itself. TWAS easy to toresee lts con-
SEQUENCES The Government Immediately got
the Council of State to invest it with extraordin-
ary power, by virtue of which it arrested Guz-
man. whom it accused of being the chief and IN
stigator of the outbreak, and in this manner with
drew from the political arena the only champion
whom the Oligarchists feared. They considered
the death of GuZman as necessary to lntimidate
other writers and to deprive the Liberal party Of
its chief They also seized upon some of the
minor chiefs in order to terrify the people and COM
pei them to submit while they were carrying
through their measures to restrict the Right of
Suffrage. While things in this state Gene
raj Monagas was elected to the Presidency He
wished to conciliate matters between the two par
| Mo
were death to Guzman, restriction of the popular
suffrage, Paez to be made General in-Chief OF
the Militia and Independent of the Executive,
and in short all the plans stated In our late artl-
Gle on Paez and Venezuela.
After the event of the gath Of January, l848
Congress on the 9th of April abolished the law Of
the 10th of April 1884, and decreed that the legal
rate of interest should be per cent. per annum
that private agreements might be made at per
cent. but that all contracts bearing higher rate
Of interest should not be considered legal. In
" the same year Congress, at the close OF its ses
r sion, passed another law creating Territorial
Institute but the President being absent and the
Vice President, then charged with the Executive
Power, not choosing to sign it, the return OF the
President to the capital was waited for to know
whether the bill would become law or not. 1t
was finally vetoed and ON the meeting OF Con
gresg in le49 the reasons for this veto were pre-.
scented to the chambers, which did not insist fur
ther and the project was abandoned. The agri-
culturists at that time in state of great
evaporation Coffee had fallen in the year l848
to S. and SO, barely sufficient to pay the mule
hire for transporting it to the coast. The pro-
ject of the Leg de Espera, or Delay Law, was now
epted IN tba Chamber Of n
By this law every debtor who had not the means
of paying what he owed could ask his creditors to
grant him delay, without payment of interest,
of years, which might be extended to g. It
the creditors did not choose to grant it to him,
then the Judges had by this law the power of
granting this delay, upon the condition that there
was no legal cause for Withholding it, such as
fraud, gross negligence, the not having kept &C.
counts, &c No doubt the law was bad being re-
Prospective and attacking rights already acquired
by creditors through contracts entered into prior
TO the passing Of the law But the true cause of
its passage was the virulent war between the
aericuturiss, who had the majority in Congress-
and the moneyenders The former considered
only their own position and were determined to
relieve themselves from it, come what might. The
bill passed both the Chambers almost unanimous
ly. How strong was the feeling in its favor ap-
pears from the fact, that when the President We
toed bill for the dlminution of the salaries of the
high officers of State-the President Vice-Presi.
dent the Secretaries of State and Councillors, the
Judges OF the Courts and the Governors of the
Provincesp placing the whole of the latter upon one
footing, as to pay, with the law of a standing mill
tary force and other local laws-both Cham
bers insisted upon them, thus demonstrating to
the President that he had no other resource than
to submit to necessity and-consent to the ex-
ecution Of the Law Of Delay And this is tha