the lower orders of Society, that just sense, or rather instinct, of liberty and order, which destroys and baffles the machinations of the ambitious. The ignorance of the people has, at all times, constituted the principal resource of such persons. To obviate this, you decreed the establishment, in the City and Country, of a considerable number of primary Schools. This has been done; and the condition and progress of those who were entrusted to the care of the Benevolent Society, have fulfilled all our hopes, and will serve as a model and a stimulus to the rest. The Colleges have been improved this year. Every exertion has been made to suppress the spirit of insubordination; a consequence of bad example and neglect, during a long period of revolution and disorder. Youths, unaccustomed to lessons of obedience,' would form Men incapable of being free, and neither fit to govern, nor to be governed, except by terror and force. The University requires to be so constituted as to guaranty, that the sacrifices made to promote classical instruction, should not be unavailing. This work is about to be completed.

The frequency of crime, and especially that of cattle stealing in the Country, has demonstrated the inefficacy of the existing Laws, and the inconvenience arising from the present mode of legal Process. The Project of a Law will be immediately submitted to you, to prevent these inconveniences, which it is impossible to permit any longer to exist in the Country. A Committee is at present engaged in drawing up a Commercial Code, and their labours will be presented to you during this Session. In order to ensure the security of landed property, it has been deemed necessary to ascertain the exact boundaries of each estate, and thus, to remove the uncertainty in which they have been constantly involved, and which the means of science alone can remove with precision, in a Country as level as the sea. The Topogra phical Commission being organized, and supplied with every thing ne. cessary, have already commenced their labours, and will shortly set up such general land-marks as will serve as points for future operations, and for the drawing up of a map, from which every one may ascertain, distinctly, the limits of his own Possessions.

The Public works, ordered to be carried on in the City, are improving and perfecting.-The Government considers that a Church and a School in each Village would be the most proper monuments to be erected by the Province in commemoration of its liberty. This Plan is already in a course of execution, and you will not refuse to vote an annual Sum for the promotion of so worthy an object. Civil and religious education will thus form the manners of a free People, will render the perpetration of crime less frequent, and the constant employment of force, for the preservation of the peace, and the support of public tranquillity, less necessary. You approved of a plan last year for erecting places of confinement, gradually, throughout the Country, to facilitate the administration of Justice, and to obviate the

inhuman, practices which necessity had introduced, for the safe-custody of Persons accused. These works have been commenced this year, as well as the building of suitable Courts in each District, where justice may be administered without the inconveniences resulting from the frequent removals of the residence of the Justices of the Peace.

The sacrifices made for the organization and recruiting of the Provincial Army have not been fruitless. It has improved both in numbers and discipline. The veteran Troops, stationed along the Frontiers, have fulfilled their duty satisfactorily. Prudence, however, requires not only that this force should be completed, but even increased. The Committee appointed to reform the Military Penal Code, adapting it to our Institutions and necessities, will shortly submit their labours to your deliberation.

The Revenue of the Province has been much more productive in this than it was in the preceding year, having been sufficient to meet all the expenses both of the ordinary and extraordinary service. The proceeds of the Loan, which was raised in London, have been remitted hither advantageously, and without causing any alteration in the exchange. The Government expects that the works of the Port, for which the Loan was especially intended, will be undertaken by private Companies, with their own Capital; enabling it, consequently, to apply the money to other objects; in the mean time it is advantageously employed in promoting our industry. All the Papers concerning these transactions will be, at the proper time, submitted to your consideration. The Machines, and the necessary implements for coining, are already prepared, and a contract has been entered into to erect the Mint establishment in the course of the ensuing year. The Minister of Finance will lay before you the Accounts of last year, and the estimates of expenses for the ordinary service of the next.

GENTLEMEN,

The Government congratulates you upon reassuming your labours under such favourable auspices. It stands in great need of your co-operation: in the infancy of your national existence, and after so protracted a struggle, Peace itself has its dangers, and requires great sacrifices.

The spirit of anarchy, disguised in a thousand ways, may corrupt our Institutions; and the Sons of Aristocracy, born during the Revolution, will seek every opportunity of throwing discredit on them. Our position in this great epoch, must render the examples which you set in the discharge of your duties of the greatest importance. It is necessary to prove, that liberal Institutions are not only the best adapted to make Nations happy and prosperous, but also to elevate their feelings, and to inspire them with a firm and irresistible energy, when necessary, in support of their national honour.

JUAN GREGORIO DE LAS HERAS.
MANUEL JOSÉ GARCIA.

SPEECH of The King of Bavaria, on the opening of the Assembly of the States.-Munich, March 2, 1825.

(Translation.)

GENTLEMEN, SENATORS and Deputies,

Dear and faithful Representatives of the State,

In calling you thus before me, I give you a fresh guarantee of the promises which I have already made to you respecting the Constitàtional Regulations.

The first sexennial period of the power of the States is passed.— We may venture to look back with satisfaction upon the success of the principles upon which it was founded.

The promises which I made when last I took leave of you are many of them fulfilled, and the rest will shortly be so.

Several proposals also, made during the last meeting of the States, which it was not then in my power to perform, have not failed to attract my attention.

Projects for new Laws, the formation of which has been carried forward with the utmost eagerness, have gained considerably in my opinion, in consequence of the advice of the Assembly; a few necessary alterations only will be made in them: many, indeed, are in a state of preparation, and will speedily be adopted. In cases, where the assistance of the Assembly is requisite, the proper information will be laid before you.

The composition and amelioration of the Laws will originate with Me, and be regulated by the opinion of the Assembly.

My Minister of Finance is charged to lay before you the Account of Payments and Debts, and to give you a clear Account of the Expences of the State for the next sexennial period.

You must be aware of the difficulty which presents itself in these days, of keeping an equal balance in the Receipt and Expenditure of the State. This subject necessarily demands your particular attention.

The losses which my faithful Subjects must necessarily sustain, even during Peace, in consequence of their being deprived of so many sources of profit, is an object of the utmost anxiety to me.-Nego ciations, for the purpose of facilitating Commerce, which the Assembly so much desired, have already commenced. My anxious wishes to promote the welfare of Bavaria have accelerated them; but as many causes combine to prevent our augmenting our Commerce to any great extent, it is our duty to turn our view towards the developement of our internal resources.

The Institutions appropriated to Education deserve your peculiar attention, not only on account of the increased necessity for them, but also on account of the expence they necessarily occasion.

The ravages effected by the storms in several parishes and districts, have caused me great grief, but I have had the consolation of seeing that the Sufferers received assistance from their generous Fellow

Citizens, on many occasions, where the Government could have been of no service to them. Thus, indeed, are my endeavours for the welfare of my People always supported. Where the difficulties are beyond our power, gracious Providence will assist us.

My heart impels me, in taking leave of you, to express to you my grateful sentiments for the manner in which my People celebrated the anniversary of the 25th year of my reign, and for those expressions of attachment and fidelity to my whole Family, which, while they sensibly touch my heart, proved their acknowledgment of the sincerity with which my efforts have been devoted to their welfare. But a few days since expired the 26th year of my reign. May future years shower blessings and prosperity upon my People, and may my endeavours and your co-operation in them produce to us a glorious result.

DECREE of the Congress of Colombia, relative to the Na

turalization of Foreign Mariners.-(Translation.)

The Senate and House of Representatives of the Republic of Colombia, assembled in Congress, considering: 1st. The necessity under which the Republic is placed, of encouraging its Marine for its defence, and for the prosperity of Commerce. 2nd. That the Individual who enlists in the Service of the National Marine, is entitled to the considerations specified in Article 184 of the Constitution;-decree,

Art. I.-The Foreigner who has served, or shall serve, for the term of six months, in any National Vessel, either of war or com merce, shall obtain a Letter of Naturalization.

The Subjects or Natives of the Nation which is at War with the Republic, cannot be admitted into the service of National Vessels, either of War or Commerce.

II The Commandant of Marine of the Department shall request from the Executive Power, the Letters of Naturalization for the Individuals described in the preceding Article; who shall take the oath, prescribed in the 13th Article of the Law of the 4th of July, 1823, before the Governor of the Province, or before the Civil Authority, to whom the former may entrust the affair. Bogota, April 30, 1825.

Let it be executed, &c.

F. DE PAULA SANTANDER.

BASES of the Federal Constitution of The United Provinces of Central America.

(Translation.)

Guatemala, December 17, 1823. THE Supreme Executive Power of the United Provinces of the Centre of America:

The National Constituent Assembly of the said Provinces has decreed as follows:

The National Constituent Assembly, in order to give to the People an idea of the system of Government which it has adopted, and of the constitutive principles which it begins to develop in the creation of a new social order, the most analogous to the intelligence of the Age, and to the desires and actual disposition of the United Provinces of the Centre of America,decrees the following:

BASES OF A FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.

Art. I. The Constitution is designed to secure the happiness of the People, preserving to them the greatest possible enjoyment of their rights; it establishes the National Independence and Sovereignty; determines, with exactness, the division of the three Powers; and ensures the rights of Man and of the Citizen, upon the eternal principles of liberty, equality, security and property.

II. The form of Government of the United Provinces of the Centre of America, is, " Republican, Representative, and Federal."

III. The denomination of these Provinces shall be in future, "The Federal States of the Centre of America."

IV. Their religion, the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman; to the exclusion of the public exercise of any other.

LEGISLATIVE POWER.

V. The Legislative Power of the Federation shall reside in a Federal Congress, composed of Representatives popularly elected, in the proportion of one for every thirty thousand Inhabitants. The moiety shall be renewed every year, and the same Representatives may be re-elected once, without any interval.

VI. It belongs, to the Congress:-1st. To make the Laws which sustain the Federation, and those in whose general uniformity each of the States has a direct and obvious interest. 2nd. To form the general Ordinance of the National Forces. 3rd. To raise and maintain Armies. 4th. To fix the expences of the general Administration, and assign for it the amount appertaining to each State, according to its population and wealth. 5th. To direct education. 6th. To declare War and make Peace. 7th. To regulate Commerce. 8th. To regulate the coin, weights and measures.

OF THE SENATE.

VII. There shall be a Senate, to be composed of two Members from each of the States, popularly elected. It shall annually be renewed by thirds, and its Members may be re-elected, once, without any interval.

VIII. Attributes of the Senate:-1st. It shall have the sanctioning of the Laws, in the form that may be pointed out by the Constitution. 2nd. It shall be the Council of the Executive Power, in all weighty and difficult cases, in which the latter ought to consult it. 3rd. It shall propose to the Executive Power for appointment, the