legally appropriated to gambling. Still it goes on to an alarming extent; for through what barriers will not the infatuated gambler madly force his way! Though I am not aware that any here, as in Peru, have gambled away their servants, wives, and children, it is no unusual occurrence that men play for the clothes they wear, and the houses which shelter their families. Many a gamester here who was af fluent in the morning when he arose became penny less at night when he retired.

This city is the great emporium of the united provinces. It is not only the most ancient in its origin, and the most numerous in its population, but by far the most happy in its location, of all the cities through the whole range of this vast tract. The produce of the country for more than a thousand miles rolls down in numberless carts to this place for exportation; and all imported goods, which are distributed over these numerous provinces, pass through this city. Had the sunshine of unbroken peace shed its brightness on this centre of so great and numerous interests, how would it have expanded its limits and glittered in wealth! But the city, having been ever under the control of the surrounding country, is made to tremble and change by the shock of every revolution which occurs in the interior. The chieftain who may chance to become popular in the camp, sways his newly acquired control over the city. Thus, with every opposing demagogue whose party becomes superior the city is doomed to connect its fortune. Had it been otherwise-had the city governed the country, as by its superior intelligence it possesses the right to do-the former by degrees would raise the latter from the degradation of its semi-barbarian state. But as the reverse has been the case since the Spanish yoke was broken from the neck of the colony, this most enlightened city in the southern hemisphere has, for a quarter of a cen tury, been agitated by every civil tumult which the vice and ignorance of the interior could originate. The conflicting parties in Buenos Ayres have sucessively banished and robbed each other to such an extent that much of the wealth with which it once overflowed has long since disappeared.

If, however, we mistake not the signs of the times, there are now principles in operation which must soon acquire a triumphant ascend. ancy over these tumultuous elements which have so long been in con. flict. If moral causes sustain the same relation to their appropriate effects here as in other ages and nations, the force of continuing events must, under the guidance of God, soon open on these provinces the morning dawn, to succeed to the long reign of deep and palpable dark. ness. Then shall this city, emerging from her sullen gloom, become the radiant point from which diverging light will gleam over this vast territory.

Having, in our former numbers, advanced through the past history of South America with a speed which admitted only of a glance at its most prominent features, we now come to that stormy period which has elapsed since the commencement of the revolutionary struggle against Spain. Few nations of any age or realm have been scourged by civil broils and mutual bloodshed to so great an extent as the provinces of South America. The last quarter of a century has rung with the clash of arms, and streamed with the blood of neighbors.

But as a minute description of these would only add another para. graph to the history of ambition and blood, which portrays the most contentious ages of the world, we shall not in these pages depict the sickening scene. Nor could we particularize were the matter of another character, without the most obvious departure from our prescribed plan. In passing along this chain of thrilling events the eye can rest on only a few which are most indicative of the mental and moral character of the community.

The history of the Spanish revolution in America is rather a detail of civil discord, party intrigues, alternate and successive aggressions of military chiefs, than of a protracted and arduous struggle against the common enemy. Had the Spanish power been far more formidable in the colonies than the patriots found it, the issue of the conflict would have been much more felicitous to the victors. There would then have been a demand for unfaltering perseverance, in one great concentrated effort. This would have left little room for ambitious chieftains to originate and execute those conflicting plans of selfaggrandizement under which the country has not ceased to bleed at every pore. It would also have so deeply interested the citizens at large in the preservation of their liberty-by the personal sacrifice each must have made to obtain it-as not absolutely to surrender it to every demagogue around whom a few thousands of partizans might gather. The power of the parent state in America, during the Spanish revolution, has been astonishingly exaggerated. As the conquerors felt that their glory would be enhanced in proportion as the power they subverted was magnified, the most hyperbolical descriptions were given of the enemy's strength. That bloody battles were fought, and con. siderable heroism repeatedly displayed during the struggle, history leaves not a shadow of doubt. But many of the most famous victories achieved by the patriots owe more of their brilliancy to the highSounding phraseology, the pompous terms, so abundant in the Spanish diction, with which the reports of such victories were adorned, than to the superior courage and discipline of the victors.

The truth of these statements rece ves strong confirmation from the three following facts:-That Spanish troops not unfrequently passed over in large bodies to leading patriot officers of known revolutionary principles; that not more than ten or fifteen hundred men have re peatedly decided the fate of an entire province; that in every instance, when an effort was made with any degree of unanimity and vigor by the Americans, it was never needful to repeat it more than once or twice without complete success.

The bonds of Spanish thraldom were burst asunder at a much ear. lier period in some of the colonies than others. Paraguay acquired its liberty so early as 1811. Buenos Ayres proclaimed its independence in 1810, and has had no Spanish foe with which to contend since 1814. Chili had not entirely thrown off the yoke till five years later. It was not till 1823, when Callao was surrendered, that Peru was able to expel her last Spanish foe. But none of the provinces was doomed to greater reverses, or a more protracted struggle for her independence, than Columbia. And excepting Mana's transient excursions in Mexico, that viceroyalty made no effort against her foreign aggressor till roused to it by the thrilling example of all the others.

As in a previous number we have sought the cause of the American revolution in some of the great political events which burst on Europe under the reign of Napoleon, we shall here pass that topic in silence. The overthrow of the Spanish power in South America commenced at Buenos Ayres in 1810. The invasion of the English under Barisford in 1806, and under Whitlock in the following year, let in a flood of light on this city. The success with which it contended against these well disciplined forces inspired it with confidence in its own skill and valor, and prepared it to take the lead in the arduous and protracted struggle. The discretion and vigor with which it entered on the revolutionary enterprise enabled it to annihilate the civil power of Spain in one night, without the discharge of a single gun, or the loss of a drop of blood.

An epitome of the manner in which this was effected may not be improper here, as we shall thereby communicate a general idea of the mode adopted by several of the ex-colonies. A colonel, of considerable distinction, by the name of Saanadra, concerted and matured measures, with two other officers of the same grade, to overthrow the Spanish authority in this viceroyalty. Having put their regiments under arms, they waited on the viceroy and addressed him in a respectful, but in a very firm and laconic manner. They informed his excellency that the political order of things in the provinces under his administration was now about to change, that any opposition to the intended measures would be fruitless, and invited him to co-operate in the means by which the change was to be effected. They conveyed the same intimations in short and expressive sentences to the other city authorities. The cabildo was then required to summon the citizens, and in open court inform them of the intended change in the government. The viceroy, taken on surprise, was thunderstruck by this sudden rush of events. Being unable to calculate on the extent of this revolutionary combination, or to foresee the limit to which the innovation might be carried, he deemed it most prudent to yield to the force of circumstances. In this new and singular position in which he found himself suddenly placed, the part was humbling which he was constrained to act; he was not only compelled to relinquish his vice regal power, but by his own vote to clothe that revolutionary junta with it which was organized to depose him. The ostensible object of this movement was to sustain the "sacred rights of Ferdinand VII.," the real him was to annihilate the power of that monarch over the entire viceroyalty. The associating of the name of the viceroy with those of the other members of the junta, in some of their first and most important decrees, was an act of profound policy, as by this masterly movement the viceroy gave a deathblow to his own power, and great weight to the authority of the new legislature over distant towns, and over the troops in general. When the movers of this revolution had served their purposes with his humbled excellency, he, with his leading officers, was shipped off at a midnight hour for another country.

Thus that foreign power to whose unlimited sway this people had bowed for three centuries was abolished in one night, without the discharge of a single musket, or the loss of a drop of blood. But though this province and several others disposed in this summary and bloodless manner of the civil authority of Spain, none without a bloody

struggle crushed her military power. The question has been reiterated with emphasis, whether South America was not premature in asserting her independence of the parent state. Some of the most discrimi nating foreigners, disgusted by the unceasing agitations which have shaken down the last monument of patriotism in the country, have pronounced it rather temerity than heroism which severed these colonies from Spain. But others, shocked with the horrors of Spanish tyranny, have drawn the brightest picture of the revolutionary strug. gle of the colonies. That scarcely an attribute of self-government belonged to the character of South America when she burst her Spanish chains, subsequent experiment has overwhelmingly demonstrated.

Though a period of almost thirty years has been enjoyed, in which to learn the science of self-control, it is amazing to one unacquainted with their colonial history to observe how little proficiency the South Americans have made. When this country had crushed the power that so long held her in thraldrom, the brightest hope awoke in civilized man that a new world had emerged into being, to act a splendid part on the theatre of nations. North America was electrified, and dispatched her envoy to congratulate the southern hemisphere on the glorious career which had opened before it. New energies were awakened in England, and her merchants floated by thousands to these shores.

In these feverish dreams of fortune thousands fancied the Andes to be little else than vast piles of gold and silver, and hazarded their fortunes to procure this enormous wealth. But the successive shocks of disappointment have roused men from their revery, and put to flight their dreams of South American wealth and greatness. Indeed, a knowledge of the moral elements of society here ought to have prevented those extravagant anticipations which were entertained of its speedy and lofty elevation. But all the imbecility exhibited in these ex-colonies by no means decide the question whether they were premature in proclaiming their independence. Their repeated errors in practice, and notorious aberrations from principle, are not referable to the time of their becoming free, but to the character they sustained at the period of their freedom. Had their thraldom been protracted through three centuries more, the period succeeding that would be no less tumultuous than that which has elapsed since the Spanish revo lution. When a nation of slaves is suddenly thrown on its own resources, it is of but little moment at what time of its existence, or at what age of the world its emancipation occurs; it may be when midnight ignorance shrouds the rest of the world, or when noonday intelligence brightens the destiny of surrounding nations, the question still is, What are the elements composing the moral character of the people becoming free? History has taught us that a virtuous people can continue happy under self-control, though surrounded by nations under the most blighting despotism, and on the other hand, that a nation deep in moral degradation will rush on toward ruin in the brightest eras of the world, with the noblest monuments of patriotism before their eyes. To speak, therefore, of the miseries of South America as having originated in its premature emancipation, is to ascribe that to time which belongs only to character. Had this country acquired her inde

pendence a century earlier, she might have long since passed the dreadful ordeal, and now be dwelling under the steady sunshine of unbroken peace. The prevailing spirit of the age, the powerful action of moral means, and the monitory voice of bitter experience must, before another generation shall pass, calm the fury of the storm, and give stability to free institutions in the midst of the long and deeply convulsed nation.

The Spanish revolution has thrown open vast resources to this country, of wealth, intelligence, and national greatness. For a single vessel which came to these ports, under the colonial system, from only one nation in Europe, twenty now enter them from almost as many different nations. For one weekly periodical that was then published, five times that number are now being issued from the press. Instead of the exclusion of all books which did not subserve despotic purposes, in several of the ex-colonies all books are admitted to be promiscuously read.

The sway of a superstitions priesthood, which was then almost absolute, is now extremely limited, and in several of the provinces Protestant worship is freely admitted: then scarcely a foreigner was seen in the southern hemisphere, now they mingle by thousands with the natives, and shed among them the light of more elevated and expanded views.

The increase of commerce has so enhanced the value of every article of export as to create such incentives to diligence as were previously unknown. Nearly all the delicacies, and many of the conveniences of life among the laboring classes, have originated in the same source. These, and kindred advantages, with numberless collateral ones, which the revolution has created, might have raised this nation to a moral elevation and physical greatness which would have been bright in promise: but one-thousandth part of the blessings such an event tended to produce South America has never realized. Indeed, as a whole, it has exhausted its utmost energies to pervert those blessings which, in spite of itself, the revolution showered upon it. By domestic strife, party feuds, and hostile aggressions, privileges have been neglected, wealth squandered, and the blood of the provinces poured out like water. Cupidity, ambition, revenge, and all the kindred passions which agitated Europe in the midnight hour of its history, have had full and fearful scope in these fated provinces.

Though Spain has now no more political connection with South America than with the remotest empire on the globe, still is she responsible for much of that misery which has filled to overflowing the cup of this nation. It is impossible to penetrate the arcana of Spanish government over her colonies, without feeling that more than a quarter of a century was demanded to raise them to the capability of self-control. Of that system we have in another place given an epitome, and have here no room for enlargement.

Prior to the independence of South America, Spain had descended to a state of poverty and degradation, lower than which it is difficult for a nation to sink. Her places of power were filled with an imbecile king, a treacherous prince, a corrupt nobility, and all her cities and hamlets were thronged by a powerful, bigoted, and tyrannical priesthood.