unavoidable effect of that state of ambiguity, and practical difficulty in which the English Government found itself placed before recognising the Independence of Colombia, as His Majesty's Ministers had declared before Parliament, for it was really a manifest contradiction to accredit Consuls to the Ports of Colombia in the regular and proper terms of the rights of Nations, and not to recognize the independence and existence of that Government from whom the admission of those persons was sought. The Executive did not hesitate, in adopting the measure most decorous for the Republic, and conducive to the interests of the British Nation: placed in the painful situation of deceiving the Republic by falsely acknowledging, as Consuls competently sent, persons who did not come recommended to the Government of Colombia, and who did not appear to be destined for the Ports of the Republic, it did not hesitate to refuse the Exequatur to their Commissions, and to explain to the Commissioners of His Britannic Majesty the strong grounds for its determination, assuring them that, to give a fresh proof of friendship and good understanding towards the British Government and people, it would permit the persons designated for the Consulships, to protect the Trade and the interests of British Subjects in the capacity of Agents for Commerce and for Seamen.-The Commissioners accepted these conditions with pleasure, without having resisted the powerful arguments on which the refusal of the Exequatur was grounded. Congress will no doubt remember that, in my former Message, I gave them the assurance that, in the course of the Negociation on foot with the Commissioners of His Britannic Majesty, I would not lose sight of the dignity of the Government, nor of the interests of the Colombian People, and they will find, in the above exposition, that I have fully re-deemed my pledge. Public right does not acknowledge the admission of Consuls as a positive obligation from one Nation towards another; this obligation arises out of Treaties or Conventions entered into between them, or out of a state of peace and friendship between people mutually recognised as independent. This principle, which the English Government itself has observed in regard to the Consul General of Buenos Ayres in London, justified the Executive in withholding the Exequatur, even had the Commissions of the Consuls been addressed to the Republic and Government of Colombia. Since this occurrence nothing has been advanced towards the acknowledgment of our Independence; the Government of His Britannic Majesty makes that event depend on circumstances peculiar to the interests of Great Britain, and to the nature of the information which it may receive from its several Commissioners. Yet, if the Government of His Britannic Majesty follow the impulse of the public opinion of the Nation, and if the information given of the situation of Colombia, be dictated by justice and impartiality, we may reckon that this important

decision of The King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is near at hand.

The Commission of His Majesty the King of The Netherlands has had a similar result. Colonel de Quartell presented himself at this Capital, invested with powers from the Governor and Rear Admiral of the Island of Curaçoa, given by virtue of express orders from his Government. The Commissioner gave us assurances of the friendly sentiments of the King of The Netherlands towards the Republic of Colombia, and of his desire to enter into and cultivate relations of Friendship and Commerce mutually beneficial. The Executive accepted these manifestations with gratitude, and gave assurances of an equal desire on their part with respect to the Kingdom of The Netherlands-The Commissioner required the Exequatur for the Commissions of the Consuls sent by the Governor and Rear Admiral of Curaçoa, and the Executive declined granting it, since the nomination of these Persons belonged to the Government itself that accredited them, and not to subaltern Authorities. But as it was requisite to give to the Dutch Government a proof of the sincerity of our protestations of friendship, the Executive permitted those Persons to act as Agents of Commerce, who were to have officiated as Consuls had the informality mentioned not been noticed. The Executive believed that by such a measure it conciliated the respect due to the principles of the Rights of Nations, and to the dignity and decorum of the Government, with the obligations of friendship and good understanding which we owe to friendly or neutral Nations who seek intercourse with us, with a view to the welfare of their People, and to general peace.

The Superior Authority of Hayti duly empowered a Public Agent to the Government of Colombia, who proposed to us to enter inte and settle a Treaty of defensive Alliance against the invaders of each other's Territory respectively. The language of liberty displayed in the Agents' proposals and the private services which the Liberator and President, at a calamitous epoch, had received from the humane and feeling Petion, did not blind the Executive in regard to the conduct to be observed in so delicate a matter. Hayti had defended its Independence against the pretensions of France, of which Country it constituted a part, as Colombia now defends her Independence against those of Spain: a defensive league therefore with Hayti would place us in a situation of hostility with a Nation against which we have no cause of complaint, nor ought we to provoke it, since it has committed no aggression on us. Whilst the interest of the Republic requires the diminishing of the number of its enemies, the proposed Treaty would tend to increase them, and the proposal was made precisely at the time when the Spanish Government was making efforts to involve France in a War with America. The interests of Hayti and of Colombia never could be the same in regard to their Mother-Countries: an identity of

interests existed between Colombia and the other States of America formerly dependent upon Spain, an identity which induced the Government of the Republic to promote and conclude the Confederation of the New American States. The existing Treaties between them and ourselves prevent us, by their peculiar character, from entering into Alliances with Countries which never belonged to the Spanish Nation: and a defensive Alliance with Hayti might raise up a new enemy against our Allies, without their knowledge or consent. You know, Gentlemen, that the Eastern part of the Island of Saint Domingo belonged to France, by virtue of the Treaty of Basilea, and that it was afterwards restored to Spain by the Treaty of Paris;-that in the year 1822 the Inhabitants of the Town of St. Domingo proclaimed their Independence, and, in the last days of their political existence, hoisted the Flag of Colombia; and that the Chief of Hayti brought that Territory under the submission of his own Government, for reasons which could not be known with exactness, although the prominent one was grounded on the fundamental Law of that Republick. It does not appear that the conduct of the President of Hayti should provoke the hostility of Spain, with which Country alone we are in a state of warfare; for the Authorities of Hayti, when they occupied that part of the Island which had before been Spanish, did not in fact take possession of a Spanish Territory, but of an Independent Territory which had shewn a disposition to put itself under the protection of Colombia. All these considerations induced the Executive to defer the proposal of the Agent of Hayti until the meeting of the Assembly of Plenipotentiaries from the American Governments. France and our Allies will see in this upright proceeding the principles and the good faith on which the policy of the Colombian Government rests. France in particular must observe that we proceed with frankness and with good intentions in the steps which we have taken towards disposing His Most Christian Majesty favourably towards the Republic, and that we have not imputed to the French Government the suspicious and insidious conduct observed by the Persons in Colombia, who came in the Frigate Tarne, the object of whose voyage appears to have been to visit this Country and examine into the state of its affairs.

The tranquillity which the Republic enjoys has allowed the Executive to propose Regulations for extending the new method of primary Instruction, for increasing the Schools, for establishing new Professorships, and reforming some Colleges which were still infected with the old mode of Colonial education, and were suffering from the horrors of the War. The progress of public education must necessarily be slow, whilst the funds of the Institutions continue so limited and so uncertain as they now are; and perhaps we should despair of the Establishments which we have begun to form, did we not see that our youth apply themselves assiduously to study, and that their teachers are engaged in public instruction

with no other stimulus than that which their own honour and inclination supplies. I hope that in this Session a general plan of studies may be brought forward, the want of which is every day more sensibly felt.

The Projects of Law on the political regime of the Departments, and on the Administration of Justice, which were laid before the Executive the last day of the former Session, will be returned to you with the alterations which it has been deemed expedient to make in them. I cannot promise to myself that these alterations will alone tend to render such important Laws perfect: yet your wisdom, and the time that admits of their being discussed with attention, inspire me with the confidence that your labours will be perfect and useful to the Republic. The Executive is persuaded that these two Laws will serve to correct the defects in the Administration of the Departments, and to improve, in part, the distribution of Justice; proving a positive and evident benefit to the People who complained with reason of the extensive jurisdiction of the only three Tribunals of Appeal, and of the insignificant power of the Municipalities. But, to render this blessing complete, it is indispensably requisite to frame a Law for organizing the municipal Revenues, since the salubrity, the convenience and the embellishment of Towns, the good condition of the Roads, and the facilities of communication, call for established funds, without which the Municipalities will always remain a nullity.

I can, in general, assure you, that the order and the regularity of march of the constitutional regime has sustained no alteration: the Authorities more than ever respect the Institutions, and the Citizens freely enjoy the right of claiming the fulfilment of the Laws. It would be a true phenomenon in politicks that an infant society should advance towards prosperity without obstructions or slight oscillations. Colombia has still to experience the aberrations of ignorance and the effects of the incessant suggestions of our enemies, although it be true that neither the one nor the other can now have any influence in arresting the progress of the Republic towards the goal which she must one day reach. The disturbances in Pasto, which the nature of the locality, and the character of the People were calculated to prolong, have disappeared, and the indulgence of Government has been extended as far as the public security allowed. The activity and vigilance which have suppressed this germ of disunion, will in like manner confound the machinations of those few impotent Individuals who may suffer themselves to be led into faction. The People wish to live in peace, under the protection of the Laws, and whilst they themselves attend to the preservation of public order and to the support of our Institutions, the Republic will enjoy internal Peace, and the armed Force will thus have the less duties to fulfil.

The trade of the Interior requires some regulations to suppress the abuses practised by the Boatmen, and to protect the navigation of the

Rivers: and the Exterior Trade with the Coasts inhabited by wandering Tribes calls for special Laws to relieve the Executive from the difficulties which have occurred of late years.

I ask from Congress the framing of a Law prohibiting the grant of Patents of Naturalization to Individuals of any Nation with whom the Republic may be in a state of warfare: this is one of the Laws which is comprised in the Code of that Nation that may truly call itself free, and it appears superfluous for me to enter into any explanation of its utility.

The poverty of the National Treasury will always be felt whilst the liquidation of arrears is a charge on the ordinary annual Revenue, and the system continues to be pursued of not fixing the public expenditure and duly providing for it. To these causes another may now be added, from the necessity we have been under of increasing the standing Army to oppose a vigorous resistance to the hostile undertakings of Spain. I cannot give you a clear idea of the progress made by the Exchequer, in virtue of the Laws passed during the last Session, the time which has elapsed since their publication having been so short. The Executive has given the necessary impulse to the establishments of the general Administration, of the Treasuries, and Department of Accounts, with every practicable consideration to economy. I trust that during the present Session your attention will be directed to the uniform regulation of the decimal rent, to the reform of the Law respecting the direct contribution, and to other objects which the Executive will point out to you, under the permission granted to it by the Constitution.

The several and unpleasant questions raised on the occasion of the Loan of March, 1822, have been adjusted satisfactorily for those concerned, and honourably for the Republic. The Executive availed itself, in this transaction, of the Power with which you invested it by the Act of the 1st of July, 1823, and the result will in due time be presented to you for your information. The Congress must feel the honourable satisfaction that the conduct which we have observed in this business merits the general approbation of the most respectable Persons among Foreign Nations, who have made themselves acquainted with all the difficulties of the case.

I shall also lay before you a very circumstantial account of the mode and the terms in which the Loan has been completed, which was decreed on the 30th of June of the last year: the conditions of that negociation have appeared favourable to all those acquainted with the history of the Loans of other Nations. The Executive has seen that its Agents have been bound by the instructions which they received on leaving the Capital: their operations have been conducted. under the eye and direction of the Minister of Colombia in London, and the conduct of this public Servant has deserved the marked eulogy of those Persons who have been at hand to observe him. It has