COLOMBIA. 



107 



any and every exhibition of love and loyalty that rusal of the subjoined letter, lately published in a 

 springs from motives of patriotism, BO long as they leading British financial journal, and from the pen 

 do not lose sight of the one great paramount con- of an economist of note. Coming from such a source, 

 sideration, that peace and tranquillity are absolutely the expression of confidence is exceedingly gratify- 

 necessary to their prosperity. There never was a ing: it is an evidence that Colombia is now re- 

 people in many respects more favored; and if they garaed with exceptional favor in London, and that 

 would only in good and loyal earnest beat their such effort as she has made to maintain her credit 

 cannon into ploughshares and swords into pruning- will indeed serve her well. It may be accepted as a 

 hooks, what a grand spectacle the swift mutations sign of most encouraging future promise : 

 of time would soon reveal to the admiring gaze of '* There have been too few opportunities and too 

 the world ! little inclination to act on the spirit of the recom- 

 These reflections have been suggested by the pe- mendation of the concluding paragraph of Mr. Go- 



^ 



CATHEDRAL OP PANAMA. 



schen's late letter on Egyptian affairs, but 1 think the 

 present chance should not be let slip of calling at- 

 tention of all foreign stockholders to the prompt 

 action taken under difficulties by the United States 

 of Colombia to restore their credit, suspended, al- 

 though not lost, by the civil war that has latelv 

 raged in that part of South America. On the 14th 

 April last the agent of the Committee of the Colom- 

 bian Bondholders announced the termination of the 

 civil war that had been waged between the clerical 

 i>artv and the Liberals in those states, and it became 

 his duty to urge the Government to take steps for 

 the resumption of monthlv payments for the interest 

 of the foreign debt. He found the Government not 

 only prepared to listen to his request, but anxious 

 to comply with it, and that with an almost empty 

 Exchequer; but by the 6th of June he is able to 

 telegraph the resumption of monthly payments in 

 July, with arrears to be paid in four quarterly pay- 

 ments, commencing in October next, and this morn- 

 ine comes an announcement of his receipt of 7,600. 

 When efforts like these are mafle so promptlv, and 

 under circumstances of great difficulty, I think they 

 ought to be brought prominently forward, not only 

 to the honor of the state making those efforts, but 

 as an encouragement to other states, not those of 

 South America alone, to go and do likewise. I 

 doubt not that New Granada, as it used to be called, 

 will find in the future that this effort, greater than 

 we realize in this favored land, will serve her well." 



The regulation strength of the Colombian 

 Army in time of peace is 1,500 ; in time of 

 war each state is held to furnish a contingent 

 of 1 per cent, of its population. 



The annexed table will, with the details con- 

 tained in the ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1876 

 (p. 116), serve to give a fair idea of the pres- 

 ent state of public instruction in the Republic : . 



In the absence of official reports of the 

 foreign commerce of the United States of 

 Colombia, since those published in our volume 

 for 1876, we subjoin a few tables of imports 



* These were taken before the beginning of the late war. 



