POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 143 



The mother-country has several times regained possession of 

 some districts; but as revolutions are always renewed with 

 more violence when the evils that produce them can no 

 longer be remedied, these conquests have been transitory. 

 To facilitate and give greater energy to the defence of thia 

 country, the governments have been concentrated, and a 

 vast state has been formed, extending from the mouth of the 

 Orinoco to the other side of the Andes of Riobamba, and 

 the banks of the Amazon. The Capitania- General of 

 Caracas has been united to the Vice-royalty of New Gre- 

 nada, from which it was only separated entirely in 1777. 

 This union, which will always be indispensable for external 

 safety, this centralization of powers in a country six times 

 larger than Spain, has been prompted by political views. 

 The tranquil progress of the new government has justified 

 the wisdom 01 those views, and the Congress will find still 

 fewer obstacles in the execution of its beneficent projects 

 for national industry and civilization, in proportion as it can 

 grant increased liberty to the provinces, mnst render the 

 people sensible to the advantages of institutions which they 

 have purchased at the price of their blood. In every form of 

 government, in republics as well as in limited monarchies, 

 improvements, to be salutary, must be progressive. New 

 Andalusia, Caracas, Cundinamarca, Popayan, and Quito, 

 are not confederate states like Pennsylvania, Virginia, and 

 Maryland. Without juntas, or provincial legislatures, all 

 those countries are directly subject to the congress and 

 government of Columbia. In conformity with the consti- 

 tutional act, the intendants and governors of the depart- 

 ments and provinces are nominated by the president of the 

 republic. It may be naturally supposed that such depen- 

 dence has not always been deemed favourable to the liberty 

 of the communes, which love to discuss their own local 

 interests. The ancient kingdom of Quito, for instance, is 

 connected by the habits and language of its mountainous 

 inhabitants, with Peru and New Grenada. If there were a 

 provincial junta, if the congress alone determined the taxes 

 necessary for the defence and general welfare of Columbia, 

 the feeling of an individual political existence would render 

 the inhabitants less interested in the choice of the spot 

 which is the seat of the central government. The same 



