144 THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE. 



argument applies to New Andalusia or Guiana, which are 

 governed by intendants named by the president. It may 

 be said that these provinces have hitherto been in a position 

 differing but little from those territories of the United 

 States which have a population below 60,000 souls. Pecu- 

 liar circumstances, which cannot be justly appreciated at 

 such a distance, have doubtless rendered great centraliza- 

 tion necessary in the civil administration; every change 

 would be dangerous as long as the state has external 

 enemies; but the forms useful for defence, are not always 

 those which, after the struggle, sufficiently favour individual 

 liberty, and the development of public prosperity. 



The powerful union of North America has long been 

 insulated, and without contact with any states having 

 analogous institutions. Although the progress America is 

 making from east to west, is considerably retarded near the 

 right bank of the Mississippi, she will advance without 

 interruption towards the internal provinces of Mexico, and 

 will there find a European people of another race, other 

 manners, and a different religious faith. Will the feeble 

 population of those provinces, belonging to another dawning 

 federation, resist; or will it be absorbed by the torrent from 

 the east and transformed into an Anglo-American state, 

 like the inhabitants of Lower Louisiana ? The future will 

 soon solve this problem. On the other hand, Mexico ia 

 separated from Columbia only by Guatemala, a country 

 and extreme fertility, which has recently assumed the 

 denomination of the republic of Central America. The 

 political divisions between Oaxaca and Chiapa, Costa Bica 

 and Veragua, are not founded either on the natural limits, 

 or the manners and languages of the natives, but solely on 

 the habit of dependence on the Spanish chiefs who resided 

 at Mexico, Guatemala, or Santa Fe de Bogota. It seems 

 natural that Guatemala should one day join the isthmuses of 

 Veragua and Panama to the isthmus of Costa Bica ; and 

 that Quito should connect New Grenada with Peru, as La 

 Paz, Charcas, and Potosi link Peru with Buenos-Ayres. 

 The intermediate parts from Chiapa to the Cordilleras of 

 Upper Peru, form a passage from one political association 

 to another, like those transitory forms which link together 

 the various groups of the organic kingdom in nature. Ii) 



