152 



industry of the states of Columbia *, Peru, and Brazil 5 but 

 as the political strength of states at a given period depends 

 less on the proportion of their total extent to the number 

 of their inhabitants, than on the degree of concentration 

 of the greater part of the population, I have estimated the 

 inhabited and uninhabited parts separately. I have less 

 hesitated in adopting this method, because some respectable 

 persons in the new governments established in Spanish Amet- 

 rica have wished, for the benefit of their internal adminis- 

 tration, to know at the same time the total and the partial 

 surfaces. The denomination of provinces will probably 

 undergo frequent changes, as is the case in all societies 

 recently formed. Different combinations are tried, before 

 a state of equilibrium and stability is attained 5 and if inno- 

 vations of this kind have been lesfe frequent in the United 

 States, we must not attribute this to the national character 

 alone, but to that happy situation of the Angloamerican 

 colonies, which, governed from their origin by excellent 

 political institutions, possessed liberty previous to in- 

 dependence. 



* In the declaration of the congress of Venezuela, of the 

 date of December 17th, 1819, a declaration which is regarded 

 as the fundamental law of the republic of Columbia, the 

 territory is estimated (article 2) at 115,000 square leagues, 

 without adding the value of these leagues. If they be 

 nautical leagues, which is very probable, the estimate is 

 25,000 leagues too great (once and a half the area of France). 

 Maps must have been consulted, which were not corrected 

 according to the astronomical observations made at the 

 southern and eastern frontiers. All the estimates of area 

 hitherto published in the new states of America are very 

 inexact. I except the partial statements of the Abeja 

 argeniina (1822, N° i, p. 8), an interesting journal published 

 at Buenos Ayres. 



