unprotected by batteries; and barracks are so much wanted for the soldiery, that, with the exception of one newly erected in Guatemala for the cavalry, there may be said to be none in the republic. This report of the minister of war, it is thought, will induce the government to expend a part of the loan contracted for last year, in providing for the defence of the state. In the mean time, a school for officers and a military college have been endowed. The Spanish government was very careful not to communicate to the Americans any military knowledge. Passive obedience was their duty, and to command was the prerogative of the Spaniards. The chiefs of corps, the subaltern officers, and even the serjeants, were sent from Spain; and in consequence of this system of mistrust, under the Spanish sway, the foundation of a military college in Guatemala was not permitted. Finances. Under the Spaniards, the revenue of the kingdom of Guatemala amounted to a million of dollars; but peculation was carried to such an extent, that the Court of Madrid received little or no benefit from that sum. Amidst convulsions and changes of government, financial concerns always undergo an unfavourable mutation; nor could Guatemala, in its unsettled position, be expected to stand forward as an exception to this rule. Order and economy are now beginning to be re-established, and the revenue of the government will ere long keep pace with the progress and increase of the national wealth. In order to make the present institutions more palatable to the people, recourse was had to the hasty and imprudent plan of abolishing some of the taxes which filled the public treasury. The contributions which the natives paid, under the name of tribute, have been taken off, and likewise the tax on playing cards, and snow, not to mention the duties derived from bulls, the fifth of gold and silver, the half of the secular annats, the two per cent. on tobacco, and various other imposts which have been diminished or expunged. By reason of these reductions the public treasury became so empty, that the government was constrained to contract in London for a loan of seven millions and a half of dollars, by the assistance of which sum it will gain time to re-establish by gradual process some branches of the public revenue, and be enabled to undertake at the same time many works advantageous to the state. The revenue destined for the general expenses of the republic has for some time past been derived solely from imposts on powder, postage, tobacco,* and clearances from the maritime custom-house. We cannot say whether the produce of these four objects of taxation are sufficient to maintain the general expenses of the republic, which, according to Señor del Valle, rarely exceed 500,000 dollars. But should there be a slight deficiency in the revenue to meet the expenditure, this will be but a momentary evil, inasmuch as the government, besides daily adopting economical experiments, is proceeding slowly with the augmentation of the taxes, in quotas which will fall but lightly on the people, and be a mere nothing when compared with the sums which * The statement of the revenue shows, that in the five years from 1813 to 1817, 509,071 dollars were collected. The quality of the tobacco of Guatemala is excellent, and by many considered superior to that of Virginia. By reason, however, of the difficulty and expense of exportation, from the badness of the roads and the tediousness of communication, it cannot as yet compete in price with the tobacco of North America. were exacted from them in times past. The fact is, that the inhabitants of Guatemala pay less taxes than any other people of the present day in Europe or America. Señor del Valle having compared the contributions of Mexico with those of Guatemala, proves that in Mexico each person pays eleven reals, and in his country but two and a half. Colonization. The 12th article of the constitution declares that " the republic is a sacred asylum for every foreigner, and the country of any one who desires to inhabit its territory." The government, aware of the necessity of inviting foreign industry to establish itself in the republic, by a decree of the 12th January, 1824, (which on account of its length we cannot now extract,) offered the most liberal advantages to foreigners who colonized there. Land is easily obtained, and its possession is accompanied with exemption from taxes for twenty years, and the right of citizenship after three; besides which, the most careful protection is given to every foreign agriculturist. This, then, is the position which the Guatemalian nation presents to the eyes of the world: agitated no more by revolutions and destructive changes, it advances in a steady manner towards wealth and civilization. "The government of Guatemala," to use the words of Señor del Valle, "has never for an instant lost sight of the welfare of the nation; an object which it has forwarded with foresight, and without dangerous precipitancy. A laborious peasant may now recall his toils, and look on the profits derived from them with pleasure. The benevolent exertions of a zealous government in behalf of its citizens, are satisfactory to the governors and the governed. I have laboured strenuously for the public last year, and shall labour still more in the present. The people have confided their destinies to me, and I shall live wholly for the people. A tear less, an ear of corn more, or a shoot from a plant not cultivated before my administration, will place me at the summit of felicity." At this moment the Grand Congress of all the new American republics is assembling at Panamá; whence will undoubtedly be diffused an electric fire, which will impart new impulses to the infant states, and tend to quicken their prosperity. What a powerful influence may not that free and confederate continent, in a century to come, exercise over Europe! + *Speech of the President charged with the executive power, on the opening of the Federal Congress of Guatemala, on the 25th of February, 1825. + Without wishing to detract from the works of M. de Pradt upon the Colonies, we take leave to quote a passage from the writings of the Italian philosopher Genoveri, who, about the middle of the last century, predicted the emancipation of the American colonies; adding another prophecy, which we hope will not be verified so literally as the first. His words are these:-"It is nevertheless true that those who have founded extensive colonies in the new world, thought, as is the custom of mankind in general, more of present utility than of future consequences. These colonies, in process of time, cannot but organise themselves after the European model, and become anxious to possess all our arts and sciences; and, when this happens, they will inevitably make themselves independent of the mother country, whose gains will then be at an end. Nor do I deem it beyond the pale of probability that these colonies may one day become our masters. Every thing in the world is subject to mutations, and assumes a new aspect in the lapse of time. Who could have imagined, in the days of Augustus, that the country of the Italians would dwindle into colonies of the southern nations!" Imitation of " Le Vieux Drapeau" of De Beranger. FALL'N flag of Hope, though cover'd long ! Heroic Shades are hovering o'er thee; Thine is the hue of Honour's bed, Ev'n they who blame its charms deplore thee. Once widely waving, high, and holy, To shame betray'd, lies mouldering lowly. Breathed o'er its last Enthusiast's ashes? He bade thy folds unfetter'd fly Where'er their kindred current* dashes. Thy drooping Genius silence keeps, Except his country and his glory.- His truth and death were unavailing ; Whose rash embrace, and wild endeavour, And rivet chains it cannot sever. Flag of Revolt too oft unfurl'd! Whose sons pay forfeit for their fathers, An age of crime, of death a world Whose short-lived shadow in it gathers!— And trampled in a hundred battles, : Though near it still the thunder rattles:- The champions of thy cause appalling. And many a stain of gore and tears * The river Shannon. R. O. C. The ancient appellation of the Irish standard. KIT-CAT SKETCHES.-NO. 1. In and out of love. LOVE is local. Many a man "owns the soft impeachment," as tenderly as Mrs. Malaprop herself, in a small village with nothing to listen to but a mill-stream, who dreams not of Cupid in Waterloo Place: and many a maiden melts at addresses by the sea-side, which she would have treated with disdain in the centre of this inland metropolis. If the votaries of Hymen deny my position, I will establish it by two living illustrations. Tom Templeton follows the law as an Attorney and Solicitor in Gray's Inn. He may generally be seen also on the fourth bench of the pit at the Opera-house, counting from the orchestra. He touches the violoncello, and in singing rather piques himself upon his falsetto. Jane Brockman is the daughter of Mr. Giles Brockman, a Policy Broker, living in one of those remote Squares, (I think they call it Mecklenberg,) that, according to the most recent discoveries, lie in a cluster, like so many Cyclades, northward of the British Museum. Her father accidentally discovered the Square in question, when his gig was towed several hundred leagues out of its course by an affrighted steed, on a voyage along the New Road. Finding the air temperate, our adventurer, in imitation of the surviving Mutineers from the Bounty, established a colony there, which those who have touched at it lately describe as being in a flourishing condition. The Templetons,-I mean the father, mother, and two sisters of Tom,-reside in Bloomsbury Square, and when in town, are apt to hold their heads above the Brockmans, on account of the superior gentility of their place of residence. I rather think they are right. Bloomsbury Square was ever looked upon by me with tenderness and respect. I remember, when a boy, seeing the late Duke of Bedford turn into his residence there, in a travelling chariot drawn by four horses. The mansion of his Grace stood on the north side of the Square it was inclosed within a wall that extended the whole length of that side of the Square, with a stone Sphynx at either end of it. The house itself, at least the outside of it, was, to be sure, in a shabby dilapidated condition; but it commanded a charming view behind of the Highgate and Hampstead hills, with a side glance at Baltimore House, then in the fields, and afterwards the residence of Sir Vicary Gibbs-it has brick and mortar enough in its vicinity now, to build half a hundred Towers of Babel. Here too dwelt the celebrated Lord Mansfield, the present Earl's great uncle in two senses, not to mention the late Lord Ellenborough, and several puisnè Judges, who have since thought fit to migrate towards the terra incognita of Russell Square. I must own I liked Bloomsbury Square better before the introduction of the Statue of Charles Fox. Not that I am a party-man, but the sight of it generates several anti-classical associations about the India Bill, the Coalition, and the duel with Mr. Adam; and the patriot being, moreover, in a sitting position, it is to be inferred that he is in no haste to go.-But all this is foreign to the point at issue. Tom Templeton and Jane Brockman went with their respective parents to Broadstairs. Tom and Jane met, every day, at the one or the other of the two libraries. Upon these occasions they conversed frequently on the colour of the ocean, which, as they have since con fessed, appeared to them "sometimes smooth and sometimes rough," as the late Mr. Dignum used to say in No Song no Supper. They would sometimes look at the boundless expanse of waters, and find it suddenly darkened as though a cloud was passing over it (perhaps a cloud was passing over it): upon which occurrence Tom would take occasion to say, that it reminded him of the shadows that darken the sunshine of life-a sentiment which Jane would embody in her green morocco bound Album with a gilt padlock, the key whereof was appendant to her necklace. At other times Tom would enact deputy donkey-driver, and urge Jane's long-eared quadruped along the cliffs towards Ramsgate, in a narrow path, bounded by a hedge on its right, and the edge of the cliff on its left. This recreation, however, was stopped by the following catastrophe. Miss Brockman, notwithstanding her education at a very polite Ladies' Academy within three doors of the Parr's head at Camberwell, could not in speaking avoid a whim she had of cutting off the letter H from its natural position, and transplanting it in front of one of the five vowels. Thus, according to her, a bat was an att, an apple a happle, an otter a hotter, and an owl a howl. Miss Brockman was one morning riding on her Jerusalem poney, in her nankeen pelisse and green veil, Tom following with whipcord, when she thought that her swain was driving her rather perilously towards the ocean. "Nearer the edge!" exclaimed Miss Brockman; "you are too near the hedge." Tom Templeton believing that the lady expressed her real sentiments, and not dreaming that she meant him to seek the hedge, and eschew the edge, drove the donkey so close to the brow of the cliff, that the ground actually began to crack landward of the lovers; and had not the quadruped's superior wisdom induced him to swerve inward, the whole party would have made a most abrupt descent upon the heads of the shell-picking urchins on the shore. This catastrophe drove the parties in future to the beach, where they would stand for hours together with a telescope, under an impending rock, or in an excavation a few paces further on, where they communed in a sort of Dido and Æneas fashion; she looking through the glass, and wondering whether the vessel which she beheld in the horizon was coming from Madrid or Vienna, and he patting the sand with his right foot, until it assumed the moisture and consistence of a breadpudding. Gunpowder like this could not long remain without exploding. Accordingly Thomas Templeton and Jane Brockman fell in love. Broadstairs is in fact a capital station for falling in love. I strongly advise all matrons with growing-up daughters, to go thither in preference to Margate or Ramsgate. The double Pier and steam-vessels in the former place, and the view of the Downs from the latter, occupy the mind too much there is no room for the tender passion. But at Broadstairs, after a young man and maiden have eaten their morning prawns, and taken their morning yawns, they have nothing to do but to fall in love till eleven o'clock at night. There is no raffle at the libraries, and the Tract Society meetings only occur once a month. Our young Solicitor's love-letter was in the words and figures following: "Dear Miss Brockman, - My heart has given me notice of set off. It attempted to sue out a ne exeat, but failed. Your image, aided by a posse comitatus of accomplishments, has entered and taken pos |