The Enquirer

SOUTHERN AMERICA.

BALTIMORE, May 11.

(Communicated by a mercantile friend.)

CARTHAGENA.

Translated for the Whig.

CARTHAGENA. Feb. 25.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS PROVINCE.

We have already said in another place, that the force of public opinion is irresistible, and a government which finds itself well established on it may reckon with certainty on a triumph over its enemies.— Without doubt it would have been a crime to attempt any thing against the revolution in July and August last, when the people were proceeding rather by a sort of instinct than by a knowledge of their interests and rights; but even ignorance the most stupid, blindness the most gross, were able to plan great things, at a time in which they probed the tyranny of the past government to the bottom; at a time in which the people began to feel the salutary influence of the new government which they themselves framed; in which they saw themselves raised to the dignity they sought; at a time when they operated by reason, by principles, by an inward conviction of the justice of their cause. If the brevity of time allowed me, and the scanty limits of these reflections, this would be the place to manifest the inestimable advantages which the new government has secured to the province of Carthagena in a few months. The increased expense and what the expedients of ten years would have cost under the former system, are the least important of the various dispensations which have tended to benefit the people.

I will not speak of the wise rules which it has prescribed, that the people may freely elect the deputies who are to represent them in the Supreme Junta; nor of the incentive and life which it begins to give to commerce and agriculture, abolishing and reforming the imposts with which despotism had choked these two fountains of public prosperity ; as little shall touch on the lesser of those happy results which time must draw from the new arrangement as beneficial as well combined—Let it suffice to inform the citizens, that the regulation of the 10th December, has alone freed them from a thousand evils and vexations the most grievous and degrading: With it is plucked up from the roots the causes of smuggling—it has also extinguished the revenue laws so barbarous, so iniquitous, so impolitic; and the officers paid with the sweat of the people, for their ruin, that moth of the state,—those enemies of agriculture, of commerce, of industry and arts; that plague of spies which lay in wait at every entrance and outlet, every street of the city; which pursued the merchant and harassed him even in the sanctuary of his habitation. Such were the means employed to sacrifice the people who were to cultivate the soil, which could not be maintained even by the substance of the unfortunate whom the tyranny of the government compelled to fraud. "Insatiable depots, says a politician, will you never understand, that if you lay duties on that which you offer to the stranger, (exports) he will purchase the cheaper, and will only give the price which will be demanded by other nations? -Even though your subjects might be the sole proprietors of products liable to taxes, they should never dictate the law ; because, in that case, they would purchase in smaller quantity ; and the surplus (remaining on hand) would force them to lower the price to find Consumers. The value of the merchandise which your empire receives from their neighbors, being regulated by the concurrence of foreign nations, they will be your tributaries who should pay these duties."

Extensive speculation and sublime theories are not necessary—it is enough to possess common sense in order to foresee the effects which the reduction of duties on imports and exports must produce. With the impulse which Commerce has received, agriculture will flourish, and from these will spring arts and industry -what benefits are we going to reap by the benignant influence of our liberty well understood' Our insatiate enemies who whilst they disguise the advantages of government are always prone to persuade the ignorant that these achievements are vain, that these hopes are the chimeras and offspring of a heated imagination. but time will make them acknowledge their errors; the day will speedily arrive when they may see our predictions realized.

The conduct of Carthagena could not be more moderate, nor better adapted to events. She preserves her union with the mother country, her relations of friendship and trade with the other governments of America, and concurs at the same time with the province of this, for her organization, and has regulated it. In resuming her interior administration a vast field has been opened to her to secure her happiness, without tempting the unavoidable calamities which a premature independence would have brought with it. In this interval she has extended and harmonized public opinion, the darkness which surrounded us have been dissipated, prejudices and errors the most deeply rooted have been eradicated, and mens minds are prepared for the new order of things when New Grenada occupies that place which suits her among other nations of the universe To proceed in any other way would be to violate nature, which travels through the means, before she arrives at the end—a—would be to snatch us from one element to transport us to another totally foreign; would be to bestow on the slaves of Asia the constitutions and laws of the Greeks. Are not the people accustomed to a monarchical government ? What do I say ? Were they not tied to the yoke of a colonial system, despotic and oppressive? To should they precipitately enter into the full enjoyment of all their natural and civil rights without abusing them?