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of provisions; after landing which, Miaoulis anchored his squadron at Procamistos, in order to watch events. The Capitan Pacha had also resolved upon remaining; but, afraid of the fire-ships, kept at a great distance from the Greek anchorage.

On 27th December, Redschid Pacha commenced battering the fortress; and, confident in the valour of his disciplined Egyptians, he directed the most distinguished of them to make an assault, they being supported by the Turks and Albanians. The assailants advanced in excellent order; and succeeded, at many points, within

the Greek entrenchments; but they were received with the greatest intrepidity, and compelled to retire with considerable loss.

Some days after this conflict, which was the last that distinguished the campaign of the year, there fell a deluge of rain, which compelled the enemy to abandon his works, and retire to the heights of Mount Aracynthus. The Ottoman fleet, at the same time, set sail for the coast of Patras, while the garrison exerted themselves in re-establishing their batteries.

CHAPTER XV.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA-MEXICO-COLOMBIA-PERU -BOLIVIA-BUENOS AYRES-BRAZILS-HAYTI.

THE affairs of the United States, during this year, presented to foreign ations, as usual, an unvarying aspect of domestic content and tranquillity. When we contemplate their condition, with reference to their central government, they are as a youthful giant in a state of repose, who, in his slumbers, is making the greatest additions to his growth and his energies. The object is interesting, but too little diversified in its features for the beholder to dwell long upon. When, again, we consider them apart from that government, and mark the rapid advance which they are making in internal improvements, owing chiefly to the enterprising and ceaseless activity of their citizens, in their individual capacity, we are struck with wonder at the cheapness and simplicity of the process by which their future national greatness is being elaborated. America owes much, doubtless, to her institutions, but infinitely more to her admirable position with regard to foreign powers, and to her vast expanse of fertile and unoccupied territory. Remote from "warring Europe," her interests can be in no way affected by the changes which may be there operated; and having few inducements to

go to war, and secure from all invasion by ambitious neighbours, she is under no necessity of maintaining a large standing army, which has become a necessary condition of the existence of every European power, and weighs most heavily upon its resources. Its back woods, too, while they admit the fullest developement of the principle of increase of population, present an admirable outlet from the mass of the nation, for all those unquiet spirits who can i brook the conventional restraints of civilized life, and those whose wants may have rendered them desperate; and thus internal peace is maintained, without having recourse to many of the restrictions upon natural liberty which, in the freest states of the old world, are indispensably necessary. The grossest misgovernment alone, under these happy circumstances, could have retarded the growth of America's prosperity; and they who would peremptorily reason from it in favour of democratical governments, must either be without judgment, or desirous to impose upon the judgment of others. They must be as fanatical and dishonest in their way as an opposite class of writers are in theirs, who see nothing in the situation of Ameri

ca, or her prospects, or the character of her citizens, which they do not abuse and decry.

As none of the candidates for the Presidency had obtained an absolute majority of votes throughout the Union, the right of choosing a President from the three who stood highest upon the list devolved, by an article of the constitution, upon the House of Representatives. These three were General Jackson, who had 99 votes, Mr John Quincy Adams, who had 84, and Mr Crawfurd, who had 41. The only other candidate was Mr Clay, who reckoned 37 votes. On 9th February, the House, having assembled, proceeded, after a number of formalities, to discharge the important trust. A delegate for each state was first nominated; and the whole delegates having balloted for the new President, the votes were declared to be as follows: For Mr Adams, 18; General Jackson, 7; Mr Crawfurd, 4. This result, which was brought about by Mr Clay transferring his interest to Mr Adams, gave great offence to the democratical party throughout the Union, by whom Jackson was chiefly supported, and who represented it as an act of contempt of the national voice by those who were most religiously bound to respect it. The discontents of that party engendered a scheme for changing the constitution, so far as it related to the election of President; which scheme was actually submitted, in the course of next session, to the House of Representatives, by one of its members, but without success.

The answer which Mr Adams returned to the deputation who announced to him his election, was remarkable for its modesty. Alluding to the circumstances of the election, particularly the preference of him by the House of Representatives to two citizens, whose names were associated with the national glory, he declared

that he would decline the Presidency to afford the people the opportunity of making an approach to unanimity in their suffrages, but that the provision made by the constitution for the case which had occurred, left him no alternative but to accept the office.

On 4th March, the new President was formally installed in the capital, in the presence of the two Chambers, the public authorities, and foreign ambassadors; on which occasion he pronounced a glowing eulogy upon the constitution, and the administration of his predecessors; and dwelt at great length upon the political relations of the Union, and the policy which its interests imposed upon it. He then took the prescribed oath to the constitution.

The proceedings of Congress, after the installation of Congress, were not in any respect remarkable; if we except the passing of an act authorizing a loan of twelve million dollars, at four and four and a half per cent interest, for the redemption, in 1826,of an equivalent portion of the public debt, which bore six per cent interest.

The annual report made from the treasury to Congress exhibited the following statement: The revenue received for the year 1824 amounted to 24,381,212 dollars, comprehending a loan of 5,000,000 dollars; which, with the sum remaining in the treasury on 1st January, 1824, constituted a sum total of 33,845,135 dollars. The disbursements for the year amounted to 31,898,538 dollars; consequently, at the end of the year, there remained in the treasury 946,599 dollars. receipts of the treasury for the three first quarters of 1825 were 21,581,444 dollars; those for the last quarter, it was calculated, would be 5,100,000 dollars, which, with the balance of 1824, would constitute a sum total of 2,872,851 dollars. The entire disbursements for that year were esti

The

mated at 23,443,979 dollars, which would leave in the treasury a balance of 5,284,061 dollars. The amount of the public debt on 1st October, 1825, was 80,985,537 dollars. The receipts of the treasury for 1826 were estimated at 25,500,000 dollars, the expenses at 20,584,730, making a balance of 4,915,270.

In the course of the year a dispute arose between the federal government and the legislature of Georgia, which at first assumed a serious character. The Georgians wished to take possession of certain lands within their territory which belonged to the Creek Indians; which lands had been ceded to the state by one of the Creek chiefs, in consideration of a small sum of money; but the other chiefs, instead of ratifying, protested against the cession, and, to mark their displeasure still more strikingly, put the author of it to death. Further, they claimed the protection of the federal government against the attempts made by the Georgians to dispossess them of their territory; which protection was extended to them, and violently complained of by the usurping party as unjust and unconstitutional. The governor of the state, in a message to its legislature, entered at great length into an enumeration of the many wrongs and indignities which, by his account, the state had sustained at the hands of the federal government, its interference in the affair of the Creeks being represented as the climax of all. The message was referred to a special committee, which made a report in its exact tone and spirit; and even went the length of recommending an appeal to arms. Fortunately, the good sense of the legislature stood opposed to this intemperate report, which was not even taken into consideration; and the quarrel finally terminated by the unfortunate Creeks abandoning the disputed territory,

after protesting that they did so only to avoid bloodshed, and that for the land of their forefathers, where they had wished to live and die, they had not received a single dollar.

On

General La Fayette had, the previous year, upon the invitation of the federal government, paid a visit to the United States, the scene of his early exploits. Everywhere throughout the Union he was received with enthusiasm, and every honour which popular gratitude could invent or bestow. 7th September, he left Washington to return to his own country. On that day he was waited on by the President and all the inferior functionaries, when the President addressed to him a speech, in which he recounted the various services, which, from his youth downwards, the general had rendered to the cause of liberty. After taking an affectionate farewell of his visitors, La Fayette embarked in a new frigate, fitted out by the American government for reconducting him to France, and named the Brandywine, in commemoration of the battle fought upon the banks of the river so called, in which La Fayette was wounded.

The states which had recently been constructed out of the colonial possessions of Spain in America had, in the general case, passed from a state of internal discord to profound tranquillity; but there was this bane to the happiness of many of them, that their finances were in extreme disorder, while their military establishments, which it might have been unsafe to reduce, were of a magnitude out of all proportion to their revenues. The war of independence had all but exhausted their resources; and it is not to be wondered at, that, independent as they had become, their revenues were considerably short of those which had been derived from them when governed colonially.

The session of the Constitutional Congress of Mexico was opened on 1st January; on which occasion it was addressed by the President, Vittoria, in a speech, in which he congratulated it upon the final establishment of a republican government, and announced a variety of laws with regard to the administration of justice, which, he observed, would be submitted to it in the course of the Session.

The Minister of Finance, Esteva, on 4th January submitted to Congress an estimate of the revenue and expenditure of the republic for the year then commenced: According to which, the former would amount to 12,347,371, including 2,476,315, the produce of a loan negotiated in England, and the latter to 10,352,687 dol

lars.

.

On 5th April, the Congress passed a decree, which for ever abolished, throughout the whole of Mexico, all titles of nobility whatever. But the subject which most occupied its attention, was the treaty of commerce between Great Britain and Mexico, which had lately been negotiated. It differed in few particulars from the other treaties which the former power had recently concluded with Buenos Ayres and Colombia. It might have been expected that a treaty which, on one side, was the first formal recognition which had been made by a European power of the independence of Mexico, would have escaped all scrupulous criticism on the part of the national representatives. However, it was not so fortunate. By one party it was maintained that the reciprocity of import duties, which it established, was altogether illusory. Another exclaimed against the article which secured to British subjects the free exercise of their religion as an impious toleration, opposed to the spirit of Catholicism; but the principal objection to it was, that by it Great Britain did not in

VOL. XVIII. PART I.

express terms admit and recognise the independence of Mexico. But by the greater number of members the importance and value of the treaty were duly appreciated; and on 26th April, it received the approbation of the Congress by a majority of 32; 44 having voted for, and 12 against it. The Senate, on 10th May, adopted the treaty without any difficulty, and the President affixed to it his ratification.

There still was wanting the ratification by his Britannic Majesty, which, for reasons never yet explained, was withheld from it for a considerable time; a circumstance which excited serious apprehensions; but all uneasy feelings were dispelled by the arrival in the capital of Mr Ward, the British charge d'affaires, who, on presenting his credentials, on 1st June, assured the Executive of the lively interest which his Majesty took in the greatness and prosperity of Mexico.

At the close of the Session of Congress, the President addressed to it a speech, in which he announced the result of the financial measures which had been adopted; that the army had been paid its arrears, and the magazines been supplied; that he had appropriated certain funds for the purchase of vessels of war; that the claims upon the civil list had been satisfied; that the last loan had been contracted for on advantageous terms, a part of the debt extinguished, and the paper money retired; and, in short, that he had reduced the finances to a system which promised the happiest results.

It having been publicly rumoured, and affirmed in several American journals, that French garrisons were about to be introduced into the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, the Mexican general, Santa Anna, who commanded in Yucatan, proceeding upon the persuasion that in the former island there was a powerful party eager to wrest it

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