times the extent of the British Isles." It has, he says, 2,000 miles of coast on the Atlantic, and 1,200 on the Pacific Ocean.*

The following are the names of the provincial subdivisions, with their supposed population, in

* In Mexico, the proportion of inhabitants on the whole territory, is 49 to the square league; in Guatimala, 46; in Peru, 33; in Buenos Ayres, 8; in all Spanish America, 28. This is Humboldt's estimate in 1800.-See Pol. Essay, vol. iv. p. 322; Pers. Narr. vol. iii. p. 430; Hall's Colombia, pp. 10, 15; Mollien's Travels in Colombia, pp. 352, 431; Cochrane's Travels in Colombia, vol. i. p. 514.

In Alcedo's Dictionary, the new kingdom of Granada is described as being eighty leagues in length and somewhat less in width, and as divided into five military and seven civil governments, viz.

Besides these territorial divisions, Alcedo gives the names of sixteen provinces; but they are either erroneous or obsolete, and nothing can be made of them. These provinces are stated to be subdivided into 51 corregimientos, comprising 301 settlements in which are 18,359 Indians. Panama and Porto Bello, however, he says, belong to the kingdom of Tierra Firme. In Bonny castle's Spanish America, the vice-royalty is described as consisting of 16 provinces, viz. Jaen de Bracamoros, Quixos, Maynas, Quito, Tacames, Popayan, Antioquia, Santa Fé, San Juan de los Llanos, Merida, Santa Marta, Carthagena, Choco; and the three provinces of Darien, Panama, and Veragua in Tierra Firme. In this enumeration, the names of eight provinces are omitted; viz. Rio Hacha, Mariquita, Tunja, Neyva, Pamplona, Socorro, Cuenea, and Guayaquil, which are described as subordinate districts. The last two, and the province of Loxa, are included by this writer in Quito, which formerly bore in Spain the official title of kingdom, though its president depended, alike in civil and military affairs, on the viceroy of Santa Fe. Even in Colonel Hall's enumeration of the provinces of the vice-royalty, Veragua and Neyva are omitted, Coro is inserted apparently in the place of Choco, and Macas is written Marnes.

These provinces, by the recent political arrangements, are now distributed into ten departments.

1. Department of Orinoco.

including (1) Province of Guayana.

(2)

(3)

(4)

2. Department of Venezuela.

Cumana.

Barcelona.

Margarita.

Maracaybo.

4. Department of Magdalena.

including (1) Province of Carthagena.

(2)
(3)

Santa Marta.

Rio Hacha.

* These departments we have ventured to fill up by conjecture. Captain Cochrane, after particularising the provinces contained in the other seven departments, enumerates the remaining ten as not yet classed in departments. From Colonel Hall's volume, however, we learn incidentally, that the Republic is now divided into ten departments; but he mentions specifically only the four maritime departments of Orinoco, Caracas, Zulia, and Magdalena, which occupy the whole extent of coast from the mouths of the Orinoco to the isthmus. This tract, he describes as in every respect the most eligible for

The ecclesiastical divisions differed materially under the colonial system from those of the civil and judi

the purposes of emigration. No notice is taken by any of the writers above cited of the district of Tologalpa, or the Mosquito coast, extending from ape Gracias a Dios to the River Chagres, which has, since 1803, been annexed to Colombia (See MOD. TRAV. Mexico, vol. ii. p. 183.) We have ventured to class it in the department of Panama. The other two departments are filled up from what appears a natural arrangement, subject to correction or better information.-Sec Cochrane's Travels in Colombia, vol. i. p. 515; Hall's Colombia, p. 100.

cial administration. Santa Fé de Bogotn and Caracas were each the seat of an archbishop, but the bishops of Panama, Mainas, Quito, and Cuenca, were suffragans of the archbishop of Lima, not of the archbishop of New Granada.* Santa Fé, Caracas, and Quito, were each the seat of a royal audiencia.† Those courts have now ceased to exist, and the ecclesiastical divisions will, no doubt, be rendered conformable to the political arrangements. The present constitution of Colombia was fixed by the congress of Cucuta in 1821. It proclaims the perpetual independence of the nation, the sovereignty of the people, the responsibility of magistrates, and equality of rights. It declares the legislative power to be vested in a senate and a house of representatives. The senate is composed of four senators for each department of the republic, elected every eight years: its peculiar functions are those of a high court of justice in cases of impeachment by the house of representatives; its ordinary functions are the same as those of the latter, except that it cannot originate moneybills. The house of representatives consists of members chosen by each province, in the proportion of one for every 30,000 inhabitants, who are elected for four years. "In every parish is held what is called a parochial assembly, composed of proprietors to the value of 100 dollars, or persons exercising some independent trade these parochial assemblies elect the electors in the rate of ten for each representative, so that, taking the population of the Republic at 2,500,000, and supposing the whole representation

* The other bishoprics are those of Popayan, Carthagena, Santa Marta, Merida, Guayana, and Antioquia. Quito is now to be formed into an archbishopric.

+ There were twelve of these supreme courts of judicature, viz. those of Mexico, Guadalaxara, Guatimala, the Havannah, Caracas, Bogota, Quito, Lima, Cusco, Charcas, Santiago (in Chili), and Buenos Ayres.