try, as the Marquis of Torre Tagle, and founded an Order of the Sun, intended, like the Legion of Honour in France, to reward civil and military merit; but his administration, which in its spirit was altogether monarchical, encounter ed much opposition. He was preparing to set out to the army, when he learned the defeat of a corps of 3200 men, whom General Canterac had surprised, near Pisco, in the night of the 7th of April. The route was so complete, that the Independents lost 2000 men and all their baggage; but a difference of opinion having arisen among the Spanish Generals, they failed to profit by their success, and spent the remainder of the campaign in inaction, which afforded San Martin an opportunity of raising the courage of his party, whom this disaster had at first greatly dispirited.

Before setting out for the interview at Guayaquil, he had placed the Marquis of Torre Tagle at the head of the administration; but on his return to Callao, on the 29th of August, an entire change took place. Reports having been very generally circulated, that he intended, like Iturbide, to usurp the sovereign power, he convoked the Peruvian Congress for the 20th of September, on which day he published a proclamation, announcing that, conformably to the promise he had given, he had abdicated the supreme command of Peru, after having established the independence of the country, and that he left to the people the free choice of their government. Having carried into effect this extraordinary decision, he retired to Valparaiso, whence he was soon after recalled by the Congress, who restored to him nearly the same power he had formerly held, but under a constitutional form. In fact, the Congress enjoyed little credit; the provinces of Upper Peru remained faithful to the mother country; and La Serna, who was suspected of a desire

to declare himself independent, continued to threaten the new Govern ment of Lima.

CHILI This republic, less turbulent than the others, enjoyed comparative tranquillity under the supreme direction of O'Higgins, one of the triumvirate by whom Spanish South America is governed. Like his colleagues, he had caused proposals to be made in London for a loan of a million Sterling, and had likewise resolved to assemble a Congress, composed of deputies from the cabildos of the towns, for the purpose of preparing a constitution. At the opening of the session, on the 23d of July, the Supreme Director pronounced a speech, in which he took a review of the vicissitudes of fortune experienced by the new republic, and which had been terminated by the victory of Chacabuco, congratulated the Chilians on the result of his labours in their cause, and concluded by resigning his authority into the hands of the President. As had been probably foreseen, however, he was invested anew with the dignity of Supreme Director, and the assembly continued its labours under his superintendence.

BUENOS AYRES began, after long agitations, to enjoy a sort of tranquillity; but its power was reduced to the limits of its own territory. The interior of the country, as far as Upper Peru, had been divided between two parties, each of which ruled in its own district with absolute independence. But of all these, Paraguay presented the most singular picture. A chief, known by no other name that of Doctor Francia, exercised the supreme, civil, military, religious, and judicial authority, in all the plenitude of sovereignty; the adjoining states respected him, and he formed in that country, over which the Jesuits had established so singular an empire, between the provinces of La

Plata, the Brazils, and Peru, a barrier which the revolutionary spirit is not likely soon to transgress. It is believed, that the famous Artigas, who some time ago disappeared, is confined in the prisons of the Doctor, to whom he went to apply for assistance.

During the year it had passed under the Government of Martin Rodriguez, Buenos Ayres had experienced no revolutions; confidence, credit, and commerce had returned. The question of a confederacy with the provinces, of which each had its particular Government, continued, however, to be keenly agitated. The provincial Congress

was opened on the 1st of May, in presence of the Envoys of the United States, Portugal, Chili, Peru, and Colombia. The Congress was chiefly occupied with internal ameliorations. The budget was presented on the 1st of July, from which it appears that the income was exactly equal to the expenditure, both being 1,064,880 dollars. An amnesty for all political offences was proposed and carried after a great deal of warm discussion; but less than three months after, a conspiracy having for its object to overthrow the Government was discovered, and the heads of it punished.

LORD KINEDDER.-The following memoir of this eminent and accomplished person appeared immediately after his death, and was generally understood to have been drawn up by his friend, Mr Hay Donaldson, writer to the Signet, who, in the course of a few weeks from the time of his Lordship's death, was destined to follow him to the grave, having only a short while previous to his dissolution attained a situation of the highest importance; thus completing the melancholy parallel between him and his distinguished friend.

"Lord Kinedder was born in 1769. He was the oldest surviving son of the Reverend William Erskine, a clergy

man of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, who, during a long period of years, exercised his functions at the village of Muthill, in Perthshire, in the centre of a rich and populous neighbourhood. Mr Erskine was descended from the family of Erskine of Pittodrie, and was connected by his marriage with Miss Drummond of the house of Keltie, with many families of respectability in Perthshire. He died at a very advanced age, leaving an orphan family of two sons and a daughter. The eldest is the subject of the present sketch. The second for many years filled the distinguished and lucrative station of Member of the Supreme Council of Prince of Wales' Island. The only daughter