The object was effected by the pretext, that eighteen of the deputies had received from their constituents full authority to deliberate on public affairs, when the decree for convoking the congress referred on ly to specific subjects. For this reason, their election was declared to be void. There remained in Lima but fifty-two deputies, whose instructions were sufficiently limited to meet the views of the Liberator. Now seventy delegates being requisite to constitute a quorum of two thirds of the persons elected, it followed, that when eighteen or twenty were decreed to have been unlawfully elected, the rest would be insufficient to constitute a quo. rum for the transaction of business. The regular course in such a case, would have been, for these fifty. two to meet, organize the body provisionally, and take measures to compel the attendance of a part, or all of the thirty-five absent delegates; which they might easily have done. Instead of this, which would not have answered the purposes of Bolivar, they were induced to subscribe a declaration of political suicide.

This servile instrument is addressed to the council of government, and dated, Lima, April 21st, 1826. It begins by discoursing in good set phrases upon the topic, which then pervaded all the public acts of Bolivar, as it has of every other aspirant after supreme power

before him; namely, that the primary and surest safeguard of the rights of man, is general equality under the law, while a strong arm sustains its integrity, beneath whose potent sway, the institutions of the country flourish in tranquillity; while peace, prosperity and abun. dance flow from it, as from an everspringing fountain of health. To attain these blessings, they hinted, it was necessary that social order, the child of obedience and repose,' should be protected by one whose pre-eminent services rendered him worthy to be the depositary of sovereignty, and who could exercise it only to diffuse universal happiness. Rigid adherence to the laws of the land; resistance to the turbulent spirit of innovation; absolute servility to a foreign military usurper, to translate their meaning into plain language, was the first, they almost affirmed, the only duty worthy of a good citizen and upright member of a civilized community. From this subject the transition was easy to the inconvenience of hav. ing a deliberative body assemble, whose members, or any portion of them, had been invested by their constituents with authority to inquire into the character and measures of the government, or to attempt to amend its organization. Its assembling, they said, could produce nothing but disorder, and thus run counter to the great duty of a citizen, as they had previously

stated it, that of implicit obedience to the existing laws, and scrupulous avoidance of all attempts to interfere with the march of a paternal government. These conside. rations satisfied them, that if a legal meeting of congress could be had, it would be inexpedient; and for the reasons before explained by us, the defective powers of some of the delegates, a legal meeting was declared to be impossible. If so, why then should the delegates continue in Lima, to lose their time, become involved in perplexing questions, and by embarrassing the operations. of the administration, paralize the noble plans and beneficent views of the supreme authority of Peru?

Having thus reached, by means satisfactory to themselves, the conclusion, that they should do much harm, and no good, by remaining at Lima, the government being in the hands of the man who seemed appointed by Providence to fulfil the happy destinies of Peru; the delegates conceived that they should best correspond to the hopes of the people, by continuing that extraordinary power which the constituent cong ess deposited in his beneficent hands; that power which he accepted with repugnance, which he had exercised with wonderful moderation, and which his own glory would cause him to resign with sublime disinterestedness. Certain ly he would resign it; but this he could not do, until the time when,

peace being deeply rooted in the land, and the foundations of the public good firmly established through the empire of the law, and the citizen who should succeed in directing the ship of state, indicated by the express and unanimous vote of the nation, he should have discharged the obligation which he yoluntarily assumed on accepting his trust, by solemnly promising not to abandon the country, so long as his presence was demanded for its independence, its internal freedom, and the political organization of the republic. This period had not yet

arrived. They were not ignorant how insupportable was the exercise of such extraordinary power to the extreme delicacy of the Liberator's feelings. But he should reflect, that honour was attainable not on the field of battle alone; for glory equally durable, arose from the sacrifice of repose, and of our dearest affections, when consecrated to the establishment of our country's prosperity. The republic demanded this sacrifice of Bolivar; and would not permit his abandonment of her, because the permanence of his present power was the first interest of Peru. And they obscurely intimate, in a clause which probably they did not fully comprehend themselves, but to which subsequent events imparted a terrible significance, that nothing less could secure the public peace, than the elevation of Bolivar, not as

some other mysterious qualifica. tion, to supreme authority in both Colombia and Peru..

Such is the tenor of this singular address. It concludes, as may readily be conceived, by suspending the convocation of the congress to the coming year; by recommending to the government to con. sult the provinces in the mean time, as to the form of constitution which they severally desire; and to procure from them a nomination of the citizen who shall exercise the su preme authority.

Following the address, there is a decree of the council of government, submitting it, on account of the grave nature of its contents, to Bolivar himself; who immediately returned it, with a communication as singular as the address, whose object, he said, he entirely approved. Nothing was more conformable to popular doctrines, than to consult the nation in the mass, upon those two capital points whereon states are founded, the fundamental laws, and the supreme magistracy. Select bodies were liable to errors, or corruption; but not so the people, who possessed in a pre-eminent degree, the know. ledge of their own interests, and the measure of their independence. Their judgment was for this reason pure, and their will strong; and consequently, they could neither be corrupted nor intimidated.

said, he highly approved the plan of the fifty-two delegates, of referring to the people themselves, the legitimate source of power, to decide upon the constitution of Peru; for he had irrefragable proof of their perspicacity in affairs of the greatest moment; and therefore always preferred their opinions to those of the wise. And to ascertain the wishes of the people, it was proper they should be consulted through their immediate representatives, the electoral colleges of the provinces. And however anxious he might be to return to Colombia, which demanded his presence, yet he was resolved to postpone all other considerations for the advantage of Peru.

This document disclosed the machinery, by which Bolivar calculated to accomplish his ambitious designs.. A congress of delegates, composing the selected wisdom of the nation, he could not trust; because he knew they must and would see through the flimsy disguises which concealed his object. But the electoral colleges were small and scattered bodies, whom he might easily intimidate into adopting any code of laws which he should dictate; and who would not be very ready to oppose a fruitless resistance to the overwhelming power of Bolivar, with the Colombian army at his back. His flattering expressions of confi

dence in the wisdom of the people were, in such circumstances, a solemn mockery; for however for however sound might be their judgment when fairly exercised and upon due examination, what an insult to common sense it was, to laud the correctness of their opinions, when they dared to express none but such as were set down for them to repeat, by the military chieftain who then ruled the nation! For notwithstanding the parade of freedom with which, as we shall presently see, Bolivar was elected perpetual president of Peru, yet the brief duration of his power, and the alacrity of the Peruvians to deliver themselves from it, spoke volumes concerning the manner in which it actually was forced upon the country.

The council of government be. gan by ordering a census of the whole nation, preparatory to convoking the electoral colleges; but meeting with difficulties in this, they determined to proceed with out a previous enumeration of the people, or any change in the basis of representation. Accordingly, circular letters, written in the name of Bolivar and the council, were issued from the office of the minister of the interior, Jose M. de Pando, dated July 1st, addressed to the several prefects of departments, commanding them to assemble the electoral colleges in the provinces under their command respectively,

and submit for their sanction the project of a constitution, a copy of which accompanied each circular letter. This constitution was neither more nor less than the Bolivian code, slightly altered, so as to adapt its provisions to Peru, but retaining all the odious features of that felicitous creation of the Liberator's wisdom; its cumbrous and unwieldy legislature of three branches, tribunes, senators, and censors, the latter holding office for life; with a president for life, without responsibility for the acts of his administration, having the treasury, the military force, and all appointments, in his disposal, and the right of nominating his

successor.

The circular set forth the criti cal situation of the republic, which was destitute of any fundamental laws; the imperfections of the constitution prepared by the con. stituent congress, at a time when the country was torn by rival fac. tions, and the hosts of the enemy occupied its soil; the succession of public misfortunes, which had ended only by creating "the tremendous power of the dictator. ship;" the glorious effects of the victories of Junin and Ayacucho gained under his auspices; and the singular moderation and wisdom of him, who had employed absolute power solely for the pub. lic good, and who longed for the time to arrive when he might di

vest himself of the painful burden of unlimited authority. It conclud. ed with the following recommendation :

"The political code presented by the Liberator to the congress of Bolivia is the production of a transcendent genius, and is destined to form an epoch in the history of civilized societies. Hitherto it had appeared impossible to reconcile the greatest possible sum of the liberty and influence of the citizens, with the robust organization of an executive so conceived as to exercise his important functions without prejudicial trammels, or facility to make himself a usurper, and a legislative power so well constituted in all its parts that its movements should not present even the slightest possibility of oligarchical tyranny, of precipitancy in the enactment of laws, nor of paralyzing shocks and conflicts, which are the shoals on which popular assemblies have continually been wrecked. The council of government cannot hesitate, therefore, in offering for the national sanction this remarkable work of experienced wisdom, with such small modifications as may adapt it to the circumstances of our country; nor can they abstain from raising their voice on this solemn occasion, to exhort the Peruvians to accept this beneficent constitution, which promises them for the

future long days of repose and felicity."

This circular having been for. warded to the several prefects, was acted upon without delay, in every part of the republic; and the next set of documents in the collection, is the acts of the electoral colleges of all the fifty-nine provinces into which the republic is divided ; and all of them, with a degree of unanimity which would be wonderful, not to say impossible to attain, unless sinister means had been used to bring it about, accepted the plan of constitution, and nominated Bolivar for president under it. To enter into explanations of all these acts, would be tedious and unprofitable; we take that of Lima, the capital, as an example, by which all the rest of them may be correctly appreciated. It is stated that every engine of intimidation and corruption was put in requisition, to obtain this result. ΑΠ means were employed to secure the appointment of electors, in the colleges, favourable to the views of Bolivar. In very many instances, the names of the persons to be chosen were given to the people by the prefects. Blank forms of ap. proval, it is also said, of the project of constitution, ready to be signed by the electors, were transmitted from the capital to the provinces. Ofthe immediate influence, by which the signatures of appro