are almost entirely English, and the borrowing began as far back as 1816 when some English and other foreign merchants supplied Bolivar with funds to enable him make his expedition to Angostura. After this expedition had been successful through the victory at the Battle of Boyacs, in which the English troops and the native troops led by British officers had been the main cause of success, Bolivar sent an agent to London to clear off all outstanding foreign debts, which was done by raising a loan of £500,000. This loan was paid off in 1892, by-raising another loan of English money to the amount of £2,000,000." Tu 1824 further loan of £4,750,000 was also successfully fiented in London. The dividends on these loans were faithfully paid 1848, when the ruling President into the exile, and the government of the successful rebels stopped payment. A spasmodic attempt was made trifling sum had been paid. "Tu 1802 the in 1859 to resume payment but failed after
Government, being badly in want of money, sent an agent to London to negotiate another lown, and ata general meeting of the bondholders it was resolved to accept the proposals of the Venezuelan President, in order to obtain the special hypothecation of 55 per cent of the import duties, and by freeing the Customs from usurious claims to' enable the Republic to recommence paying dividends. On these terms one million was raised. A few months after the formal signing of the necessary, documents, the President was driven into. exile, and his—successor, General Falcon, acknowledged the debt and paid the stipulated sums for nearly two years. Only one breach of faith occurred during that time, in which the Government appropriated $75,000, on the plea of necessity. This, however, shook the already shaky credit of the Republic to such an extent, that the money was quickly restored. After General Falcon's successful rebellion, on his becoming President he found the Treasury empty, but managed to scrape along for nearly two years, when it was found absolutely imperative to tind money somehow, as amongst several pressing claims, the chief was that of the Federal army for arrears to pay. Armed ereditors are apt to be most annoying at all times, but under the glorious freedom of South American republics, armed patriots are very easily turned into armed rebels. There e several ways of dealing with the difficulty, which would have met the immediate exigencies of the government, and with honest and frugal encouragement of the State's resources would soon have provided an annual surplus in the Budget. The first of these would have been to grant liberal discounts to the foreign merchants, for cash in advance for payments on dues on future cargoes. Or the State might have raised money by putting up to auction in the home and foreign markets, the waste lands of which there was ample store. However, the easiest way was to borrow from England, and £2,500,000 was raised in 1864 after the most solemn and formal procedure had been gone through, This loan was raised comparatively easily, owing to the good impression caused by General Falcon having acknowledged and paid the interest an the debt of his predecessor, and ib was argued if he would keep. faith on his vanquished opponents' account, he would be quite certain to do so on his own. These sanguine dreams were very quickly dispelled, as no sooner had the President got the £2,500,000 in his hands, and paid off his army, than the Government not only immediately stopped payment of the former debt, but forced the agents of the bondholders to return over $18,400 that, had actually been paid to them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.