of Venezuela alone, they consume 40,000 cwt. of cacao a year, and a much greater quantity of sugar. 6. Tobacco. This being an article of royal monopoly, is cultivated in Caracas, as in every other part of Spanish America, on account of the king. In addition to this account of the territorial riches of Caracas, may be mentioned the immense herds of oxen, horses, mules, sheep, and deer, which are dispersed over its plains and vallies. The number of oxen is not less than 1,200,000; the horses 180,000, and the mules 90,000.

The ports of Caracas which have a right to trade with the mother country, are Guayra, Porto Cabello, Maracaibo, Barcelona, Magarita, and Cumana: but Guayra alone has nore trade than all the rest. In 1796, the whole value of the imports from Spain to Caracas was estimated at 3,118,8114 dollars, and the import duties came to 281.052 dollars. The exports to the mother country in the same year are rated in the custom-house books at no more than 2,098,316 dollars, and the export duties at 138,052 dollars, many vessels having sailed without their cargoes, in consequence of the alarm of a war with England.

Caracas carries on little trade with the other Spanish colonies. Its exports to Cuba and Porto Rico are not above 100,000 dollars annually. It is true, that vessels from the mother country, after discharging their cargoes at Vera Cruz, are permitted to touch at Caracas in their way home, and to take a cargo on board there, which they pay for chiefly in specie. This trade is supposed in time of peace to bring about 400,000 dollars annually into Caracas.

Caracas, like the other colonies on the Spanish Main, has permission to export to foreign West India islands all articles of its own produce, except cacao, provided the trade be carried on in national bottoms; but the returns must be in negroes, or in farming and household utensils, and the balance, if any,

must be paid in money. Previous to 1796, the exports of Caracas, by this branch of trade, were confined to about 150,000 dollars in the productions of its soil, 50,000 dollars in hides, and 250,000 dollars in mules, which were sold in the West Indies for 500,000. The whole returns, in negroes and utensils, did not exceed 100,000 dollars; and the balance, which ought to have been paid in money, was received in manufactured goods, which were smuggled into Caracas.

There has been a contraband trade upon the coast, ever since this colony had any commodities to offer strangers in return for their goods; and, in spite of the vigilance of the Spanish government, it must continue to flourish, while the mother country is unable to supply the colo nists from her own manufacturing industry, and refuses to admit the manufactures of other nations, without duties of near 50 per cent. Before the year 1791, the French colony of St. Domingo had the greatest share of this trade. It is divided at present between Jamaica, Curacoa, and Trinidad. According to M. Depons's calculation, it amounted to 750,000 dollars annually, before the breaking out of the war with England in 1796.

During that war, Spain made a violent departure from her ancient colonial policy, by admitting neutrals to trade directly with her colonies, on condition that they paid the same duties to her government at home, as if the trade had been carried on in the usual manner through Cadiz. An order to this effect was issued in November, 1797; but such was the outcry raised against it, by the shipping interest of Spain, that it was recalled in February, 1800. This revocation serv ed only to throw a number of Spanish vessels, which put rashly to sea, in order to resume their colonial trade, into the hands of the English; and it gave additional spirit to the contraband trade, which had prevailed during the whole course of the

war, between the Spanish Main, and the islands of Jamaica, Curacoa, and Trinidad. This trade was carried on by Spanish vessels, which, being provided with passports from the English admiral on the West India station, sailed from their own harbours on pretence of a voyage to some friendly or neutral port; but being at sea, they made directly for Jamaica, or some other English settlement, where they exchanged their cargoes for English goods. To such a height did this trade proceed, that more than 400 vessels were constantly engaged in it, and 80 vessels 'with Spanish colours were sometimes to be seen at once in the harbour of Kingston. The little town of Porto Cabello alone exported produce, in 1801, to the value of 1,270,858 dollars, nominally to Guadaloupe, but in reality to Jamaica and Curacoa. The Spanish government, though perfectly aware of the existence of this traffic, connived at it while the war continued; but, on the return of peace, a royal order was issued to inquire after and punish the persons who had been con cerned in it.

There is a consulado, or chamber of commerce at Caracas, established in 1798. All commercial causes are brought before it; and it is also charged with the superintendance of commerce, agriculture, and public works. But this part of its duty is much neglected. It enjoys a revenue of 80 or 100,000 dollars a year, arising from certain duties appropriated to its support.

The following are tables of the exports of Caracas, for the years from 1793 to 1796, and from 1797 to 1800 inclusive. The difference shows, that either the exports of the colony have been reduced to one half by the war with England, or that the contraband exportation has been greatly increased in the latter period.

The finances of Caracas are under the direction of the intendant, whose authority is independent of the captain-general, and supreme in the colony in all matters of commerce and finance. He holds his place for five years, and it brings him about 18,000 dollars a year The revenue of Caracas arises chiefly from the customs, the alcavala or duty of five per cent. on sales, from stamps, licenses, and tithes, and from the produce of the cruzada, and of the sale of tobacco. The two last are destined for the treasury at home; the others to defray the expences of the colonial government; but if there is any deficiency in their produce, it is supplied from the two others. It will be seen, from the following table, that there is usually a deficit even in time of peace; and, since the war with England, the whole receipts of the province have been unable to cover its expenditure. In 1801, the government of Caracas was forced toborrow 200,000 dollars from the exchequer of Santa Fe.

BALANCE.

For. Against.

191.365 1-8

77,969

The native Spaniards to be found in Caracas are chiefly Biscayners and Catalans, who, with emigrants from the Canary islands, form the best part of the foreign population of the colony. The Biscayners and natives of the Canary isles often apply to agriculture, with great profit to themselves, and advantage to the settlement. The Catalans devote themselves solely to commerce.They are all three remarkable for their industry and morals; but the Biscayners are more intelligent and enterprising than the other two. The people of colour are the mechanics of the colony. They are poor, and lazy, and unskilful tradesmen; but they are free from any gross or dangerous vices, and exceedingly devout. The chief town swarms, as in the mother country, with beggars, in consequence of the mistaken charity which feeds the idle and the profligate, at the expence of the industrious. The archbishop of Caracas, out of his tithes wrung from the industrious cultivator, distributes his charity once a week among 1200 profligates, who trust to such a resource for their livelihood.

Caracas, the seat of government and capital of the colony, has a population of more than 40,000 souls. It enjoys an elevated situation, a temperate climate, and a salubrious air. During the rainy season, Fahrenheit's thermometer varies from 76° to 52°, and during the dry season from 85 to 69°. Guayra, the sea-port of Caracas, is at the distance of five leagues, and is much less healthy than that city. The population of Guayra is about 6000 souls. Among the inland towns of

745,475

the province of Venezuela, they reckon more than twelve which contain from 7000 to 1300 inhabitants, besides many thriving and industrious villages. Porto Cabello, like other towns upon the coast, is less healthy than those of the interior. Its population is reckoned at 7600; and that of Coro, which is also upon the coast, amounts to 10.000.

The province of Cumana is extremely fertile; and if the Spanish government have the good sense to wink at the intercourse of its inhabitants with the island of Trinidad, it is likely to prosper and improve with great rapidity. Cumana and Barcelona, its principal sea-ports, are unhealthy, from the badness and inattention of the police; but this evil might easily be remedied. Cumana has a population of 21,000, and Barcelona a population of 14,000 souls.

Margarita is a possession of little value to the Spaniards; but, in the hands of an active and enterprising enemy, it might do them incalculable mischief, by intercepting the trade between Caracas and the mother country, for which its situation is singularly well adapted.

The situation of Maracaibo is hot, but the climate is salubrious. It contains a population of 22,000 souls, among whom are a number of noble families, sunk in indigence, and prevented, by the prejudices of birth, from engaging in any industrious occupation.

Merida, an inland town of the same province, is distinguished for the industry and intelligence of its inhabitants.

For the Literary Magazine.

THE BRITISH MILITARY CHA

RACTER.

WHAT are the causes of the bad success of the British arms on the continent? The English are undoubt edly the most intrepid people in Europe. Other causes are therefore to be assigned for this fact.

The first is, that the land army has become an object of secondary consideration ever since the union with Scotland. Another cause is the want of any regular system for the formation of the army, and the manner in which the forces are parcelled out in service, from which circumstance they can never acquire uniformity or consistency.

Campaigns in Asia do not contribute to form troops fitted for European warfare; and a general who has returned from India, may be compared to an admiral who has acquired his knowledge of navigation from voyages in the lake of Geneva or the Black sea.

The English cavalry is better equipped and more formidable in a charge than that of any other nation. A private in the British cavalry is as well mounted as an officer in any other service. He does not however possess the same command of his horse, which is attributed to the form of his saddle; and from this circumstance, the British cavalry require more time than any other to form after a charge. The highest praises are due to the artillery. In short, able commanders are alone wanting to make the British the best troops in Europe. This opinion is certain ly very prevalent on the continent of Europe. The British officers are not considered as inferior to those of any army in Europe in courage, in talents, or in attachment to their profession, but in military science and attainments. It certainly would be extremely unjust to impute to them the slightest blame on that account. From well-known causes, they have not the same opportunities of acquir

ing practical knowledge which the officers of continental armies possess; and though that disadvantage might have been easily supplied by directing some portion of the talents and genius of the nation to the cultivation of military science, Britain is, perhaps, the only country in Eu rope where it has been completely neglected.

In France, military knowledge was widely diffused; and in the course of the war, it enabled them to overcome every disadvantage arising from want of discipline and experience. Their writers on military subjects are as superior to those of other countries as their generals have shown themselves to be. If the same encouragement had been given in England to military studies, no doubt the English would have excelled as much in this as they have done in every other department of science. There is not one liberal art to which the genius of both nations has been applied, in which Britain has not fair pretensions to superior excellence. Even mechanical inventions, though not apparently suited to the genius of the inhabitants, have been carried to higher perfection in Britain than in any other country. But on military subjects, not one author of any originality, or of any merit, has appeared. The cause of this is obvious. A person intended for the army has no opportunity of learning even the rudiments of his art; if he is desirous to acquire them, he must relinquish the superior advantages of a British education, in order to place himself under the tuition of a German tactician. He there acquires a system which is suited to the genius of a country inferior in almost every respect to his own. Any little military knowledge which exists in England has been servilely copied from the Germans. German discipline certainly has its merits: but there always must be a great distinction between a system which is the growth of the country, and accomi modated to the genius and situation of the people, and one which is trans

ferred, as an article of faith in all its parts, from a foreign country, to one different in almost every respect. If Frederick, instead of king of Prussia, had been king of Great Britain, his military arrangements would have been different. He would have considered the situation of the country, the character of the people, and the services in which the troops were likely to be engaged. In his own country he made fewer changes in military matters than is generally imagined: matters of little importance he allowed to remain on the same footing. He did not consider it of very great importance to alter the shape of a coat, or the form of a skirt; but wherever he found the tactics of other nations superior, he either imitated or improved them. He thus established his own character for superior genius, and, at the same time, made his army superior to that of any other power in Europe. The same superiority will be attained by any nation which will employ the same means, which will improve its military system, not by a constant and vexatious succession of trifling changes, but by preserving unchanged whatever it has that is good, and giving encouragement to every improvement in the higher departments of military service.

It is easy for a person to fancy himself a soldier, by scrupulously attending, during peace, to those minutia which are really insignificant in war. Officers who make the most distinguished figure in time of peace, do not, in actual service, answer the expectations which they have rais ed. An officer of this class, who has served twenty or thirty years, has great difficulty in changing his pacific habits: he hates war; and where there is a want of taste for an undertaking, it must be badly executed. Nothing can appear more astonishing to those who have not reflected on it, than the extreme zeal which many British officers show for the subordinate minutiæ of pa, rade. It is, however, the case with

this, as with most other frivolous pursuits, that where they occupy the mind, they engross it more exclusively than those objects which require a higher exertion of the understanding. A collector of butterflies or tulips shows more zeal in his favourite studies, than a mathematician; and a mountebank quack-doctor annexes higher importance to his infallible prescriptions than a regular physician.

Officers, long accustomed to actual service, are fully aware of the relative importance of the subordinate parts of discipline; but it is not easy to describe the absurd importance which parade officers, who have never heard a gun fired on service, ascribe to the smallest minutia of dress. It appears to them of greater consequence to have their troops smart on parade, than active in their manoeuvres; and they seem to think that nothing renders a soldier so fit to meet an enemy, as fixing his cap on one corner of his head, and exposing as much of it as they possibly can, bedaubed with soap and flour, to the wet and cold of a northern climate. No doubt, those officers must be very unfit to meet an enemy, who will not stay to examine whether the accoutrements of their men are well lackered, or their queues tied with singular regularity and precision. The height to which this attention to dress is raised, in some individuals, exceeds all bounds of belief. An anecdote is told of a British general officer, who went with some of his friends to see the consular troops reviewed at Paris. After inspecting the lines very narrowly, he was observed to return to his countrymen with a look of great satisfaction and importance. One of them, who was anxious to know the result of his observations, was at length informed, that he could assure him, as a military man, that after looking at the whole line, he had not been able to find two neckcloths together, tied in the same

manner.