Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/172



HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTION,—TRADE AND COMMERCE,—SKETCH OF NATURAL HISTORY, &C.—ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

State of Guatimala before the Revolution,—Causes which produced that event,—Declaration of Independence,—Junction with Mexico,—General Congress,—Publication of the Constitution,—Struggle between the Aristocracy and the People,—War of San Salvador.

history of revolutions, in their consequences the most beneficial to our species, has generally been melancholy. The struggles of passion and conflicting interests have too often disfigured the fair form which liberty assumed at the outset; and the bright halo which true patriotism threw around her head as she emerged from obscurity, has speedily been lost amid “shadows, clouds, and darkness.” A new generation,