from one centre to another, time is necessary for its firm establishment.
The "Republican" recently declared that "government is no more than a compact between the governors and the governed." Evidently there are still many Unitarios among us! Government is in reality founded upon, the unpremeditated consent which a nation gives to a permanent fact. Where there is deliberation, there is no authority. This transition state is called a confederation. Out of each revolution and consequent change of government, different nations derive their ideas and modes of confederation.
I will explain myself. When Ferdinand VII. was driven from Spain, government—that permanent fact—ceased to exist; and Spain was formed into provincial assemblies which denied the authority of those who governed in the name of the king. This was the Spanish Confederation. When the news reached America, the South American provinces revolted from Spain, and being divided into sections, formed the South American Confederation. From Buenos Ayres came at the end of the contest, four states, Bolivia, Paraguay, Banda Oriental, and the Argentine Republic.; these formed the Confederation of the Viceroyalty. Finally, the Argentine Republic was divided, not as formerly into districts, but according to its cities, and so became a confederation of cities.
It is not that the word confederation signifies separation, but that when separation has already taken place, it expresses the union of the different parts. The Argentine Republic was at this crisis social, and many persons of note in the cities believed that, for mere
