2-982-512 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

General Castro, President (ad interim) of Venezuela, 1858. 'Placed as he was already in so high a military position [ie Commander-in-Chief]...he preferred the disinterested glory of being the liberator of his country to any selfish advantage, and directed the political movement which, in the space of ten days only, resulted in recovering for the nation its lost liberties, without bloodshed or disaster of any kind...He has thus earned the heartfelt gratitude of the honest majority of his fellow-citizens, who have at last the satisfaction of seeing the re-establishment of public order and morality. His firm decision under such critical circumstances - his spontaneous promise to the National Assembly to resign his power as soon as the State is in safety - the readiness with which he has called together the representatives of the nation to pass the new fundamental law - the liberty of the press, and the pardon for all political offences which he has proclaimed, and his scrupulous respect for the civil authorities- all concur to mark General Castro as the worthy depositary of the trust of his nation, and is in every way fitted to consolidate the supremacy of the law'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.