General Carlos Soublette was elected President in 1843, in which year France formally recognised the republic, while Spain followed in March, 1845. A further honour was done to the Liberator by renaming Angostura Ciudad Bolivar on May 31, 1845. The foreign trade of Venezuela had tripled since 1830, the debt had been reduced from 9,372,448.44 pesos to 2,085,595.72 pesos, and General Urdaneta was in London, endeavouring to raise a loan to enable the Government to free the slaves. The country was, therefore, in a fair way of prosperity, but opposition to the centralist form of government was not decreasing. It would seem, notwithstanding, that under wise rulers this grievance could have been redressed without the first of that series of revolutions which, beginning not many years later, made Venezuela a byword in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In 1847 General José Tadeo Monágas was elected President, and commenced his period of office by sentencing Guzman, the editor of _El Venezolano_, to death, subsequently commuting the penalty to banishment. For this act of tyranny he was censured by Congress in the following year, and retaliated by dissolving the Assembly with armed force, not without bloodshed. As a not unnatural result, Páez attempted to start an insurrection against him in Calabozo, but was forced to fly to Colombia, and a similar rising in Maracaibo died out. The death penalty for political offences was abolished by Congress, but Páez, on landing in Coro in an attempt to continue his revolt, was overpowered and capitulated; he broke his terms, however, and was imprisoned in the fortress of Cumaná. [Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY: CARÁCAS.] By the end of 1850 Tadeo Monágas, having acquired power as a member of the Oligarca, avowed himself a Liberal at the end of his presidency. General José Gregorio Monágas was elected to succeed him, a man of whom Tejera says that he was affable in temper, of a generous spirit, and capable of noble actions. In 1854 he promulgated the decree abolishing slavery within Venezuelan territory, March 24th. The year 1855 saw J. T. Monágas re-elected. In this term the country was divided into provinces identical with the States of to-day, though in some cases the names differed. In 1857 it was reported that Guayana had been sold by the President, and this rumour, with his repeated abuses of power, led to the revolution of Valencia under General Julian Castro, Governor of Carabobo, March 5, 1858.