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the most unfortunate and abject epochs of the Spanish monarchy, of which, an outline, has been, previously, given. In consequence of the baseness, abjection, and venality of the ministry, the nation was, at that time, without an adequate army, without resources, and had fallen a prey to interior convulsions and distrust. Every branch of the administration and government, was, besides, in the hands of chiefs; who owed their elevation to the most debased measures and intrigues; the king's agents and rulers, in a word, every where, were men destitute of talents and probity, and in general, had forfeited the public confidence. In such a dilemma, what was the conduct of the provinces of European Spain? Did, they not, wherever they could, elect provisional Juntas, and did they not vest in them, the public confidence, and place under their charge, the momentous struggle, on which they were about to enter?

And, if this picture of the state of the Peninsula, at the period referred to, be true and faithful; can it be denied, that these same evils, with all their respective aggravations, existed in the ultramarine provinces? Owing to their distance from the seat of power, and, in consequence of many defects in the governing regimen, must they not, rather, have been there felt, in a more sensible manner? It has, already, been evinced, that the colonial chiefs, were, in general, partisans of the French; and, it is equally a fact, that the Americans were as ignorant as their European brethren, to what an extent the machinations of the enemy, and of their abettors, had been prepared, and how far, their efficacy might be relied upon. Both, were equally ignorant, how long, and how widely, snares had been laying to entrap their allegiance; and,

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in the first moments, when both were roused from the same lethargy, each was unaware of the depth of the precipice, to the brink of which, both had been dragged. The Spanish Americans, beheld one section, commanded by a Frenchman, and in the other sections, they saw as their chiefs, and governors, no other than corrupt courtiers, venal dignataries, and sycophant placemen, whose patrons and supporters, had already enlisted under the banners of the enemy, and were actively employed to further his views and plans. If so, may it not be fairly asked, whether such chiefs and heads of government, were worthy of the confidence and trust of the American people, when, at the same time, most of them had, actually, given evident signs of treachery? In the trying and momentous crisis, Spain experienced at the period above alluded to, she varied her government, and changed her rulers, because the one was reduced to an actual system of political despotism, and the others, were no longer deserving of the confidence of the people. And are the Spanish American provinces, alone, divested of this right, when the motives are not less founded, and when the danger is more manifest and urgent?

§ The situation of both European and American Spain, on the seizure of the Royal Family, amounted to a complete interregnum; for, the legal monarch, being, no longer, in the exercise of his authority, also, absent, and in actual confinement; was, of course, unable to watch over the welfare of his subjects, and to attend to the safety of his realm. Consequently, it became necessary, to replace his lost authority, by transferring it, as a deposit, into the hands of a body of persons, elected by, and vested with the confidence of the people; under such

forms and restrictions, as the laws prescribed. It would be useless, in this place, to burden my reader with the opinions of writers on the general laws of nations, applicable to case in question. For the immediate purposes in view, it is only requisite to examine the legislation of Spain, in this particular; and, to discover what its annals prescribe, for a national exigency, like the one above described. In all cases of great calamity, or whenever the king dies, and leaves a son under age, it is ordered, that the representatives of the cities and towns, archbishops and bishops, together with the nobles of the land, be assembled to deliberate on the emergency which has occurred, and to decide what measures are to be adopted.* This is the substance of a variety of laws, which might be quoted; and Spain, in her creation of provincial Juntas, acknowledged both its truth and application.

Were we to examine, attentively, the events which occurred in the Peninsula, in the calamitous moments above traced; and, were we to watch the stimulus of action, that, then, urged the most important movements of its inhabitants, we should find them in exact coincidence with what took place in Spanish America; and, that the example of the one, actually justified the conduct of,

* The law of John II. Madrid, 1418, is as follows, Porque en los hechos arduos de nuestros reynos, es necesario consejo de nuestros subditos y naturales, especialmente de los procuradores de las ciudades, villas y lugares de los nuestros reynos; por ende ordenamos y mandamos, que sobre tales fechos grandes y arduos, se hayan de ayuntar Cortes, y se faga con consejo de los tres estados de nuestros reynos, según que lo hicieron, los reyes nuestros predecesores. Vide El Especulo, ley 5. tit. 16. lib. 2.-Also, Leyes de Castilla, ley 3. tit. 15. part 2. et alibi. Azcarate declares, that the above law was extended to Spanish America.

the other. The inhabitants of the latter, notwithstanding the long invasion of their rights, nevertheless, stood on exactly the same footing, as did those of European Spain, at the time, she was bereft of her monarch. In, that cephalous state, as was fully proved by Elola, in his sound and judicious preliminaries to the new constitution of Spain, (maxims on which the Cortes, themselves, have acted, and thereby acknowledged as true) it results that "the people are free and independent, and neither are, nor can be, the patrimony of any one family or person; and, that the sovereignty, essentially, resides in them; consequently, the right of establishing its fundamental laws, and of adopting the most suitable form of government, exclusively, belongs to them."

Such are the principles, and such the basis on which the boasted constitution of Spain, is founded; and such have been the grounds, on which the Cortes have divested the rightful king of his sovereignty; an occurrence, not only, hitherto, unknown in the history of the Spanish monarchy; but, also, an extreme, to which the peo-. ple of America, have never thought of going. Jovellanos, whose name will always be mentioned with veneration, in his celebrated report, laid before the Central Junta, on 7th October, 1808, establishes as a principle, applicable to the existing case of the nation," that when a people perceives the eminent danger of the society of which they are members, and are aware, that the administrators of the authority, which is to govern and defend them, are suborned or inthralled: they naturally enter into the necessity of defending themselves, and consequently, acquire an extraordinary and legitimate right of insurrection." Such was the sanction given by the first States

man, Spain, at that time, possessed, to the conduct of the new revolutionary governments, therein established; and it formed the basis of all their operations. Yet, when the American Provinces apply the same maxims to themselves, their European brethren take the alarm, and constituting themselves into the dictators of the whole monarchy, they decree, thar its rights are concentrated in them alone. When the Spanish Americans, find that their chiefs are become the tools of Buonaparte; that most of the Europeans amongst them, are addicted to his views, and pledged to his support; when they behold all the treasure they had sent over, had been wasted, and they despaired of the success of the Peninsular struggle;when they, equally, beheld themselves bereft of their legal monarch, and without any constitutional or safe government; and when, in short, they, find themselves on the eve of becoming a French colony, by the very treachery of those, who were charged to watch over their safety, and are, besides, surrounded by uncertainty, doubt, and dismay; still, are they denied the application of those very acknowledged principles, in which Spain, had so lately, gloried; still, are they not allowed to consult their own security, and still, are they commanded to endure all, without repining.

In order to form a correct idea of the critical situation of the Spanish American provinces, at the period here alluded to, it is particularly requisite, to remember well, the debased regimen under which they were governed, and the great privations under which they laboured. The immediate instruments of this debased regimen, were the Viceroys and Captain-Generals, who, besides, being, with few exceptions, corrupt, immoral, and ar

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