fest the urgent motives which induced the provinces of the latter, to change, for the time being, their form of government, to examine the particular state of the society in Spanish America, and also to bear in mind, the numerous privations under which its inhabitants laboured. The general system of government practised in the whole of that country, in consequence of a long accumulation of abuses, was, according to the outline already given, rather suited to support and procure a degree of sovereignty and dependence, than to promote the prosperity, improvement, and happiness of the people governed. The most galling of all these privations, was, however, that, by which the Creoles were excluded from a participation in all offices of trust or dignity, for they had, certainly, long beheld with irritated feelings, that foreign Samaritans had come amongst them, exclusively to enjoy the waters of the well of Jacob, and to whose portion alone, fell the fat of the land. They had, nevertheless, waited with patience, for two years, yet no effective relief had been procured them; nay, their situation had been rendered worse; for besides their old aggravations, they now beheld their country filled with denunciations, espionage, arrests, prosecutions, banishments, &c. principally levelled at themselves; and which, not only tended to infuse alarm and disgust into the bosoms of the inhabitants, but, also, strongly, to alienate their minds, from the immediate authors of such scenes.

The distance at which the transatlantic provinces were, moreover, placed, the many stratagems used to deceive them, by the circulation of incorrect and exaggerated accounts, had greatly contributed to fill them with uncertainty and dilemma; they beheld disasters succeed

the first victories gained by the patriotic arms; they saw their treasury exhausted, and that the enemy had already over-ran the best provinces of the Peninsula, and had shut up the wreck of an impotent government, within the walls of Cadiz. The chiefs, who, so lately, had placed themselves at the head of the nation, were now dispersed and covered with ignominy; and they heard that the Central Junta, which, not long ago, had been pronounced a paternal and beneficent government, had now all the disasters of the nation laid to its charge; and yet it was plain, that the succeeding government, was no other than a committee of the preceding one, with no more than the delegated power of its predecessors. They beheld, on the other hand, that two years had produced no alteration in their own degraded state; that in consequence of intrigue, and the influence of the French over their own chiefs, they were running the same risks, as were the inhabitants of the Peninsula, from open force. Under such circumstances as these, could it be pronounced treason, or rebellion, in the distant provinces, to choose men of their own confidence; in order to superintend their local administration, to watch over their welfare, and to remove, or reform, the most crying of the privations under which they had so long groaned? To effect these necessary and reasonable purposes, they imitate the example of the mother-country; and they establish a provisional government, during the absence of the monarch, or till the general government of the realm, was organized on a new and legal basis.

It had, candidly, been confessed by the new governments of the Peninsula, on assuming their functions, that the late defective administration of the Ma drid ca

binet, had opened the gate to the French, and brought abjection to the whole monarchy. And might not the same evils in Spanish America, have produced consequences, equally serious. Was it, there, also, as in the Peninsula, that reforms were to be delayed, till the remedies would be of no avail? Reform, was, then, as necessary in the one, as it was in the other, even as a means of prevention; and independent of right and justice, in such critical moments, to aggravate its denial, by fresh wrongs, was not only dangerous and impolitic, but, was, also, unjust and criminal. The European Spaniards, considered reform as the second grand object for which they were fighting; this alone, aided by loyalty, rendered their country worth defending, and the idea that their former degradation was to return, would have extinguished the bright and animated flame, which burst forth on the opening of their glorious cause, and would have rendered despondence general. Why then were the transmarine provinces, which doubtlessly required reform in a double degree, and which were, at the same time, contributing their wealth and resources for the united object of all, alone, to be excluded from an alleviation of their wrongs? The fiscal laws, had, there, reduced the country to the impoverished state at which it then stood, and had rendered the choicest productions of nature, of no value; yet, at the very instant, the Spanish Americans were about to receive some alleviation, by trade being opened to them, the Cadiz Regency ordains, that its own decree, should be revoked and publicly burnt;* because it was offensive to the monopolists of that trading port.

* Vide Regency decree, Cadiz, June 27, 1810, and this impolitic measure fully discussed in El Espanol, London, No. 4, page 305.

Itwas both the interest and honour of the inhabitants of the transatlantic provinces, (and as an eye-witness, and with substantial documents in my hand, I can aver my assertion to be true) to give all the aid and succour in their power, to the patriotic cause of the Peninsula, as long as was consistent with their own safety; but, in return, it was, undoubtedly, the duty of the government of the latter, to throw to the ground, that improvident and unjust system, by which the former had been so long governed. The Spanish government, by being wanting in this essential and primary duty, not only placed the Spanish Americans, under the necessity of looking to themselves; but, by declaring a hasty and intemperate war against them, also authorised the attitude in which the latter have placed themselves, in order to defend their own rights. Consequently, the former, is, alone, answerable for all the fatal results. The Central Junta, at a moment when pecuniary succours were wanted, and fearful that the transmarine provinces, might be endangered, amidst the general confusion, and dismay, likely to spread abroad, did, indeed, decree, that the Spanish American provinces, formed an equal and integral part of the Spanish monarchy, but this appears, rather, to have been a messure of expediency or flattery, than an attempt at redress; for the decree was never acted upon, but was left to die away of itself, or to be, disavowed by the opposite conduct of the successive governments.

This theoretical, rather than practical, step, was not, however, necessary, to stimulate the Spanish Americans, to acts of loyalty and generosity; for, as before proved, the first, was the general sentiment that mani

fested itself on the opening of the cause in Europe; and, in order, to prove the second, I have only to add, that, during the administration of the Central Junta, ninety millions of dollars, were sent over from all the transmarine provinces, of which the section of Mexico, alone, furnished fifty-five. A very large proportion of these funds, were, besides, private donations, or belonged to local establishments, and, consequently, not the property of the crown. Were all these effective demonstrations on their part, therefore, deserving of no consideration at home? Empty declarations of nomirnal equality, when opposed to practice, could be considered as nothing else, than as a snare; and, could, of course, by no means, satisfy the justice, and restore and secure the rights of those, who had so long suffered. Similar promises and offers, on paper, but, unaccompanied by practice and effect, resemble the two algebraical terms of plus and minus, which, mutually destroy each other, and leave the result as nothing. Even if such declarations in intention and in theory, had been sincere, (and time has proved them to have been the reverse) the delay of their full and effective execution, on the most frivolous pretexts, too plainly evinces, that the motives, under which they were made, were ambiguous; and their want of practical realization, proves, the disdain and unfair manner, in which the Spanish Americans have been dealt with.

§ The insurrections in Spanish America, have, in this country, by many, been viewed in an unfavourable light, from being supposed, in some measure, to be analagous to the French revolution, whose horrors, both recent and great, have, deservedly, excited the disgust and resentment of every sober nation. This opinion of the Spa