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hereafter be demonstrated, is neglected and forgotten, nay, unimproved by no one. From the date of our alliance with the Spanish monarchy, we have been plunged in a crisis, big with the most important results, and such as must have filled the mind of every friend of his country, with anxious solicitude. This has been an interval of alarm, and often of despondency; whilst the whole of Europe, has been struggling against the lawless ambition of one man, who had, at his command, the united resources of the greatest nation of the globe. The consequences of these struggles, have been war and ravages in every quarter of the globe, where French influence could reach; producing events, more striking and more momentous, than the ordinary occurrences of centuries. England has stood preeminent in her glorious exertions to procure that peace, she has, perhaps, now attained, but, all this time, has no attempt, by conciliation, been made for Spanish America, to obtain an object, that in Europe, has cost so many lives and so much treasure? Conquests and dear bought acquisitions, have, often, constituted the leading features of the parliamentary speeches from the throne; but would it not have been a more glorious and sober boast, that such a continent, through the exertions of England, had received a government, founded in law, and on the basis of equal representation, instead of one, built upon despotisın, supported by the sword, and unaccompanied by rights, either sacred or defined? Would it not have been more wise and expedient, that such a continent, by means of political and commercial relations, had been opened to Britith enterprize, and also made a powerful means of increasing revenue, even to Spain?

The long injustice of Spain to the ultramarine pro vinces, was evident and true, would it not, therefore, have been more honourable, and more upright, in the new Peninsular rulers, to have confessed and corrected errors, rather than to have continued to deceive themselves, by fallacious, but plausible palliations and excuses? Ingratitude, was the hue and cry raised against the conduct of the Spanish Americans; it resounded in the Cadiz prints, and in all those where the money of the monopolists could have access; nay, it often reechoed in those of London. This was, however, a means, rather to cover the disgrace of convicted folly, and to turn merited odium on those, who from distance, were unable to make their own defence. Not, that the Americans, have been altogether free from blame, or -exempt from all censure or reproach. Under such feelings of provocation, they were, often, loud in their com plaints, and invective, was too frequently, mixed with their clamours. But, wherever a contrast is made between the pieces written in Cadiz, and those produced on the other side of the Atlantic, the heaviest charge will be attached to the first. Even granted that the complaints of the Spanish Americans, were, in some instances, exaggerated, and this is most that can be alleged against them; even supposing the terms in which they were conveyed, were angry, disrespectful, and irritating, their counterpart was to be found in Cadiz; and it was besides clear, that old degradations, as well as fresh intemper、 ance, had laid their foundation. On the one side, was a spirit of monopoly, founded on illiberality, stimulated by self interest, and put in motion by the lever of gain; on the other, were galling inconveniences, flowing from

the unequal footing which existed between the inhabitants of each hemisphere, which could not fail to produce conflicting interests, mutual disgusts, irritation, and even alienation, amongst the suffering members of the empire. It could not fail to rouse the feelings of the most abject and submissive, to see great national interests, and the most sacred of all rights, wantonly sacrificed on the altars of state jealousy, illiberality, and monopoly. Such principles of conduct, could only tend to perplex, injure, and sour that harmony of measures, on which general utility depends; and acrimony and enmity, were inevitably to flow, from a flagrant and insulting violation of those establishments of justice and legislation, which are the only solid and just basis, of the honour and prosperity of nations. The Spanish Americans, demanded no more, than to stand or fall, by those very laws, which had been early framed for their government; they persisted for no other, than the exercise of those rights, they had inherited, but of which, successive despotism had stripped them. In short, they sued for no more, than a practical equality with their European brethren, founded in reason, and in contradiction to no avowed maxim of equity. They struggled, with unabating zeal, for the exact observance of those charters and grants, their forefathers had left them, as a sacred inheritance; and of those sacred pledges of kingly faith, whose infraction, particularly in moments such as those, in which Spain stood; was not only forbidden, by the principles of moral justice, but also, by the dictates of sound policy. If they are blameable for the means they often employed, they are warranted in the object to which they aspired.

It would be unjust to assert, that no excesses have been committed by the Creole party; or to deny, that private interest and individual ambition have, sometimes, actuated the conduct of their leaders. With regard to the first charge, partial excesses have indeed occurred, to the great regret of the well wishers of the cause; but they have been such, as are common to the tumultuous assembling of armed men, roused and irritated, and who have had 300 years of oppression, ill usage, and injustice, to avenge; but even from the confession of the Spanish government gazettes, I will afterwards prove, when I appeal to the humanity of the British nation on this subject, that they have partaken of none, of that premeditated and systematic plan of terror and vengeance, which has, uniformly, followed the victories of the Spanish chiefs abroad. These facts, will now, for the first time, meet the eye of the British public, and they will be found both opposed to the laws of humanity, and the legitimate mode and established usages, of honourable warfare. Every one, acquainted with the records of history, is aware of the great difficulties, attending, even a partial release from the chains of despotism; and must know, that even variations, of a trifling nature, in the scheme of government, have deluged whole countries with blood and ruin, and involved them in the most aggravated miseries of civil contention. But, there are traits, that have accompanied the war in Spanish America, which, besides, being unheard of, in modern times, constitute a monument of unknown and unnatural crimes and atrocities. This has been a war, carried on by means of excommunications, as in the dark ages, when the engines of terror and fanaticism, armed Christians against Chris

tians, dethroned kings, and bathed their empires in the blood of their subjects. The author of the Revolucion de Mexico, speaking of the degraded state in which the whole of the Spanish monarchy, had been so long held; and complaining of the civil and religious despotism, prevalent therein, forciby observes; "that, as the rights of the Spanish Americans, to join in representing Ferdinand VII. and to administer their own local concerns, were palpable and defined; how could it, otherwise, have been possible, for Spain to have armed the inhabitants of the transatlantic provinces, one against the other; and thus hinder their union, which would have enabled them, easily to have triumphed over such disproportionate numbers. It has been with the aid of this religious despotism, that Spain has principally fought her battles on the other side of the Atlantic; for, if there, the true religion of Jesus Christ, had been known; had the gospel, there, existed, in its true purity; and had it ceased to be the tool of civil power, and the instrument of despotism and terror; how could fanaticism, rushing from the episcopal palaces, and from the caverns of the inquisition, have been seen to mix its sable torch with the flames of civil war; and cause those to be held as excommunicated heretics, who refused to bend the knee, before the bloody image of a military despot?"

It has, therefore, not been to the common modes of warfare, that the agents of Spain have recurred, in order to arrest the arm of justice, and to inforce a system, that would add to the past aggravations, under which the Spanish Americans had groaned; nay, would even deprive them, of the first consolations of humanity. Every engine, that malice, vengeance, and fanaticism, could