Situation so painful of anxiety and of uncertainty; and, carrying into execution the beneficent resolutions of the Cortes, has named the respective Commissioners to proceed to the dissident provinces of Ultramar, hear their propositions, transmit them to the Spanish government, and open a frank and sincere correspondence, which may have for object and end the good of those countries and that of the nation in general.

H. C. M. does not present himself to those provinces as a resentful monarch before his misled subjects, but as a pacific mediator in the discords of his children. He casts a veil over the past, in order to see the present without any kind of prejudice, and contemplates the actual situation under all the relations which unite it with the future. The common good of the provinces of both hemispheres; this is the only end of the negotiations; this, its only basis; this, the common centre where all its combinations must be directed.

Never has a more important transaction presented itself; but neither is it possible for a government to prepare to commence it with greater loyalty and good faith. H. C. M. cannot persuade himself that the interest of the provinces of Ultramar can be found in opposition to that of European Spain; and this sentiment, so worthy of his heart, stimulates him to look for the means of reconciling their common advantages, and offers him a consolatory confidence that it will not be impossible to find it. H. C. M. gratifies himself with the flattering hope that this frank and generous confidence will spare those regions whole ages of misery and destruction; prevent civil war and anarchy from retarding the progress of civilization and improvement; avoid the depopulation, poverty, and immorality, which attend great political oscillations, and which condemn to disgrace and misery one generation, without securing the repose or the felicity of the following.

H. C. M. believes, at the same time, that the greatest good he can procure to Peninsular Spain, is, to put an end to a desolating and fratricide war; and that, placed between brothers, united by the ties of blood, and of religion, of language, of customs, and even of convenience itself, his voice cannot fail to be heard with benefit to one and the other.

But H. C. M. extends his views to a more extensive horizon, and considers this great question as an European question. A long time passed before the prodigious effects of the discovery of the new world were perceived in this continent; nobody could foresee them, much less calculate them; it was an unknown, immense carcer, without any barriers to confine it within its space. The same, H. M. judges. may be said of the great events which are agitating America, and whose effects must influence, necessarily, and in a very rapid manner, the lot of Europe. It is not possible to determine the degrees of this influence, nor the alterations which it must produce in the reciprocal relations of the one and the other hemisphere; but H. C. M. hesitates not to affirm, that the transaction which fixes the lot of the Spanish provinces of America, and puts an end to the blind and impetuous

course of its revolution, will be one of the benefits the most memora ble for the civilized world.

Necessities, commerce, habit, communications of every species, have united, with multiplied bonds, the two hemispheres; and it is easy to conceive, that an entire continent, delivered to the struggle of the pas sions, and made the theatre of a durable revolution, cannot fail to influence perniciously the political and moral relations of Europe, when it has scarcely began to recover from the agitations and disturbances it has labored under for the space of thirty years.

There will be, perhaps, superficial spirits, who will see a solid and established government and a constituted nation, in each province which may have declared its independence; and who, without attending to obstacles of any kind, nor to the principles of public right, nor to the best known maxims of the law of nations, will believe, that the mere fact of the separation of a province from the state of which it formed a part, legitimates its existence! insulated and independent! and gives it the right to be recognized as such by other powers.

But governments fortunately know, by a sad experience, the effects which are produced by a similar overthrow of principle; they foresee the consequences of its propagation, not less fatal to legitimate governments than to the integrity of nations; and are well aware of the consequence to Europe, of sanctioning, in America, as some pretend, the undefined right of insurrection.

Thus it is, that H. C. M. believes not only interested in this question those nations who possess colonies and establishments in Ultramar, to which the same theory could be applied, that it is now intended to legitimate, with respect to the Spanish provinces of America; but, that he also considers this business as intimately connected with those conservatory principles that offer securities to all governments and guarantees to society.

Before this great and capital object, all other considerations disappear by their smallness, and therefore H. C. M. does not recur to those subaltern reasons, which, in ordinary times and circumstances, are employed by policy in support and defence of justice.

Although the question is viewed under this other aspect, Spain presents, in all her relations, new and powerful motives, which ought to excite, in her favor, profound sentiments of the most severe impartial⚫ity. Without any kind of ambitious pretension, placed with respect to all nations in an inoffensive situation, and dedicated, exclusively. to affirm and consolidate her interior felicity, she can neither provoke jealousies nor rivalries, nor cause to be desired the violent dismemberment of the various parts of the monarchy, with the object of debilitating it. Spain, however powerful she may be, cannot threaten the repose nor the security of other nations; and Spain, rich and powerful, could advantageously influence the preservation of the equilibrium of power. An instinct of honor and of loyalty re-united the unknown elements of her strength, and, engaged in the most unequal struggle, gave time to the continent to rise up against the common enemy, and destroy his oppressive yoke. This fact alone renders un

hecessary all reflections and commentaries. It alone inspires interest in favor of the magnanimous nation, and announces what ought to be its destiny, always beneficient, and never offensive-nature and policy designate it this advantageous position on the map of nations. This grand political view was not hidden from the European cabinets, when they saw destroyed the colossal and exaggerated power which Spain, alarming Europe, had exercised for the space of two centuries.

After a long struggle, it was determined, at last, to fix the lot of Spain, considering it enwoven with the federal European system, and, at the same moment, was foreseen the advantage of affirming her power, securing it, in America, a point of support that might augment its weight, in the political balance, to maintain the equilibrium of Europe.

To such a point was given importance to this consideration of general interest, that Spain obliged herself not to transfer or dispose of, in any manner, any portion of her territory in America; and, in order to make its possession more secure and inviolable, and to remove even the motives for suspicion and want of confidence, she deprived herself even of the liberty of conceding to other nations, by any means, or under any pretext, the commerce and trade with those countries.

Time, notwithstanding, has produced a very important alteration in this point, and a more enlightened policy, the change in the mercantile relations, the rectification of economical principles, and a multitude of other combined causes, has convinced Spain that it will be as prejudicial to her peninsular interests, as injurious to the provinces of Ultramar, to aspire to the preservation of a commercial monopoly, formerly viewed as the bond of union between the two great moieties of the monarchy.

H. C. M. judges, on the contrary, that those ties only are durable which are founded on the common interest, and that peninsular Spain may obtain commercial advantages favorable to her industry and navigation, without aspiring to a privilege so exclusive; that new necessities and new desires, arising from the progress of civilization and of wealth, makes necessary a more frank and liberal system for the provinces of Ultramar; and that, in place of struggling uselessly with the mercantile spirit, which has so much influence in the political system of modern nations, the true interest of Spain consists in conciliating it, instead of provoking it as an irreconcileable enemy.

Proposing to itself such important objects, all the laws, all the dispositions given since the restoration of the constitution, have a tendency beneficent, generous, and to the colonization of strangers in Spanish America, and to the freedom of commerce in those regions; and the experiment made in the island of Cuba has been sufficient to demonstrate, practically, that the general interest of all nations, the interest of the provinces of America, and that of European Spain, all coincide in one same point.

By this simple and natural mean, H. C. M. has found absolutely removed the only obstacle that might prevent the most perfect union

between the policy of Spain and that of the other cabinets. A solid, stable, and recognized government, a faithful observer of its treaties, prepares to treat with the dissident provinces of America, and offers to the other powers the greatest commercial advantages; it would not be possible to designate (even when the question should be reduced to the simple calculation of lucrative interest) an object which might serve as a counterpoise in the opposite extreme.

The civil wars and the anarchy that frequently succeed revolutions, and especially when their elements are so heterogeneous and contradictory as in America, are surely not calculated to augment the exchangeable products of a country, nor to invite strangers with the effective and persuasive security which is the soul of commerce; nor can precarious and uncertain governments, without any guarantee, secure themselves the advantages which they may offer. It is now twelve years since Buenos Ayres, delivered to its own fortune, has toiled in vain to consolidate a government, and the misery and depopulation suffered by the provinces of Costa-firma, have retarded instead of accelerating their wealth and prosperity. In matters of this class when facts come in support of reason, it is useless to oppose to certain and known results, vague and indefinite hopes.

But, it appears only as if a new calamity has taken place, in confirmation of the evils which should have been foreseen-the insurrection of the American continent has given color and support to the pi racy of the seas, and commerce in general begins to suffer from the insecurity and dangers of this immoral and barbarous war, which knows no law but that of sordid interest, and which treats and despoils as enemies the industrious individuals of all nations, indiscriminately.

Hence, and by an admirable concatenation, every thing concurs to establish the utility and urgency of a definitive arrangement of a business of such vast and profouud ramifications, and every thing contributes to stimulate the Spanish government not to retard, by any secondary motive, a transaction so important.

H. C. M. flatters himself with the greatest satisfaction, that, about to establish with the dissident provinces this ample and friendly communication, he will find in the other governments that circumspect and deliberate conduct, that justice prescribes, and that policy recommends, and that sentiments of impartiality and benevolence inspire.

The Spanish nation, treating to put an end to a domestic discord, the same inviolable respect which it professes to the rights of other nations, inspires it with the just confidence of being treated reciprocally with the same considerations, not being able to suspect, even on the part of the nations who desire to continue in friendship and harmony with her, any hazarded step which might suppose already resolved the question which the Spanish nation is about to decide as its own, in use of its legitimate acknowledged rights, and which it has never, in any manner, renounced.

In which state, the same means made use to excite government to the recognition of the independence of the dissident Spanish provinces of America, will offer on the contrary a notorious and solemn occasion

to sanction the fundamental principles upon which the integrity and tranquillity of nations and the public morality of governments rcpose.

The tenor and spirit of treaties, the good faith which ought to reign between friendly powers, the conviction of an obligation supported equally by an enlightened and foreseeing policy, the real welfare itself of the dissident provinces, and even the general utility of all the potentates, offer an equal number of securities to H. C. M. that his laudable desires will find in his august allies the most favorable and friendly reception.

Madrid, June 28, 1822.

(No. 11.)

Extract of a letter, No. 41 from Mr. Forsyth to the Secretary of State, dated,

MADRID, June 28th, 1822.

"I have not been able to ascertain if any thing has been said or proposed in the Cortes, during their secret sessions, with regard to the United States. There is one striking circumstance that renders it probable that there has. In the discussion of the business of Ultramar, not even the most remote allusion has been made to the resolution of our Government to recognize the Spanish American Governments. The message of the 8th of March, your subsequent correspondence with Anduaga, and the determination of the Council of State, when consulted by the Ministers, are certainly known to the Cortes, if not, as is more probable, formally communicated to them. I can hardly conceive it possible, that a reference to this step of ours should not have been made, if it had not been studiously avoided, and I see no sufficient motive for a studious avoidance of it, if the subject had not been under consideration in a different shape. This is mere conjecture; you will give to it its due importance, as you are made acquainted with the foundation of it."

(No. 12.)

Extract of a letter, No. 44, from Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Adams, dated MADRID, August 26th, 1822. "The late events have had a favorable effect for us. The danger so near home has drawn their attention from American affairs, and blunted the sensibility excited by our recognition of the Governments established in our hemisphere. Every one feels too, that, among the Governments, the Spanish Constitution has no friends but the United States, and perhaps England. Every one is sensible that Spain has no power to compel Spanish America to unite with the Peninsula, and