England require a greater glory, or a more consoling reflection, than to pour the balm of comfort, into the bleeding wounds of seventeen millions of people, and thus merit their eternal blessings?

§ Whoever goes back, to the early stages of the dissentions here alluded to, and contemplates the degraded situation in which the ultramarine provinces stood, will not hesitate to confess, that the government of Spain, had many acts of justice to do for the inhabitants of the former; and that an extensive and radical reform, consequently became one of its primary duties. Yet, we saw the whole of the administration of the Central Junta, and of the Regency, pass by, and not an effective measure of alleviation to the wrongs of the Spanish Americans, was carried into effect. The first did, indeed, declare them equal in rights with their European brethren; yet, the Regency immediately afterwards, forbade them a free trade, more essential to their interests, than any thing else. Even the new constitution of Spain, makes them equal, yet in so doing, prohibits them that trade, which the inhabitants of the Peninsula themselves enjoy; as will, hereafter, be more, fully, noticed. The Spanish Americans then, have, hitherto, been living under fallacious assurances, without any grounded reliance on the firm and impartial faith of their lawgivers at home; who, certainly, ought to have been the steady preservers and careful and zealous guardians of their civil rights, as well as of those of the European portion of the community. The Spanish Americans were declared equal in rights, yet, the Juntas of La Paz and Quito, were murdered for the exercise of this equality; the same was attempted with that of Chili, and public war is pro

claimed against that of Caracas. They are declared equal in rights, yet, in Caracas and Mexico, every one, favourable to the formation of a Junta to represent Ferdinand, is buried in dungeons. They were declared equal in rights, yet they are ordered still to endure the odious clogs, and the mad and unprincipled monopoly of 150 Cadiz merchants. They were, in short, declared equal in rights, but these were promises, as hollow, as those of the Central Junta to Mr. Frere. The subsequent conduct of the Cortes, as will be shewn in a review of their transactions with regard to Spanish America, has been a punctillo, not to deviate from the measures of their predecessors the Regents; and the precipitate and summary discussion of this important question, like the hasty investigation of the Boston port bill, during the struggle of our own transatlantic possessions, has rather been the real and efficient cause of the prolongation of so many disasters, than any conviction that the war was just. This negligence and lukewarmness on the part of the Cortes, has, also, in a great degree, been owing to the temporary triumph of the Cadiz mercantile interests, and their influence over the press; and it is a melancholy reflection, yet, founded on correct data, that such illiberal principles as these, should have been the chief barriers, which have obstructed redress and justice, to those who had so long suffered.

Gratitude and political expediency, alone, as before fully evinced, might have roused the justice of the new governments of the Peninsula, if no other more equitable principle existed; and the first display of loyalty accompanied by copious remittances from the ultramarine provinces, might have been made the basis of an ex

tensive and liberal system. Yet, one government succeeded the other, and no reform was thought of; nor were any of those effective concessions granted, which Lord Wellesley indicated, as the only means of producing permanent good. One of the first acts of the Cadiz Regency, was to annul its own decree of free trade, under aggravations, which must have roused the injured feelings of the most weak and submissive. Fresh powers were sent over to the colonial chiefs, for the purposes of rendering their administration more severe, and consequently more oppressive. A most tyrannical plan of espionage was set on foot; victims of resentment, every where, abounded; and in order to cloak and support all these vexations, the course of public justice, was, actually, declared suspended. An order was sent out, to impede the circulation of all newspapers, except the gazette of the Cadiz Regency; and this was only tolerated, when officially transmitted by the government to its agents. The situation of Spanish America, was, in fact, rendered worse, by the new changes in the Peninsula; for fresh and galling insults, were added to the increased acts of injustice on the part of the governmental agents; and on the degradation of old systems, renewed terrors were ingrafted. This systematic terror, rose to such a height, that in Lima, the editor of a public paper, for telling the inhabitants of Spanish America, that they had a country (patria) was arrested and sent home a prisoner; and in other sections, many other despotic acts might be enumerated. Yet by Spain, the ultramarine provinces are told to endure all these hardships, without repining; and England, by her indifference, tells them, they are to expect no redress, as long as she is linked to the parent state.

The rancour of the Cadiz governments, as before demonstrated, became analagous to the interests by which it was first roused; and it was afterwards kept alive, by every base artifice and design. But, that this blindness, and this infatuation, should, in like manner, have pervaded the acts of the British government, and the conduct of its agents, is the most unaccountable of all political solecisms; and if it proves no more, it at least evinces, that the extent and importance of this subject, did not receive due and timely consideration; and that it was treated, rather as an every day incident, than as one of the great occurrences, which the page of history, will, at a future period, have to record. In fact, the whole of the changes, which have taken place in Spanish America, within the last four years, have excited less interest and sensation in England, than would have been caused, by any alteration in one of the petty States of Germany, or by a change in the governmental forms, of the citizens of the Alps. Thus, has it happened, that every thing was thrown on the chances of a war, not of common hostility, to establish a right, to fix a boundary, or to dislodge an intrusive enemy; but one, accompanied by bloody persecution, and sharpened by peculiar feelings of revenge. It was the boast of modern times, that civilization had stripped warfare, of nearly all its ancient ferocity; but, in Spanish America, we see it, not only brought back to the horrors of the dark ages, but, if possible, rendered more brutal, savage, and deformed. The British officers who have cooperated in the Peninsula, have had an opportunity of judging of the nature of Spanish troops, and we have seen how dangerous it was, even to let them loose, on the French natives of the

Pyrenees. To the feelings of such officers, do I now appeal, when I ask the question; what fatal consequences, must not be produced, by such troops, being let loose, on the often defenseless natives of Spanish America, situated, at a distance, from the arm of power, and as it were, answerable to no one for their excesses? Thence, have the military reports of the European chiefs, commanding in that ill-fated country, presented little else, than details of individual murder, and general massacre; as will, purposely, be shewn, from official sources, in a detached section of this exposé. Boundless robbery, indiscriminate seizure, vengeance, horrid impiety, and atrocious murders, are the evidences, that attest the conduct of the officers, who have had to subject the insurgents; and a mode of warfare has been established, which has been made a plea, for the greatest excesses, and a continual source of rapine and bloodshed, throughout the ravaged provinces. The feeling mind revolts at such scenes, but what must be the reflections of the impartial Briton, who sees the name of his own nation, materially implicated in these horrors; who sees the instruments of these butcheries, sent over cloathed and armed with those resources, England had generously lavished, for the defence of Spain?

However urgent the dictates of policy, and loud the calls of humanity, nothing on the part of either Spain or England, has yet sufficed, to wind up this long drama of horrors and disasters; and when a wide and extended civil war, with all its attendant scourges, has deformed and harrowed up the bosom of Spanish America, for more than four years, and in which, many hundred thousand souls have been sacrificed, not an effective measure