raged their subjects to go out, as peaceable tillers of the earth; but the latter embarked as conquerors, possessed of an insatiate lust for gain; and fired with the martial spirit of the age and of their country, bent rather on plunder, than disposed to follow the humble pursuits of the hoe and ploughshare. The ones, went out as speciał colonists, carrying with them all the liberality, and all the free rights of the civilized countries to which they belonged; and from the beginning, adequate systems of government were modelled for them, on the plan of those to which they had been accustomed; whence they became miniatures, of the parent states, from which they derived their origin. The others, entered on their daring enterprize, in order to establish themselves by force; and as well from the earliness of the period, as the despotic state in which Spain at that time stood, were unprepared to establish a governing system, suited to the more enlightened state of the present times. The ones, went to insulated points, whereas the others, settled on an extended and varied continent, which at the time of its discovery, contained, and yet contains, double the population of the country that still pretends, to hold them in colonial dependence. The ones, in short, emigrated with the rights only of colonists, the others went out, free and unschackled military despots, who would have shrunk from the idea of being included in the calculations of trade and economical expediency.*

*In consequence of the ravages on the present population of Spain, it cannot now be esteemed at more than eight millions and a half, That of Spanish America, from accurate data, rises as high as seventeen, which added to that of the Philipine Islands, viz. three ditto, makes the ultramarine population of Spain, twenty millions.

+ Till within the last forty years, the profession of a merchant was held as degrading, particularly by the nobles, but even grandees, had no objection, now and then, to handle a little contraband.

The colonial policy of the one, was to bind the affections of their distant fellow citizens, to the country from whence they issued, by equitable and useful laws, by habits, manners, and by an enlightened equipoise of interests; that of the other, to insure control and dependence, by force, and by means of an undue sacrifice, in favour of metropolitan ambition and gain. The ones, in surrendering up certain rights, gained others as equivalents; whereas the others, to use a Creole simily, where as a cow, they themselves had to feed, but which the Spaniards milked, for their own exclusive use.

§ I have been, thus far, diffuse in explaining the nature of the first discoveries and settlements, made by the Spaniards on the continent of America, as well as in examining the primitive charters and prerogatives, on which the political and social rights of its inhabitants, were founded; from a conviction of the necessity of establishing, in the fullest manner possible, this material point, on which chiefly hinges, the great question now at issue. It has been the object of all the late governments of Spain, to hold the transatlantic provinces in colonial dependence; and from the conduct of that of Great Britain, it would almost appear, that her ministers, also, have not dared to consider them in any other light. Nay, both seemed resolved to prolong a slavery, unjust in the eye of the law, unnatural in its essence, and particularly unreasonable, when it was not only attempted to save European Spain from the yoke of a foreign enemy, but, also, to regenerate her inhabitants. It is, now, high time to delineate the late policy of Spain, established in her distant provinces; which from its degraded nature, had acquired the term of colonial; an elucidation, essentially necessary, to form a just idea of the grounds of complaint on the part of the Creoles, such as

they will be described, in the more advanced stages of this production.

In consequence of the imperfection and frailty of human nature, as well as from the natural tendency of man, to follow the impulse of his own inordinate passions, even under the best institutions, transgressions, both of law and of justice, will sometimes occur. In order, however, to render such deviations from right, as rare as possible, it becomes the object of every good system of policy, as well as the duty of the sovereign or legislative body, by means of precaution and animadversion, not only to enact adequate laws, but, also, to watch carefully over their execution. The wishes and intentions of the first monarchs of Spain, with regard to their distant dominions, were undoubtedly good, and their zeal for justice' and equity, sincere and praiseworthy; but what availed it to the Americans, to know that their laws were, at least in theory, good, if they never saw them executed* ? In the distant settlements of every nation, instances of corrupt and arbitrary conduct are on record; but we judge of the excellency of their establishments and régulations, more from their tendency to prevent a recurrence, than from the theoretical and pompous manner in which the rights of the subject are defined; in like manner, as we appreciate the real merits of a first magistrate, by the uprightness of his conduct, and by the impartial and equitable manner, in which he administers justice, more than by his brilliancy of talents.

Necker, in his introduction to the Administration of Finance, observes "that it is necessary to give with reserve, and promise with circumspection; but when once the faith of the prince is pledged, its object ought to be

* The Americans confess many of their laws on paper, to be good, if a law could only be çuacted, to make them observed.

punctually fulfilled. Thus, is it ordained by the policy of credit, and by the rules of justice." Enough having been, already adduced, to prove the rights of the Spanish American provinces, in the eye of the law, to be very different from their existing civil and political situation, as described by every author who has written on the subject, it would be both useless and tedious, to trace the gradual stages of those infractions of their laws and rights, which the despotism of the kings of Spain, and the corruption of their ministers, had successively committed. When the minister of France, was penning the above words, it would almost seem, as if he had in view, the promises of the Spanish government, ever ready to offer but backward to fulfil. Though, individual wrong, could seldom penetrate to the foot of the distant throne, general abuses, did, sometimes, arrest the attention, and bias the mind of the feeling or politic prince, or his minister, and royal orders were sent out to correct the defect complained of. These royal orders and sovereign resolutions, were placed on record, and under formal injunctions, remitted to America; but far from being fulfiiled, by those who ought to have been foremost to give the example of obedience and submission to the king, they laughed at them, and in the term of the country, called them unconsecrated hosts* Hence, originated numerous consequences, not only fatal to the country, but also injurious to the sovereign, who had placed the constituted authorities there, for no other purpose, than to watch over the hap piness of his far-removed subjects, and to fulfil his special orders, relating to them. From this inobservance of the laws and royal orders, it resulted to Spanish America;

* Hostias sin consagrar, that is, from being unhallowed, not deserving of notice,

1st. That, arbitrariness, despotism, and terror, were the devices of the Spanish rulers, and, that, the above, were their springs of action.

2nd. That, being the first to infringe the law, they were, also, the first to deserve the punishments prescribed for similar crimes; and, that, their bad example, in this deviation from equity, and from the will of the sovereign, if it did not authorize it, at least, shewed to the American subjects, the road to separate themselves, from a dominion, unjust, rash, odious, and tyrannical.

3d. That, dubious, whether redress had been obtained, and often judging that just remonstrances had been treated with disdain, the part of the community interested, attributed to the despotism of the minister, or of government, what was, alone, arbitrary, on the part of its agents abroad.

4th. That, in individual cases, money, humiliations, and often-times meanness, were the only means to obtain justice, and even to see the laws executed; and that, though the Americans were sensible of, and deplored the aggravations under which they laboured, they had no local redress, nor scarcely a distant one, since the minister, who patronized his transatlantic bashaw, was the medium between the king, and the complainant.

5th. That, these mandataries, often became the tools of a corrupt minister, who, in mutual concert, sported with the distress and sufferings of the Spanish Americans, thereby, inducing them to conclude, that promises, and not works, were all that fell to their lot.

Oth. That, the colonial chiefs, being Europeans, and biassed by provincial predilections, reserved every thing for their own; and that, it was an usual policy, in order