despotically, over a free people, who know no other sovereign than Ferdinand VII., whom each one of you pretend to represent, by atrocious acts, which the king, himself, would never have done, or permitted, even when the case in question, was opposed to his sovereignty. The acts, which, in your conscience, you know to refer, solėly, to individuals, you treat with as much severity, as if they related to the king himself. You pretend to concentre in your own private persons, the sacred duties of religion, of the king and country; dazzling the ignorant by these names, so often profaned in your mouths, accustomed to falsehood and calumny. You have vilified yourselves in the eyes of the sensible world, by attempting to confound this cause, which is purely of the state, with one of religion. And, for this detestable purpose, you have impelled many ministers of Jesus Christ, to prostitute, in all their parts, the functions of their holy ministry.

"How can you combine these iniquitous proceedings, with the severe precepts of our holy religion, and with the inviolable integrity of our laws? And to whom, unless it is to the sword, can we now recur for justice, when you who are parties, constitute yourselves into judges, accusers, and witnesses; at the same time, that it is disputed, whether it is we, who constitute the true American nation; whether you are legitimate authorities, in the absence of our monarch, or intrusive and arbitrary ones, who seek to appropriate to yourselves, a jurisdiction which you have not, and which no one can confer on you."

"This long list of great enormities, deeply imprinted on our hearts, would be a terrible incentive to our fury,

impelling us to avenge them, even with the last drop of European blood existing in this country, if our religion, more pure in our hearts than in yours, our humanity, and the natural suavity of our character, did not lead us to incline to reconciliation, rather than to a continuance of a war, whose issue, whatever it may be, can never promise us more happiness than peace, considering your situation and circumstances."

4

"Likewise, if you impartially enter into account with yourselves, you will find, that you are more Americans than Europeans. Scarcely born in the Peninsula, and at a tender age, you were transferred to this land; in it you have passed the greater part of your lives; you have adaptedour customs and manners; been naturalized to the benign temperature of our climate; contracted binding connections; inherited large fortunes from your wives, or obtained them by your labour and industry; having, also, children and fixed property. Few of you, have any correspondence with your ultramarine relations, or even know the fate of your fathers, since you left the mother country-and, did you not, all, form the resolution not to return there? What, then, is it, retains you from feeling an interest for this kingdom, in which you ought to act the part of natives? Is it, perchance, the dread of being injured? If we have carried on hostilities against Europeans, it has been by way of reprisal, and, because they first commenced them.

"The system of insurrection, was never sanguinary ; in the beginning, the prisoners were treated kindly, and with decency and decorum. Many of them, were pardoned, notwithstanding they were perjured and unfaith

ful to their words of honour; availing themselves of this our benignity, to bring upon us every evil, being afterwards, even our most atrocious enemies. Till you, yourselves, began to open the door to cruelties, you were treated in a manner, very different to that in which you acted to us. For your happiness, rather than for our

own, we should be desirous to terminate dissentions, which are causing scandal to the whole world; and preparing us for misfortunes, which we may experience from some foreign power, when we cannot avoid them. Wherefore, in the name of our common fraternity, and the other sacred bonds, which unite us, we, in the most tender manner, beseech you to examine with attention, and wise and christian impartiality, the plans of peace and war, founded on evident principles of public and natural right, which we now propose to you, on behalf of humanity; in order that, by choosing the one that may suit you most, the advantage of the nation, may always be consulted. Let the national character be our judge, and let us be guided by those urgent circumstances, under which America is now groaning."

The plans of peace and war, which accompanied this manifest, have already been referred to, and are contained in my Appendix, under the head of G. And after the feelings have been roused and irritated, as in the manner expressed in this document; after such instances of recrimination, after the Spaniards on their part, treat every overture with disdain, and the Creoles behold themselves inundated with blood and vengeance, how is it possible, for these parties to come together, so as to adopt some basis of accommodation, unless it is through the medium and interposing influence of a third power? When the

mediation question was agitated, the Spanish deputies in the Cortes asserted, that in New Spain, no organized authority existed wherewith to treat, for the insurrection consisted of nothing, but parties of banditti infesting the roads. Whereas, the best organized, and the most generally acknowledged Junta, had stood its ground from the beginning, received the obedience of all provinces divested of a Spanish force, and the manifest I have just quoted, together with Document G. and others which I could still bring forward, might prove, that the national Junta, consisted of men, possessed of talent and energy, but yet, disposed to relieve suffering humanity, and ready to enter into arrangements, by which tranquillity might be restored.

And can the ministers of England, still behold this universal and all devouring flame of civil war, already spread to the shores of the Pacific, and feel no sympathy for a suffering and injured people? Can the allies of those very victims, can they who till now, have always felt a sympathy for their degraded condi tion, and have been melted at the perusal of their conquest, hear of and behold these horrors, and this inhuman and unnatural warfare, without feeling a corresponding anxiety for their melancholy fate? Can we any longer, thus witness, the bloody convulsions and long suffering of a people, who have appealed to us, and even implored the common sympathies of mankind at large? Is humanity, then, no longer, an appendage of the British people, when not one of their public organs, has ventured to step forward in a case like this? Spanish America, presents a large and extensive mart for British commerce, and are the patrons of our mercantile interests,

yet, silent? And, where are our philanthropists? When the slave question, was agitating in this country, every body was alive to the discussion; and clubs were enthusiastically formed, to patronize the interests of natives of Africa, who were deprived of their natural liberty. And what was the motive of all this? It was a noble, generous, and laudable principle of humanity, that will ever do honour to the British character, and cast a consoling gleam on the labours of the promoters, of the measures adopted. And are the Indians, and other inhabitants of Spanish America, less deserving of our regard? We, there, interfered for the welfare of a few thousands, condemned to labour for the profits of another, but still possessed of many conveniences to beguile their toil; but here, we see many thousands, annually, nay monthly, put to the sword, butchered, inhumanly tortured and mutilated, and not a sigh accompanies their sufferings. And, in time, what will not the fatal consequences of this exterminating war; shall we wait without interfering, till not a White or Creole, is left standing? The proportion on an average, of the Indians and casts, to the Whites and Creoles, is about six to one; if therefore, the latter become debilitated and extinct, and the former become armed and warlike, possessed as they are of the idea, that their lands and property have been usurped by the Spaniards, may they not regain them, by a retaliation, bloody and extensive? Is it for this, that we are waiting?

§ In order that the feelings, which have been excited in the bosoms of the Spanish American people, may not be unknown, I hereto annex an extract of a letter, from one of the first characters in Mexico, dated Feb. 18, 1811,