also, extremely fortunate, that coal has been discovered, for, otherwise, from the dearth of fuel, the application of machinery, would have been useless.

The suspension of intercourse with Europe, has, al ways, produced in Spanish America, an incredible scarcity of the most necessary articles of labour, and has occasionally raised the prices of iron, from four dollars, to sixty and 100, per quintal; and of steel, froni twentyfive dollars, as high as three hundred and twenty-five ditto. Under such circumstances, mining, and, of course, agriculture, had to stand still. Quicksilver, an article of such importance, that New Spain alone, consumed 16,000 quintals, annually, has always been held as a monopoly of the crown, and the quantity the mines have produced, has been in proportion to that of mercury distributed. To render the ultramarine provinces, more dependent on Spain, it was not lawful to work the quicksilver mines found in America, as has been before stated; means adopted to secure the allegiance of the country. But, though America has, hitherto, been a tributary to Europe, for the supply of this essential article, this cannot be the case, as soon as more enlightened systems and liberal regulations are adopted, of which even Spain would be the gainer, for she would not then have to expend in a foreign market, an annual sum for a supply, that is, besides, liable to many contingencies. Peru contains four quicksilver mines already discovered, of which the most famous, is Huancavelica; and Mexico has several others, whose united produce, whenever they are put into operation, will supercede the necessity of importations of mercury from, Spain and Carniola. What a field of industry and enterprize, even in this single

a

branch, opens on the world, but particularly on England, when these odious restrictions are removed, and the relations of friendship and intercourse are cemented, by stipulations of a liberal and permanent nature?

§ The increase of population, under a regular and stäble government, capable of securing interiour and exte riour relations, would, in like manner, increase in rapid progression, and soon raise the strength of Spanish Ame→ rica, to a respectable height. According to the calcula tions of Humboldt, the population of New Spain, ought to double itself in nineteen years, so that if peace is once restored to Spanish America, and a paternal government created, one that may secure it from internal convul sions, and favourable to emigration, to what a degree of splendour and improvement, will not that country rise? Under the operation of causes less favourable, we have seen these calculations verified in the United States; which present both to England and Spain, the results of a grand experiment, in their power to realize, by the regeneration of Spanish America. In 1774, the exports from the United States, then British Colonies, were £3,607,000 sterling; and in 1799, they reached 72,663,332 dollars, or £15,925,021 sterling. From 24 millions, the population, has, also, risen to near 7. The independence of the United States, in point of trade, has been more profitable to England than their submission; for prior to Mr. Jefferson's plan of destroying the trade of the union, Great Britain exported more goods of her own growth and manufacture to that country, than she did to the whole of Europe! And has not Spain an infinitely greater scope for advancement, in her immense and diversified continent of America? For this, it is not necessary to create an absolute independence, she has only

to alter her plans, to remove her restrictions and monopolies, and to establish a paternal and beneficent government, suited to the wants of an extensive, diversified and distant range of country, abounding in commodities, for which Europe presents an eager demand.

But this is not all, the free cultivation of the vine and olive, the growth of the mulberry, the distillation from sugar, rice, and the grape, the exportation of flour, the increase of the plantation of sugar, cotton, tobacco, as well as of many other productions, and the working of the mercury mines, will, one day, not only add to the circulation of trade, but will become more inexhaustible sources of wealth, than the united mines of gold and silver. Spanish America, appears, at some future time, to be destined to supply us with wine, oils, and raw silk, for which we are so dependent on the continent of Europe; as well as flax seed, for which Ireland has to recur to the United States. Ship timber, of the finest quality, can there be had in any quantity, as well as hemp. In short, in a progressive manner, will increase the agricultural and metallic productions of a country, that has, hitherto, been almost as a blank to the rest of the world; and, consequently, its consumption of merchandize would be doubled, thus affording to the supplying channels, a safe and ready market for manufactures, larger than any single section of the globe, presents. France is calculated to have taken from us, annually, no more than 7,600,000 dollars in goods, and the section of New Spain alone, affords a vent for not less than twenty millions. But it is not ourselves alone, who would be benefited, by the opening and amelioration of Spanish America. Our West India islands, will also, greatly

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participate in the benefits. During the absence of supplies of flour from the United States, Jamaica has been supplied, in a precarious manner, with provisions from Haiti, according to the late report of its assembly. Yet in the neighbouring sections of New Spain, the finest in the world for cerealia, this article, has been rotting in the warehouses.

And, if such is the picture of the resources of Spanish America, if such the brilliant prospect capable of being opened on the world, can either the people or ministers of England, feel indifferent as to its present misfortunes or future fate? Do not both interest, policy, and humanity, strongly urge us to look, with anxious, eye, to the present state of this ill-fated, but interesting country? Have its long sufferings, no hold on the sympathy of a people like that of England, or have we, entirely, forgotten the inhabitants of those distant regions, at the details of whose conquests, we have so often felt emotion, and over whose history, we have so frequently shed the tear of sensibility? Lord Grenville, in his late admirable speech on the East India question, thus expressed himself with regard to Spanish America.

"A free trade with India, a free trade with China; with the Eastern islands, the latest acquisition of British valour; and through them, with the rich kingdoms of South America; a country hitherto indeed barred against us, as much by the monopolies of its parent government as by our own, but now at last by the course of events, no longer within the controul of man, opened, in every case I trust infallibly opened, to the commerce of the world."

"What a scene does this present to our imagination! We are told that when the Spanish discoverers first overcame, with labour and peril almost unspeakable, the mighty range of mountains which divides the Western from the Atlantic shores of South America, they stood 'fixed in silent admiration, gazing on the vast expanse of the Southern Ocean, which lay stretched before them in boundless prospect. They adored, even those hardened and sanguinary adventurers adored, the gracious Providence of Heaven, which, after the lapse of so many centuries, had opened to mankind so wonderful a field of untried and unimagined enterprize. They anticipated in prophetic enthusiasm, the glory of their native country, 'the future extent of its sovereignty and power, and the noble prize presented to its ambition. But theirs was the glory of conquest, the ambition of war, the prize of unjust dominion. As vast as theirs, but infinitely more honourable, far higher both in purpose and in recompense, are the hopes with which the same prospect now elevates our hearts. Over countries yet unknown to science, and in tracts which British navigation has scarcely yet explored, we hope to carry the tranquil arts, the social enjoyments, the friendly and benevolent intercourse of commerce. By the link, of mutual interest, by the bond of reciprocal good will, we hope to connect together the remotest regions of the earth; humble, and weak, but not rejected instruments of that great purpose of our Creator, by which He has laid, in the reciprocal necessities both of individuals and of nations, the firmest groundwork of all human society. Let this be our glory, and what conqueror will not have reason to envy it? : I

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