for carrying on the government of the province in the present unsettled state of affairs, without dissolving the connection, but on the principle of fraternization, friendship, and unity with the mother country. Similar revolutions took place immediately thereafter, and almost simultaneously, in other provinces, and in the same spirit. Caraccas, Cumana, Barinas, Margarita, Barcelona, Merida, and Truxillo, were united as federative governments, in what is called the American Confederation of Venezuela, April 19, 1810.*

The principal promoters and leaders in this revolution looked forward with ardent expectation to ultimate independence, though they concealed themselves at first under the wings of the general partizans of Ferdinand VII. They made warm professions of attachment to the mother country, and, in common with the rest of their countrymen, swore allegiance to Ferdinand, as their legitimate sovereign: though the new Juntas did not acknowledge, or pay any deference or regard to the Regency at Cadiz. This moderation of conduct, though prudent in itself, would not perhaps have been observed in preference to the solicitations of present interests and passions, if it had not been pre. scribed by an indispensable regard to the general sentiments and inclinations of the provinces. But this stream was soon unfortunately turned into a different, and somewhat an opposite direction.

The Council of Regency awak

ened to a sense of their public duty, by the well-founded and firm remonstrances of the island of Cuba, passed a decree, May 17, permitting the colonies to trade with foreign nations in all the articles of their own product, for which there was not a vent in Old Spain. This decree, morally just, and politically wise and necessary, did not suit the interests, and was offensive in the highest degree to the merchants of Cadiz, on whom the Regency were in a great measure dependant for the means of continuing their new, feeble, and slippery government. This decree was therefore revoked on the 17th of June. And the Regency had even the ridiculous folly to pretend, that it was not authentic, but an imposition on the public: as if they would have suffered a forgery to be in circulation, and have the force of a law for the space of six weeks, in the very place where the Regency resided, without contradicting, and protesting against it! It was impossible that the Spanish Americans should respect a provisory government so pitifully mean, cunning, and fraudulent.

While the impression made on the minds of the Americans, by the revocation or disavowal of the decree in favour of colonial trade, was yet fresh and lively, intelligence was received at Caraccas, that all who had been concerned in the late revolutionary movements, were proclaimed to be traitors, and the ports of the province declared to be in a state of block

VOL. LII.

ade

ade, until the inhabitants should recognize the Regency of Cadiz as the true and legitimate representatives of Ferdinand VII. An amnesty, however, was held out for what had passed, provided that submission and obedience to government should be paid in fu ture. Nothing could possibly exceed the weakness of this passionate ebullition of impotent pride and arrogance! Even if the denounced blockade could have been enforced by a numerous fleet and army, the policy of it might well have been questioned. A war ensued-not of forces at sea and land-but a paper war. A lawyer, of the name of Cortabarria, employed by the Regency, took post in the island of Porto Rico, and fulminated the manifestoes of the Regency, with occasional pieces of his own, against Caraccas. Caraccas replied by the same kind of artillery. Cortabarria was seconded by the Marquis of Urijo, minister plenipotentiary of Ferdinand VII. at the court of Brazil, whose address to the Spanish inhabitants of South America, the lawyer was at great pains to cir-. culate, together with the manifestoes of the Regency, and his own reasonings and exhortations, throughout the provinces.

In

justification of their conduct, the Caraccas appealed to the laws of Spain. The Central Junta, they contended, had no right to appoint a regency without assembling the Cortes. Though on a great and alarming emergency the colonists, out of fraternal sentiments towards all Spaniards in Europe, had for a time shewn respect both to the Junta of Seville and the Supreme Central Junta, they did not recog

nize the legitimacy of those different administrations that had successively seized the sovereign authority, without the consent of the prince, and the acquiescence of the Spanish nation of both continents, Such an arbitrary government was illegitimate, null, vain, and contrary to all the principles recognized by the laws. The authority of the Central Junta, out of which the Regency of Cadiz sprang, was derived only from the tumultuary deliberations of a small number of the capitals of provinces, while the inhabitants of the New World had not any participation in the authority which of right belonged to them. The true interests of the king, and the general good of the nation, res quired a new representation of all the provinces both of Old Spain and those of America, which, as was admitted by the Regency, as well as the Central Juuta, formed an integral part of the monarchy. But in the orders respecting the election of members for completing the Central Junta, as well as those for the convocation, there was a culpable partiality in favour of the degenerate remains of the Spanish nation. What freedom of suffrage? what equality of representation was to be expected from the American Cabildos, destitute of public confidence, and whom the Spanish ministers sought always to oppress and reduce to the ignominious state of being merely their agents? To allow to all the inhabitants of the peninsula the right of nominating their representatives in the national Cortes; and to restrict the right of election with regard to the Americans to a simple and passive vote of the Juntas,

the influence of turbulent and ambitious individuals, blind-folded by those political maxims and doctrines, which in the end converted those who propagated them in France, into the slaves of the tyrant Napoleon. Those unexpected proceedings filled the minds of the Spaniards, who had to the present moment struggled, with hearts of bronze, to preserve the liberty and happiness of the whole Spanish race and name, with the greatest grief and alarm, that it had become necessary to draw the bonds that united them all more closely than ever. Spain, heroic, though unfortunate, had her eye fixed on her happy provinces beyond the seas; and the government on whom the common care of all had devolved, hoped that the Spanish inhabitants of that hemisphere would regard so abominable an example with detestation and abhorrence, quash and confound it with their own hands, and obliterate all remembrance of it. The government of Spain, in all its branches, exercising authority in the name of the king, would exert all their power for maintaining a respect for the laws, good order, and justice, and preserving that union, concord, and fidelity, which had subsisted for so many ages. It had been said by the agitators in the colonies, that Spain was not free, but under the dominion of strangers. Never had the holy war in the peninsula been more alive or more extended than at the present moment. The national resentment, hatred, and vengeance had never been more envenomed than since the time of the enemy's irruption into Anda. Jusia, The earth seemed to pro

duce patriots in arms. The Spanish soldiers had become veterans from the reverses they had suffered, from experience, and from the new discipline that had been prescribed by necessity. And what was the force that had preserved Spain, and still preserved it, amidst a war so terrible, a contest so unequal? The unity of the sovereign power generally acknowledged, and a concert of individual wills in defence of so just a cause-the hopes of the tyrant to establish his domination in the peninsula rested solely on that of disuniting the integrant parts. It was union that he dreaded in Spain: it was union that he aimed to destroy in America. Who, in the Indies, could doubt the legitimate authority and existence of the government representing Ferdinand VII. which was not only obeyed in Spain, but acknowledged by the King of Great Britain, the King of the two Sicilies, the Prince Regent of Portugal, the Ottoman Porte, the Emperor of Morocco, and the other powers of Barbary. Yet a band of turbulent demagogues, under the pretence that there was not any common centre of government in Spain, had proclaimed their independence; thus breaking the eternal bands that had united Spaniards in every part of the world. As to their offer of fraternity, it was intended thereby only to render their designs less detestable. He whom Europe calls the tyrant of the continent shall never be the tyrant of America, unless you open the door to his perverse de. signs by dissolving our union. But what will it signify, that your happy country escapes the fury of his arms, if it be not equally guarded against his arts and machinations? Be assured that what he cannot obtain he will endear vour to destroy; and that what he cannot effect by force, he will seek to accomplish by means of an alliance. That pestilent disturber of nations shall never exercise any power at sea while England exists. This ally and friend will protect the Spanish flag in all parts of the world, at sea and at land, provided that we are united among ourselves. The complete union and integrity of the Spanish monarchy is not of more importance to that power than it is to us. The province that should wish to separate itself from this great body, would be the enemy of all, and by all abandoned. Its own strength and resources would be consumed, and its hopes annihilated. The Regency, with pater nal solicitude, invites you to unite more firmly than ever with the mother country. Connected as we are by blood, religion, and a political system, it is the interest of both to add to these ties a national representation in the Cortes for the purpose of consolidating the common safety and prosperity of the whole."

Such were the pretensions, views, and arguments of both sides on this momentous question. The inhabitants of Spanish America were also, in a proclamation issued at Madrid, March 22, 1810, addressed by King Jo-' seph. He called them his dear subjects, and invited them to sub. mit, and partake in the blessings of his just and paternal government. But if they should not have a mind to do this, he coun

selled them to have nothing to do with the rebellious and perfidious Junta, who, as well as the English, had nothing in view but to deceive and plunder them; and declare themselves free, and independent of all nations in the world.

Joseph also sent emissaries for the promotion of his interests, by intrigue, into the Spanish provinces through North America. The Council of Regency, aware of these machinations, sent orders to the public authorities in Spanish America, not to admit any one from the North American frontier, without the most satisfactory passport. A gentleman arrived from the Havannah at Liverpool, August 1, writes to his friend in London as follows: "In coming round the Moro, we saw ten thousand people surrounding a gallows, on which was suspended one of Joseph Buonaparte's emissaries to Mexico, Don M. R. Aleman y Pena, a young man of twenty years of age, belonging to one of the first families in Mexico, who was returning from college in Spain. He had accepted of four or five hundred blank commissions from Joseph for governors, generals, admirals, and other officebearers, to be filled up at pleasure."

In most of the provinces juntas were formed by the leaders of the people for carrying on the government, according to the views taken by the respective districts of their relations to the mother country. In all the authority of Ferdinand VII. was recognized; but not in all of these, that of the Regency of Cadiz, or, in other words, Ferdinand, represented by that counQ3 cil.