the liberties which the Cubans had heretofore enjoyed.

Although the standard of Independence was raised across the Gulf of Mexico, and Cuba was invited to join in its defence, and although Mexico and Colombia prepared an expedition which should give liberty to the island, the inhabitants shut their eyes to the alluring prospects, and maintained an unwavering loyalty. They were repaid for their fidelity as tyrants are apt to reward such conduct. On the plea that disturbances in South America might require the exercise of arbitrary power by the governor of Cuba, in 1825, a royal order was issued, and it is still in full force, addressed to the Captain General, which after the usual preamble, proceeds as follows: "The king, our master, in order to keep in quietude his faithful inhabitants, confine within the proper limits such as would deviate from the path of honor, and punish such as, forgetting their duties, would dare commit excesses in opposition to our wise laws; and being desirous of preventing the embarrassments which, under extraordinary circumstances, might arise from a division in the command, and from the complicated authority and powers of the different officers of government, for the important end of maintaining in that island his sovereign authority and the public quiet: it has pleased his majesty, in cor.ormity with the advice of his council of ministers, to authorize your excellency, fully investing you with the whole extent of powers

WHICH BY THE ROYAL ORDINANCES ARE GRANTED TO THE GOVERNORS OF BESIEGED TOWNS. In consequence thereof, his majesty most amply and unrestrictedly authorizes your excellency not only to remove from that Island such persons, holding offices from Government or not, whatever their occupation, rank, class, or situation in life may be, whose residence there you may believe prejudicial, or whose public or private conduct may appear suspicious to you, but also to suspend the execution of whatever royal orders or general decrees in all the different branches of the administration, or in any part of them, as your excellency may think conducive to the royal service."

The sad effects of this royal order were not immediately felt. The island was at that time governed by General Vives, whose policy, during the whole of a long administration, was mild and conciliating; and he was so far from putting into execution the terrible authority with which he was endowed, as to act on his wise conviction, that it would be equally disadvantageous to Cuba and to Spain. This was,

however, merely the good fortune of the inhabitants; the fearful decree stood, in all its terrors, only waiting the presence of a despot to carry it out in its fullest force. Such an one was found in the person of Don Miguel Tacon, who, two years after the retirement of Vives, was appointed Captain General. This was in 1834. It should meanwhile be borne in mind, that during the several crises in Spain, from 1808 to 1837,-and they were seven in number,-we find the "always faithful island of Cuba" receiving and promptly obeying the decrees of the crown. Throughout all the disturbances, in every revolution or change of ministry, Cuba remained the same, always loyal, obedient, uncomplaining.

From the accession of Tacon may be dated a series of injuries, cruelties and oppressions, against the unfortunate island, unparalleled in the history of civilized communities. This man's administration has been frequently lauded by strangers, who regarded him in the light of a reformer of the social disorders which prevailed, at that time, to a frightful extent. Indeed, his coming was hailed with joy by the mass of proprietors, while every well-disposed person beheld with gratification his energies directed to prevent and punish robbery and assassination; to the destruction of dogs in the streets; the cleansing and macadamizing of the principal thoroughfares; the erection of markets, a prison, a theatre, &c., &c. But if Tacon exercised a strong and arbitrary will in carrying out these projects, he soon displayed the same qualities in oppressing persons of every class. The fact is, he was a tyrant. He possessed a jealous nature, was short-sighted and narrow-minded, and had an uncommon stubbornness of character. Never satiated with power, he found in the royal order of 1825 ample authority for every species of despotism. He knew that all they required of him at home was to extort as much money as possible from the inhabitants of the island for the rest, no questions would be asked. It was through his influence that the wealthy portion of the community was divested of the privileges conferred on them by the estatuto. He even deprived the old municipalities of Havana of the power of naming the under-commissaries of police. To sustain his absolute government by trampling on every institution, was a necessary consequncee of his first violent and unjustifiable act. In order to obtain credit in the management of the police, he displayed a despotic and even brutal activity in the mode of exacting, from the inferior officers, distributed in the several wards of the city,

the Spanish treasury. In the mean time the slave-trade is carried on as extensively as ever, and with greater cruelty. Spain will not abolish it. She is determined, in spite of treaties, to pour annually into Cuba a fierce black population which shall intimidate the Creoles from any attempt at freedom. This, and this only, is the secret of the unflinching prosecution of the slavetrade in the face of treaties, and contrary to the wishes of the Creole population. It has been said that the continuance of the traffic is owing to the enormous bribes to the Captain-General, of thirtytwo dollars for each slave, and that this is the only reason it is not abolished. It is ridiculous even to suppose that Spain, if she had no other object but to enrich an unscrupulous official, would run the risk of continually breaking her treaty with so powerful a nation as England, always on the alert if possible to enforce it.

But that no one may have a doubt of the ultimate object of Spain in constantly flooding Cuba with Africans, we translate the following from the Heraldo of Madrid:-"It is well for all to know, whether native or foreign, that the Island of Cuba can only be Spanish or African. When the day comes when the Spaniards should be found to abandon her, they will do so by bequeathing their sway to the blacks, just as a commander abandons a battery to the enemy after defending it as long as possible, but taking care, above everything, to spike the cannon, that the adversary shall not make use of them." While the Spanish organ in New-York, the Cronica, holds the following language:-"If, in consequence of the war, signs should be manifested that the hostile elements, now subdued by the interests of our common race, were to be let loose, Spain would arm her Africans, and would guide them as auxiliaries as long as it were in her power to do so, and would grant them full liberty as a reward for their aid, when she should perceive that these means were not sufficiently powerful to enable her longer to resist!"

It will be seen that Spain has not only deprived Cuba of all means of redress, but also that she openly avows a determination to hold her in chains by the most terrible of all menaces, that of encouraging a servile insurrection.

But to proceed: The press, under the most infamous and servile censorship, is a weapon wielded only against her rights. A petition, signed by more than two, is condemned as a seditious act. The corporations, as we have stated, have no longer a representative character, and they are under the immediate control of the

Captain-General, who appoints their members, and dictates at will their resolutions. The Board of Improvement has become a mere arm of the government, to sanction despotic acts, to support additional taxes, and to introduce mixed races into the population. All who have dared to oppose these measures are forced into obscurity, or persecuted, or expatriated.

The Creoles are excluded from the army, the judiciary, the treasury, and the customs, and from all influential or lucrative positions; private speculations and monopolies are favored and established with a view of taking from them their means of wealth; the poor in the country are compelled to serve in the precarious police, which is thus sustained; and fines are imposed, and forced aid for the repairing of the roads, according to the will of the officer in command, or the pliancy of the individual.

The twenty-five millions of taxes, after deducting what is embezzled by the officials, are employed in supporting an army of twenty thousand men, and likewise the entire navy of Spain, in the paying of a vast number of officers residing either on the island or at home; and in remittances for general purposes. In spite of the enormous tithe collected, it is only by subscriptions that the inhabitants can secure to themselves temples for their worship, or cemeteries for their dead; and for a baptism or a burial, or to obtain any of the consolations of religion, the care of which is indirectly under the all-absorbing military authority, a large additional sum must be paid. The military government has taken from the other political and administrative branches the control of education, in order to restrict, to limit, and to embarrass it. The tributary system has drained many sources of wealth. The flour monopoly has put down the cultivation of coffee; and the grazing of cattle has become a ruinous business from the tax on slaughtered animals.

Every inhabitant is compelled to ask for a license, and pay for the same, when he wants to go from the place of his residence. No citizen, however peaceful and respectable he may be, is allowed to walk through the city after ten o'clock in the evening, unless he carry with him a lanterm, and obtains leave successively of all the watchmen on his way, the infraction of which law is punished with immediate arrest, and a fine of eight dollars. He is not permitted to lodge any person in his house for a single night, be the same either native or foreigner, his friend or a member of his family, without giving information of the fact, under the penalty of a like punishment. He cannot remove his

residence from one house into another, without giving notice, previously, of his intention, to the authorities, under the penalty of a heavy fine. An order has been made which in effect prohibits parents from sending their children to the United States for purposes of education, and such as wish to do so are driven to the expedient of proving or feigning ill health in their children, in order to obtain passports for them."

This view of Cuban affairs is not derived from Cubans alone, nor from our own countrymen. English and French writers on the subject sustain it fully. A work on Cuba was published in London in 1849, by Mr. R. R. Madden (author of the well-known book on the Infirmities of Genius), whỏ held, by appointment from the British government, the office of Acting Commissioner of Arbitration, under the treaty relative to the slavetrade with Spain, during the years 1836, '7, 8 and 9, and who claimed to have closely investigated the condition of the island. Mr. Madden remarks: "The policy of Spain was renewed of considering every species of Cuban produce as a commodity of a distant region, that it was legitimate to burthen with oppressive taxes;" and then very forcibly depicts through several pages the "violence and rapacity of the governors of Cuba," and sums up the case very concisely as follows: The Spanish government regards this colony as its property. It thinks the smaller quantity of liberty it can give to Cuba, the greater quantity of money it can take from it." Mr. Robert Baird, an eminent Scotch barrister, who published two volumes in Edinburgh and London in 1850, on the West Indies and North America, records his testimony as follows: "The Governor or CaptainGeneral of Cuba, may be said to enjoy despotic power. The present Governor, Roncali, Count of Alcoy, since his arrival in the island, has constituted himself a supreme tribunal, having a complete jurisdiction of all cases! I had no opportunity of witnessing his Excellency's freaks in this so-called summary court of justice; but if half that I heard of it were true, it must have been a strange sight, in a civilized country, to see a comparatively illiterate soldier professing to decide of his own knowledge and judgment, and after a few minutes, questions involving intricate facts, disputed rights, and important principles. Indeed, it is said that the plaintiff, the person who first applies for Count Roncali's aid, has always the best chance.

For a confirmation of Mr. Baird's remarks, and the justice of his impressions,

by a French author, the reader is referred to an article entitled, L'Ile de Cuba, par F. Clavé, Revue des Deux Mondes, Juin, 1847.

If a true statement has been given of the situation of Cuban affairs, Cuba has a right to attempt her freedom. Taking what has been said for truth, a case is made out which would justify Cuba by the unanimous voice of mankind for the act of revolution. For it is a safe proposition to submit to the civilized world, that no nation shall oppress by any arbitrary or tyrannical despotism a dependent country or colony. Although the means of redress may not always be at hand, no one disputes the right of the oppressed to seek for or to use them.

But how do the inhabitants of Cuba regard their situation? Are they content to bear their chains? Have they no idea that they are oppressed and trampled on? If they are alive to all these grievances, why do they not raise the standard of independence, proclaim themselves a free people, and do as our thirteen colonies did in 1776? There is no doubt-it cannot, indeed, be questioned-that since 1836-7, a general feeling of disaffection, we may say of hatred, toward her oppressors, has pervaded the whole Creole population of Cuba. Mr. Madden, whom we have before quoted, remarks, "All the intelligence, education, worth, and influence of the white natives of the island (Creoles), have been enlisted against the government of Spain, and an intense desire for independence excited." He adds further, "It is needless for recent political writers of Cuba to deny the existence of a strong feeling of animosity to the mother country, and a longing desire for separation. From my own intimate knowledge of these facts I speak of their existence." Let it be borne in mind that this language is from an English official, who was four years a resident in Cuba, and who manifests strong jealousy of the United States. That the Creoles do not attempt revolution, is not so much from dread of the powerful army which is maintained in the island, as from their apprehensions of the colored population, and that Spain would make good her threat to arm the slaves against their masters. We doubt if such tremendous odds as the unfortunate Creole has to contemplate, in view of a revolutionary movement, would deter the Saxon from asserting and battling for his liberty. But the Cuban character is puerile and submissive compared with the hardy bravery which nerves the other race. that while they might risk life, property, everything, on a fair venture for In

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dependence, they shrink from encountering what seems to them an irresistible force. And perhaps, as they are situated, it is irresistible. Our ancestors had an immense country to fall back upon; they could retreat into impenetrable forests, or fill mountain passes, or take advantage of the enemy's ignorance of their geographical resources. They had no fears of the rising of a fierce black population, nearly double their own, in numbers, and incited to hostility by the mother country ready to furnish them with all the means of war. On the contrary, the Cuban inhabits an island which, although considerable in extent, is but little over fifty miles in mean breadth. Hemmed in by the sea, a terrible enemy within his gates, scores of soldiers ready to overrun his territory, to pillage, to ravage, and destroy, his situation is calculated to challenge our commiseration more than that of any other subject of oppression in the world. The very apparent hopelessness of his condition adds to his claims upon our sympathy.

We have given a brief abstract of the political history of Cuba, and presented the actual condition of the Creole population, without even a reference to any extraneous question. We have stated the case between Spain and Cuba just as we would one between Austria and Hungary. Thus far, a stranger unacquainted with geographical divisions, would not know but the island was situated in the Mediterranean instead of the Caribbean Sea, or lay at the entrance of St. George's Channel, instead of the mouth of the Mississippi.

We have seen that the position of the Creoles of Cuba is that of an oppressed and degraded race, fully sensible of their wrongs; that they now regard the power which oppresses them with detestation; that, notwithstanding their earnest desire to be free, they are kept under by the terrors of a servile insurrection, and the fear of relentless persecution. But do the Cubans despair altogether of liberty? Have they no hope from any quarter? or, if from any, from what quarter? There is no doubt that they look to the United States, and to the United States only, as their ultimate hope and salvation from the cruelties of Spain. American authority on this point may not be disinterested; it is more satisfactory to quote again from Mr. Madden, who strongly opposes the annexation of Cuba to the United States, while, at the same time, he avows very candidly that he did his utmost to prevail on England, in 1837 (the particular period before referred to, when the Cuban deputies were

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rejected), to guarantee the island from the intervention of any foreign power; and he adds, "if England could have been induced to do so, the white inhabitants were prepared to throw off the Spanish yoke." He remarks very naively, in a foot-note appended to this assertion, that he "pestered his superiors with his opinions on the subject in 1836-7-8-9, and he could say conscientiously that he had freed his mind in regard to it, if the star-spangled banner were floating to-morrow on the Moro Castle, or flaunting in the breeze at St. Jago de Cuba." Mr. Madden proceeds to observe that "the leading men of the Creole, or white Cuban people, had then (1837) little anxiety or fear as to the result of an effort for independence. liberal allotment of land in the island for the soldiers who might be disposed to join the independent party, it was expected, was a prospect which would suffice to gain over the army, nominally consisting of 20,000 men (Spaniards), in the island; but the actual number of native Spaniards did not exceed 16,000 men. The chief apprehension that was entertained was of the slaves, of their taking advantage of the revolution to get rid of all the whites, both Spanish and Creole. But the hope of obtaining any guarantee from England was not likely to be realized, and the terrible fear of a rising of the slave population, gaining ground the more as time was spent in deliberation, at length all thoughts of independence, were merged in consideration of interests that were thought of more immediate importance-those, namely, of life and property. Spain is indebted to these considerations, and to these alone, for the retention of the island of Cuba, ever since the period I have referred to." Mr. Madden continues, "It is not to England, now, that the white natives of Cuba look for aid or countenance in any future effort for independence. It is to America they now turn their eyes, and America takes good care to respond to the wishes that are secretly expressed in these regards." The writer, after partially exonerating the Government of the United States from any agency in the matter, goes on: "This feeling, I am sorry to say, had already begun to gain ground among the intelligent and educated class of Creole Cubans, in 1839, before I left the island. All the communications I have had with natives of Cuba, of the class I refer to, of late years in other countries, and in the present year particularly, would lead me to imagine that the desire to link the fortunes of Cuba and the United States is now very generally and strongly felt." Mr. Madden then proceeds to deprecate such an event