Throughout the other countries of Europe, there occurred this year little which we should think worthy of recording; such, at least, is the impression produced upon us by a perusal of the journals of the day, and as yet we have not had it in our power to consult more valuable authorities. It is long before the materials of the internal history of the continent become accessible even to those more immediately interested in its study. In Germany, however, there is no doubt that a considerable ferment of opinion continued to give some cause of alarm to the governments, although the particulars are cautiously kept back by those who have, or suppose themselves to have, an interest in their suppression. In Spain, a few attempts at in

surrection appear to have attested, in various parts of the kingdom, that dissatisfaction which the odious tyranny of the misguided Ferdinand continued to excite among his subjects; but of these the state of the Spanish press is such as to render it impossible for us to have any accurate knowledge.

In the European world, therefore, every thing was at peace; and, ex. cepting the continued convulsions in Spanish America, and a slight and transient renewal of our own hostilities with the Nepaulese in India, there remains no narrative of warfare to close the history of this year. The affairs of Spanish America form, perhaps, the most important subject of political consideration, on which we have as yet said little to our readers.

the sequel, been rendered lamentablý apparent, by the utter failure of several ill-devised expeditions, at once military and mercantile, which had been rashly fitted out by individuals of our nation, for the purpose of aiding the cause of those Americans who had disclaimed their allegiance to King Ferdinand. Even as yet, if we may judge from the paragraphs in the public prints, no inconsiderable portion of the same ignorance seems to prevail among us; and, upon the whole, we imagine our readers will have no objection to accompany us in somewhat of a more clear and full narrative of the whole dissentions of Spanish America, than we have as yet had it in our power to place before them.

Of the late and present convulsions of Spanish America, as of many other mighty convulsions, the proximate causes have been the least important. The main elements of the violence, whose eruption has caused such a scene of devastation, are to be sought for, not in any new or partial vexations, but rather in the settled displeasure which had been engendered in the bosoms of by far the greater part of the population of these regions, by the unwise, as well as the ungenerous tyranny to which the policy of Spain had subjected them, during a space of little less than three hundred years, commencing almost with the very period of the establishment of her authority within their bounds. On the first formation of a system of Spanish government in those immense districts, the importance of the countries thus united to the sceptre of Castile, was felt in fullness by those who bore it. From Mexico to Paraguay, inclusive, almost the whole of the regions wherein the Spanish language is now naturalised, were won to the crown of Spain not by public, but by private exertion. The European sovereign allowed the whole expences of the conquering ex

peditions to be defrayed by the individuals who personally embarked in them, along with others who staked their private capitals upon the success of their arms. To these persons, in return for the acquisitions which they might make to the crown of their prince, was offered, not only the feudal possession of the soil which they should conquer, but a full participation in all those political rights, which, in their native country, they had been accustomed to see conjoined with such possession. The regions which they might subdue were to form separate states, possessing, like those into which the Spanish peninsula itself is divided, separate and independent privileges, laws, and administration. In this administration, the principal share was to be continued for ever among the free Spaniards who should become settlers, and their free descendants. These men were not to be supposed to forfeit, either for themselves or their posterity, any part of the birthright of Spaniards, by conferring the most important services in their power upon the Spanish crown, They were to be in America, as their ancestors had been in Europe, the members of a nation possessing and claiming popular rights. Their blood was, in no respect, to be held debased because it was transplanted to a new soil, for the very purpose of enriching and strengthening the old one.

The unnecessary vagueness of common speech has, long since, confounded the common ideas of the origin and character of these Spanish possessions, with those entertained by us in regard to the colonies fixed by ourselves and others on the same continent. But, in truth, the Spanish provinces do not differ from those which once were English and French, in soil and productions, more than in the nature of their early history, and the character of their first settlers. While other

powers fixed colonies in America for purposes of mere commercial advantage, and by way of furnishing an outlet for redundant or discontented parts of their population, the Spaniards entering upon the career at an earlier period, and having to do with a very different species of territory, conducted themselves in a spirit of warlike adventure, aiming by the use of more heroic exertions, to acquire to themselves the possession of more splendid rewards. They proposed to themselves not the establishment of commercial colonies, but the founding of mighty kingdoms; and their pretensions, after they had conducted these adventures to a close, were uniformly crowned with the express approbation of their sovereigns at home. The Spanish monarchs, sensible of the grandeur of these acquisitions, added to their old style, the title of King, sometimes Emperor of the Indies. In all the Spanish sta tutes, the Transatlantic possessions are uniformly spoken of by the name of "Kingdoms." Nor are there want ing among these abundance of statutes, which have no other object but to secure to the settlers of the American states their full share in the internal administration of these states, and in the enacting of the laws requisite for their administration. The "Council of the Indies" was an establishment equal in splendour and authority to the "Council of Spain ;" by each of these great bodies, it was understood the affairs of the region committed to its care should be managed separately; by means of each, a direct communication should be equally preserved between the sovereign and his kingdoms. Abroad, the great offices, ecclesiastical, civil, and military, were to be as free to Creoles as to Spaniards. Successive laws for the securing of all these privileges in the Spanish Americans, may be traced

VOL. IX. PART I.

through the whole body of the Spanish jurisprudence. "Our laws," says a Spanish-American author," are indeed excellent; we want only one short additional law to command that they should be observed.”

Of all the abuses into which the government of Spain fell with regard to her Transatlantic dominions, the chief, in every respect, was that of governing these entirely, or almost entirely, by means of European deputies, who had no view in going to America, but that of amassing a fortune, which they might bring back to Europe. The fortunes which were thus sought after by them, were formed, in innumerable instances, at the expence of every principle of moral or political propriety; but the money, however it had been made, was almost always sufficient to gild over the offences of its possessor. It is not necessary to detail at length the oppressive and iniquitous system adopted in the corrupt courts of the later sovereigns of Spain; it is sufficient to mention, that almost every office in America had its price at Madrid, and that a few thousand dollars, or the favour of some court minion, was sufficient to renew from day to day the degrading spectacle, of the meanest and the most unworthy of mankind setting sail from Cadiz, to work their tyrannous will, for a few years, over the defenceless inhabitants of the Spanish Main. Bribery and corruption of every kind formed the mainsprings of an administration conducted by such agents as these. By degrees, al most every trace of the original privileges conferred on the conquerors of America were obliterated in the memory of their descendants. The European rulers of these regions strove on all occasions to represent the natives of every race as a degraded people, unworthy of the name and rights of freemen. To this pretended degrada

I