then the aid of England would be given to sever the colonies from their European connection, in order that they might form no part of French Spain, but remain purely Spanish, as a refuge for emigrants from old Spain, and a representative of the monarchy. Before this, Caraccas had risen. Lord Liverpool treated the mistake indulgently, ascribing it to erroneous impressions of the intentions and conduct of the home government, and inviting the people back to a dutiful and honorable place as "an integral part of the empire." This letter was written in June, 1810. It is impossible to say what might have been the destiny of these colonies, if the citizens at Madrid had not cut the traces of the royal carriages on that memorable evening of March, 1808, when the Bourbons of Spain were about to set forth for their American dominions, as the Braganzas of Portugal had done four months before. By the time Lord Liverpool's letter was received and published, Brazil was like another counBrazil. try from that which had been known by the name. Her ports were opened; her restrictions were removed; manufactures sprang up; newspapers circulated; and it seems as if a specimen of European civilization had been suddenly set down in the most conspicuous part of the South American continent. Something like this must have happened with the other provinces, if the Spanish royal family had arrived; but the people of Madrid had cut the traces, and hunted Godoy into a garret ; the family went into a shameful captivity at Bayonne, instead of crossing the Atlantic; and the Spanish provincials had to act according to their own discretion. They found this discretion a serious charge. The difficulty to know what to do was so great, that disunion was seen to be inevitable from the beginning. Their allegiance was asked for, in 1808, by Murat, as lieutenant-general, in the name of Charles IV.; and presently after, by the council of Ferdinand, established by him at Madrid, between his father's abdication, and his own departure for Bayonne; then by the juntas of Seville and Cadiz, appointed to carry on the affairs of the nation. The keen eye of Napoleon was also upon them. In July, 1808, a vessel arrived at the port of Caraccas, charged with letters and secret instructions for the governor, who had received Murat's agents with apparent cordiality. The French captain had his audience of the governor, and was pleased with his reception; but, in an hour after, an English captain - Captain Beaver, of the Acasta presented himself also for audience. He was sent away, and desired to return in two hours. He spent those two hours in addressing the people in the streets, finding them wholly ignorant of the state of the mother-country, and of what the French had CHAP. VIII.] PARTIES IN MEXICO. 111 been doing there. When he had told the story, the inhabitants paraded the streets, bearing the portrait of Ferdinand VII., which they installed in the government-house, surrounded by lights and an enthusiastic crowd for the whole night. The French captain fled for his life; and Beaver, hastening after him, captured him and his brig in the course of a few days. To the other provinces, Napoleon sent circulars and agents. The proclamations of King Joseph were torn in pieces, and the agents driven away; and some few were killed. In this and the next year, the provinces transmitted to Spain not less than ninety millions of dollars in support of the national cause. This was done by the enthusiasm of the people, who were thinking of national, and not personal, interests. It appears, however, that their rulers, and most of the officials and provincial aristocracy, were less decided in their aims and wishes. As long as they could be secure of the maintenance of the connection between the mother-country and the colonies, they preferred that their own royal family should remain on the throne; but, rather than run any risk of separation, they would have acknowledged King Joseph. As the French successes in Spain became more and more decided, the provincial rulers grew more open in their evidences of adhesion; and it is said that the viceroy of Mexico was the only official personage throughout the Spanish colonies who was not ready to transfer his allegiance to Joseph, when the news arrived of the occupation of Madrid by the French. Mexico. Mexico was the most flourishing of the Spanish colonies, and by far the least oppressed from home; yet the course of revolution began there. As soon as the people were officially appealed to for sympathy on behalf of their captive king, they raised their voices in one chorus of loyalty. It was clear that the Bonapartes had no chance with the inhabitants of Mexico. It was proposed to call together representatives of the people, and to establish a council or junta for the province, in imitation of that of the mother-country. The audiencia, or supreme court, appointed from Europe, objected to this, as a revolutionary proceeding, and arrested the governor in his bed, deposed him, and lodged him in the prisons of the Inquisition, because he appeared to favor the proposal. The creoles were irretrievably offended by this virtual sentence of exclusion from provincial office and influence; and at once the struggle became one between the European and the native citizens, and the question was which party should be held to represent the home government. The Europeans assumed that they did; and they set up a governor in the person of an archbishop from Spain. The creoles maintained that the liberal governor had been wrongfully deposed, and that the authority of the king had been out raged in his person. The juntas at home supported the European party, and showed no disposition to conciliate the creoles. The audiencia at Mexico was praised for what it had done, and authorized to administer the government. When there was talk at Cadiz of admitting a representation from the colonies, all citizens of a mixed race were excluded; and, in fact, no representatives found their way from Mexico to Cadiz at all. Some few, before resident at Cadiz, were chosen on the spot, and admitted; but it was a foolish and dangerous mockery. A certain degree of commercial freedom was granted, and then denied. Meantime, the insults of the Europeans in the province became intolerable; and, in 1809, a revolt was planned, which was obviated by timely arrests. In September, 1810, there was a rising against the Europeans, attended with much cruelty, throughout almost the whole province; but the city of Mexico was held against the insurgents by a new viceroy just arrived; and in November, and again in January, it was believed that the royal cause was made secure. It was not so, however. The conflict revived, as often as it seemed exhausted, for some years. When the Spanish constitution of 1812 was promulgated in the colonies, it seemed as if the Europeans were annihilated as a political party; and all offices were filled at once by natives; and the first outbreak of the freedom of the press terrified all who had ever been connected with the government. But, in 1814, Ferdinand abolished the constitution, on his return to Spain, and it was expected that the Europeans in Mexico would recover their spirits. It was too late for this. The viceroy wrote to his court that the desire for independence had become too strong to be met by any military policy. The name of the king was still used by the independents, but in no sense which could interfere with their resolution to govern themselves. The towns might, he said, be garrisoned with royalists; but the whole country was disposed in favor of the independence of Mexico. For his own part, he was willing to undertake the military occupation of the province, if authorized from home to proceed as against an enemy, even to the point of laying waste the country with fire and sword. If he was to do so, he must have troops and equipments. These were granted, to a sufficient extent to overpower the independents in military conflict. By the beginning of 1817, all but a few of their chiefs laid down their arms, accepted the pardon offered by government, and permitted that the fact should be proclaimed to the world, that Mexico was in an orderly state as a colony of Spain. It was owing to the hardness and imperiousness with which Spain demanded absolute submission from her provinces, even when at the lowest point of her fortunes, that she lost some of CHAP. VIII.] NEW GRENADA.— VENEZUELA. 113 at nada. them which were truly unwilling to be severed from their European connection, and had to part with others sooner than would have been necessary. The revolution in New Grenada became very complete at last; but it was by slow New GreAt first, it was a mere local rising degrees. Quito and intended to procure redress of the grievances caused by the old colonial government. For the greater part of six years, it was conducted and sustained chiefly by only one out of three divisions composing the viceroyalty. The audiencias of Panama and Quito could give little or no help; and the acts of the so-called congress of New Grenada expressed the will of Bogota alone. After the old colonial system, the liberal party disowned the authority of the juntas in Spain then the regencies then the Cortes then the sovereignty of Ferdinand and, at last, the connection with Spain altogether. Still, Spain allowed no alternative between complete independence and unqualified submission; and the people of New Grenada chose that of complete independence. They appointed an executive government composed of three persons; and the three were well known to be zealous republicans. The appointment took place at the beginning of 1815, after the famous Bolivar, then compelled to retire from Venezuela, had given the benefit of his generalship to New Grenada, and had been proclaimed captaingeneral of Venezuela and New Grenada. The appointment of Bolivar was opposed by the city of Carthagena. Bolivar block·· aded the city, and spent precious time before it, while a formidable Spanish force was approaching. As the Spaniards came on, the inhabitants sank deeper into faction; and before the summer of 1816, the rule of the mother-country was nearly reëstablished. It was rendered to all appearance secure by the surrender of the capital to the Spanish general in June; and the world was informed that New Grenada also was in an orderly state. The independents were not converted, however; only dispersed. They had no power in the cities, and no army in the fields; but their soldiery swarmed in the mountains, under the aspect of guerrilla bands; and there was a spirit of expectation, awake and watchful, abroad over the whole region, awaiting the hour of independence, which was sure to arrive. The two other great divisions, Venezuela and La Plata, were more interesting to Great Britain, during this struggle, than Mexico and New Grenada. She had vivid recollections of her late adventures to Buenos Ayres and Monte Video; and not only was Venezuela the country of Miranda, but the island of Curaçoa, very near the coast, and the neighboring district of British Guiana, gave England an immediate interest in the condition of the province. It was from Venezuela. La Plata. Curaçoa that Sir James Cockburn crossed to Caraccas to propitiate the people in favor of Ferdinand, and rouse them against the French in 1808; when his entry into the province was like a royal progress, and England was at the summit of popular favor. It was to the next governor of Curaçoa, Brigadier-General Ledyard, that Lord Liverpool addressed, in 1810, the letter before referred to as explaining the policy of the Perceval administration in regard to South America. It was at Curaçoa that Miranda landed towards the end of that year. It had been hoped that he might have been persuaded to stay in London. He was known as the great champion of independence, and the existing popular government at Caraccas thought it too soon to talk of independence. They had been busily engaged in improving the state of the province; they had abolished the capitation tax upon the Indians, made the slave-trade illegal, and removed all the worst imposts which affected agriculture and commerce. Miranda was pretty sure to precipitate matters, and prove a formidable rival in the good-will of the people; so he was to be detained in London as long as possible. He was aware of all this, and slipped away quietly; not so quietly, however, as to arrive without introductions. He brought letters to the governor of Curaçoa from the Duke of Cambridge and Mr. Vansittart. It was an English vessel which carried him to his own shore. Whether it was this close connection with England whose policy now was to preserve the colonies to the mothercountry that had changed Miranda's views, or that times had changed, and not he, the constitution he proposed was found, after all, not to be liberal enough; and he lost his popularity. Still, his arrival was a stimulus to decisive action; and on the 11th of July, 1811, the Declaration of Independence of Venezuela was published, according to a decree of the congress assembled at Caraccas. The constitution mainly resembled that of the United States, except that there were three executive chiefs instead of one, and that the Roman Catholic religion was established; provision being made that no foreigners should be permitted to reside in the country, unless they respected its established faith. It seems to have occurred to few or none of the parties concerned in these South American revolutions, to inquire whether the people were fit for self-government, or competent to settle how they would be governed. The old colonial rule was indefensible on every ground, and intolerable to the people. But it was a long step to take at once from that system to a constitution like that of the United States. Here were mixed races and severed factions, burning with jealousy, revenge, ambition, and every other evil passion; here was a total popular ignorance of |