World from the evils which the nature of its relations with the Old World was bringing upon it. The former saw their treasures buried in the unfathomable gulph of European corruption; they had to lament the blood of Americans mixed in strife with that of the Enemies of America, who sought the slavery of their Country; they penetrated, in spite of the vigilance of their Tyrants, even Spain itself, and saw nothing but disorder, corruption, factions, defeats, misfortunes, treasons, Armies dispersed, Provinces invaded, a hostile Army, and a Government weak and imbecile.

And what was the general conduct which the Agents of tyranny, sent to maintain at every hazard the infamous cause of their Constituents, observed towards the People of Venezuela? A single word was followed by proscription; a single speech led to the transportation of its author; and every attempt of the Americans to better their condition, was considered as a sufficient cause for their disgrace and ruin. Such a mistaken course of policy could only multiply disputes, increase the popular discontent, and prepare the combustibles which, by a single spark, must take fire and consume every vestige of their miserable condition. It appeared that Spain, though pillaged and necessitous, with her fate depending on the generosity of the Americans, and almost at the point of being erased from the catalogue of Nations, desired to carry herself back to the 16th and 17th centuries, endeavouring once more to conquer America, with arms more terrible than the bullet and the sword: every day was pregnant with some new proof of the fate that threatened us; placed in the dreadful predicament of either being sold to a Foreign Nation, or of groaning for ever under a new and irredeemable slavery, we waited only for the happy moment which should give impulse to our sentiments, and unite our endeavours to assert and maintain them.

In the midst of the general exasperation, we heard of the irruption of the French into the Andalusias, the dissolution of the Central Junta, and the abortive institution of another new Proteus Government under the name of a Regency. This Body announced itself with the most liberal ideas; and foreseeing the necessity of creating an interest in the Americans for their extraordinary Government, they endeavoured to strengthen the illusion by brilliant promises, futile theories of reform, and presages of what would be our condition under the hands of Viceroys and Ministers, and not of the Governors; at the very moment when these Agents were receiving the strictest orders to watch our conduct and our opinions, lest we might discover, through the flimsy eloquence which gilded this specious act of emancipation, the chains prepared for us,

At any former period this might have dazzled the Americans; but the Central Junta and that of Seville had now, to our reproach, succeeded too long in deceiving us with hyperbolical promises, which only served to excite our suspicion, unite our sentiments, and to induce us to a firm and invincible resolution to perish rather than any longer

remain the victims of cabal and perfidy. The day on which religion celebrates the solemn mysteries of the redemption of mankind, was the day which Providence marked out for the commencement of the political redemption of America. On the 19th April, Holy Thursday, fell the colossus of despotism in Venezuela, the empire of the Laws was proclaimed, and the Tyrants expelled, with a tranquillity and consistency which have filled the World with admiration,

Who would have supposed it possible for a People to have shown so much forbearance in the act of delivering themselves from their Oppressors and recovering their rights? Venezuela, faithful to her promises, only secured her own destiny, in order that she might fulfil them; and if on the one hand she expelled the Agents of her misery and slavery, on the other she placed the name of Ferdinand VII, in the front of her new Government; she swore to preserve his rights, promised to acknowledge the unity and political integrity of the Spanish Nation, opened her arms to her Brethren of Europe, offered them an asylum in their misfortunes and calamities, procured the generous Alliance of England, and was ready to share in the happiness or misery of the Nation, from which she has now found it necessary to separate for ever.

But this was not what the Regency had demanded of us. Whilst in their theory they had declared us free, in their practice they had restricted us to a small and insignificant Representation; believing that those to whom they thought nothing was due would content themselves with what their Masters chose to give to them. With this liberal calculation, the Regency sought to keep up our illusion, and to pay us in words and promises for our long servitude, and for the blood and treasure we had expended for Spain. We well knew how little we had to expect from the policy of Ferdinand's Proxies; we were not ignorant, that if we were not dependent on the Viceroys, Ministers, and Governors, still less could we be the Subjects of a captive King, without rights or authority, of a Government null and illegal, of a Nation incapable of maintaining its right to govern another, or of a Peninsular angle of Europe, occupied almost wholly by a Foreign Power; but wishing to gain our liberty by means of generosity and moderation, we acknowledged the imaginary rights of the Son of Maria Louisa; we respected the misfortunes of the Nation; and, imparting our resolution to the Regency, which we disavowed, we offered never to separate from Spain, provided she should establish a Legal Government, formed by the will of the Nation, and in which America should bear that share to which justice, necessity, and the political importance of her Territory entitled her.

If 300 years of former servitude had not been enough to authorize our emancipation, we had abundant cause for it in the conduct of a Government, which arrogated to itself the Sovereignty of a conquered Nation, which could not have the smallest claim to America; although it declared it to be an integral part thereof, and sought to include it in

the conquest. If the Governors of Spain had been paid by its Enemies. they could not have acted more injuriously towards the Spanish Nation, connected as it then was with America. With perfect contempt for our position and the justice of our claims, though they could not deny us an appearance of Representation, they subjected it to the influence of their Agents, to whom the election was entrusted; and although even to the Provinces occupied by the French, and to the Canary Islands, a Representative, elected freely by the People, was allowed for every 50,000 souls, in America 1,000,000 souls was scarcely thought enough to give the right to a Representative, named by the Viceroy or Captain-General, and under the Seal of the Council.

Relying upon the justice of our claims, and the moderation of our proceedings, we had hoped that, if the reasons we assigned to the Regency to justify the necessity of our resolution were not thought sufficient, they would, at least, respect the noble disposition which determined us not to become the Enemies of our oppressed and unfortunate Brethren: the new Government of Caracas wished not to confine this disposition to vain reasoning; and the unprejudiced World will acknowledge that Venezuela passed the interim, from the 19th of April, 1810, to the 5th of July, 1811, in a painful state of insults and hostile acts on the part of Spain, and of generosity, moderation, and patience on her own. This was the most interesting epoch in the history of our Revolution, inasmuch as its events furnish a contrast so favourable to our cause, that we must hope to gain the impartial judgment of those Nations who have no interest in discrediting our efforts.

Previous to the accomplishment of our political transformation, there daily fell into our hands new motives to urge the event. In every Ship which arrived from Spain there came out new Agents, furnished with fresh Instructions to support the cause of ambition and perfidy: at the same time, permission was denied to the Military and other Europeans to return to Spain, although they petitioned to join in the War against the French. Orders were issued on the 30th of April, 1810, under the pretence of expected War, which deprived the Americans of every privilege.

The Gazettes were filled with triumphs, victories, and acknowledgments, forced from those who were yet ignorant of our resolution; and under the severest threats a political Inquisition, with all its horrors, was established against those who held, received, or read any other writings, whether Spanish or otherwise, than those which immediately proceeded from the Regency: with the most scandalous injustice they declared void a Decree which encouraged our commerce and agriculture, and they proscribed the Authors and Promoters of it; at the same time they exacted Imposts from all classes, without giving the smallest account of their application; in contempt of public faith, they caused the whole correspondence of the Country to be opened,

without exception, an outrage proceeding from the despotism of Godoy, and committed only to render still more tyrannical their despicable system of espionage against America. In a word, they began to afford us a practical knowledge of the system they had adopted to perpetuate our slavery.

In the mean time Venezuela, become her own Mistress, thought not of imitating the detestable conduct of the Regency and their Agents; content with having secured her fate against the ambition of an intrusive and illegitimate Government, and with having placed herself out of the reach of their dark and complicated schemes, she endeavoured to prove her desire for peace, friendship and intercourse with her European Brethren, by her actions. Those who were already among us were treated as Brothers, and 2-thirds of the political, civil, and military Employments, either remained or were placed in the hands of Europeans, with a frankness and candour but too fatal to our interests; our coffers were generously opened to supply the luxury and extravagance of our Tyrants; the Commanders of their Ships were received in our Harbours, and aided in the execution of their respective Commissions; and the offences of one of them were even submitted to the judgment of the Spanish Government. The Governing Junta of Caracas assigned their reasons for not entrusting to the voracious hands of the Government, the public funds which might serve at a time of greater need to relieve the distresses of the Nation; but they appealed to the generosity and sympathy of the People, by publishing in their Gazettes the plaintive Manifesto of the Regency, in which the Nation was represented as in the last extremity. The Deputies of the Regency for Quito, Sta. Fé, and Peru, were hospitably received, treated as Friends, and their pecuniary wants satisfactorily supplied. But we waste too much time in analyzing the dark and suspicious conduct of our Enemies, all of whose efforts have been insufficient to destroy the triumphant influence of our own straightforward course.

The haughty Masters of our Territory were not the only ones who were authorized to support the detestable plot of their Constituents; the Agents of the Juntas and of the Regency inundated America, and, bound in a Machiavelian compact of political freemasonry, mutually aided and assisted each other in their combinations against the happiness and political existence of the New World. The Island of Porto Rico was soon made the den of the fiendish Agents of the Regency, the rendezvous of all their expeditions, the head quarters of all the antiAmerican Forces, the manufactory of all the impostures, calumnies and threats of the Regents, the refuge of the Infamous, and the harbour of a new company of Freebooters; that none of the calamities of the 16th might be wanting to the new conquest of America of the 19th century. The Americans of Porto Rico, overpowered by the bayonets, cannons, chains, and fetters which encompassed them, were compelled to add to [1812-14.]

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their own evils and misfortunes the painful necessity of contributing to ours. Such was the condition of the Americans, condemned, not only to be accessory to, but to assist in the destruction of each other.

The conduct which Spain observed towards America appears much more harsh and insulting, when it is compared with what it was in respect to France. It is notorious that that portion of the Country which resisted the new Dynasty had many decided Partisans among those who were distinguished for their rank, condition, and enlightened understanding; yet, notwithstanding, there was not one to be found among them, anxious as they were for the liberty, independence and regeneration of the Peninsula, who was disposed to excuse the conduct of the American Provinces, although the latter, actuated by the same principles of fidelity and national integrity, sought only to preserve themselves from a dependance on the illegitimate, imbecile, and turbulent Governments, formed alternately by the Agents of the King or Representatives of the Nation. An ostentatious liberality and a pretended patriotism, with respect to the exhausted, disorganized, and almost conquered Country of Spain, and parsimony, suspicion, prejudice and pride with regard to the noble, generous and faithful Americans, characterized the conduct of the Cortes. The treasons, intrigues, commotions and disturbances in the Revolutions of Spain, were passed over as unavoidable circumstances; but none of the Provinces which were contented to live under the French dominion, were treated like Venezuela: their conduct was scrutinized and judged according to the motives and circumstances which dictated it, and conformably to the Rules of War; but none of them have as yet been declared Traitors and Rebels, and for none of them has a Public Commission of Diplomatic Incendiaries been created, to arm Spaniard against Spaniard, to stir up Civil War, and to devote to destruction all who would not bow to the name of Ferdinand VII. America alone was condemned to undergo these unexampled persecutions.

It appears that the Independence of America awakened greater fury in Spain than the Foreign oppression which threatened it, for all their resources were employed against it: the turbulent and incendiary spirit of a Member of the Council of the Indies could not be more worthily employed than in the conquest of Venezuela, with the arms of the Alfingers and the Welsers, in the name of a King who had no title to the Throne upon which he was placed. Under his name all the flood. gates of iniquity were opened upon us, and all the horrors of conquest renewed; under his name we were treated with greater severity even than those who had abandoned it before us; and under his name they sought to continue the Spanish dominion in America, which was considered as a political phenomenon even in the days of the greatest enterprize and vigour of the Monarchy. Could any Law be made to bind us to the patient endurance of the mass of evils which those who called themselves his Representatives inflicted upon us in his name?