cabildo. The king in his council of the Indies, is absolute as respects America; that is, he unites in himself the three great branches of government. The viceroy, so far as he is not directly controlled by the council of the Indies, possesses a similar power over all departments below him. The audiencia is the supreme court of judicature, and the council of the viceroy; while the cabildo is absolute with respect to those things under its control; and yet acts in obedience to the viceroy, when he thinks proper to interfere. From these elements, some idea may be formed of the kind of governments established on the expulsion of the Spanish authorities. It is natural to expect, that the new establishment must partake more or less of the character of the old. To visionary theorists, it may appear an easy matter for a people to shake off their old habits, and to unlearn at once; but experience and good sense, forbid us to form any such expectations.* Heretofore in Spanish America, no specific rights of the citizen were exactly defined

* I have heard it expressed by persons of some pretensions, that nothing is necessary but the introduction into any country, of the forms of free government, and that the people will at once be free as a matter of course. This is a great mistake. A people must be educated and prepared for freedom. It is true that despotic forms will soon extinguish the flame of liberty; but the opposite kind of government, such as we enjoy, would be useless and inoperative among a slavish ignorant people. All that can be expected is to give them the best that circumstances will allow, and set to work to prepare them for a better by education and the diffusion of knowledge. The progress of the South Americans is more rapid than their most sanguine friends had any right to expect; that they should at once establish a government such as ours, surely ought not to be required.

or acknowledged; and where the law is uncertain and vague, there can be no security for person or property, however circumstances and situations, may for a time afford a kind of freedom from oppression.

The colonial government had been gradually acquiring a singular complexity by the addition of a great number of offices to each of the principal departments. The greater part of these offices, were sold at fixed prices, and formed no inconsiderable item in the royal revenue. Every new office that was created, required afterwards a dozen others to watch over it; the miserable refuge of a government that is conscious of the worthlessness of all its agents, and which sees that its greedy and insatiable exactions, justifies the endeavours of all to defraud. In those departments connected with the royal revenue, this complexity is chiefly remarkable. In the customs, and in the mine districts, there are checks upon checks without end. But they generally seem to combine in one object, that of plundering both the king and his American subjects. So certainly did any kind of office lead to fortune, that they were often solicited without salary, and many passed to the colonies merely as expectants; about every office there were at least half a dozen of these hungry creatures, watching for the death or resignation of the incumbent.

The ecclesiastical hierarchy formed a part of the colonial government, and contributed perhaps more to the support of the royal authority than even the military force. Spanish America, exhibits a singular exception to the authority exercised by the popes over the catholic church throughout the world. Pope

Alexander VI. by his bull of 1501, transferred to the kings of Spain all jurisdiction which he and his successors might have claimed, over the churches to be established in the new world. The king of Spain became the head of the church in America, almost as completely as Henry VIII. of the church of England. The nomination of all bishops, and to other benefices of the church of America, is therefore a royal prerogative, although they are presented to the pope for his sanction. But his holiness, can hold no communication with the church in America, excepting through the council of the Indies. All briefs, bulls, and dispensations must be sent to Spain, and be sanctioned by the king before they can reach America. The tythes, the ecclesiastical first fruits, and the profits of vacant benefices, belong to the crown in consequence of this concession. The popes have in vain endeavoured to get back the extensive authority they had thus parted with; but it has been found of too much importance in a political point of view ever to be restored. An attempt was even made by one of the kings of Spain to establish a patriarch in America, so as to be entirely independent of the church of Rome. "The Spanish policy has reduced the political authority for the purpose of increasing that of the king, which has become in the Spanish Indies the centre of power; and the source of every favor, of every employ, either civil or ecclesiastical. The consequence is, that whatever profession a Spaniard embraces in America, his hopes are always dependent on the king. From the lowest officer to the viceroy, from the door-keeper to the chiefs of justice, from the meanest notary of the administration to the intendant, from the porter of a

cathedral to a bishop, all are nominated by the king. In the distribution of this infinity of employs, of dignities and honors, consists the grand bulwark of the royal power in America."

The catholic church in America was placed in a singular situation by the revolution. It became a question whether the pope should be regarded as the head of the church, or whether the local authorities should exercise the same jurisdiction as was possessed by the king. The bishop of Quito assumed the pontificial authority at once, and when the pope fulminated his excommunication against the insurgents, the bishop gave them a dispensation. At Buenos Ayres, after a great deal written, pro. and con. the following question was put by the junta, to several of the most distinguished ecclesiastics: whether the right of presentation (real patronata) appertains to the king personally, or as an incident of the sovereignty which he exercises? Another question was proposed, properly a corollary of the foregoing, whether the junta had any right to interfere in ecclesiastical affairs? The learned clergy gave their opinions at large, founded upon much curious reasoning, and, as might have been expected, in conformity to the wishes of the junta. The government of Buenos Ayres is therefore the head of the church, which has been made use of with considerable success, in propagating republican doctrines amongst a people, always accustomed to pay the greatest defference to the instructions of their priests. The American clergy engage in this work heartily and sincerely; not so with the higher dignitaries of the church, who are, however, sufficiently compliant in favor of the party

which happens to be uppermost. The congress of 1815 passed a resolution requiring the director to send an envoy to the pope, for the purpose of regulating their spiritual affairs; one was actually sent, but his holiness ha espoused the cause of Spain, and fulminated an excommunication against the patriots. This thunderbolt, once so terrible, was perfectly harmless at Buenos Ayres, being carried off by the lightning rod of the revolution. The only effect it had was to put a stop to the sale of bulls and dispensations, so injurious to public morals, and so gross an imposition upon the common sense of the people. Yet so slowly do men give up old fixed habits, that it was thought necessary during lent, to put a general notice on the door of the cathedral, that all persons who thought proper might eat beef, which could only be done before, with a safe conscience, by a special dispensation procured at the expense of six or eight rials. I read this notice myself. Beef is the common food, and the poorer classes would find it difficult to subsist without it; hence a considerable revenue was formerly raised from this sale of bulls. I am not to be understood to convey an idea, that the people are not, when viewed with the eyes of a citizen of the United States, superstitious; they are only somewhat less superstitious than formerly. It is however a singular fact, that the catholic church in South America is more independent of the pope than even that of the United States or Ireland: and it appears to me, that the inevitable consequence of the independence of South America, will be its independence of the papal hierrachy.

The subject of the royal revenues is one of the most