J821.1 



Recent letter from Buenos Ayres. 



sion of this part at least of South 

 America, may be said to have been 

 uuiuterrupted,; its patient endurance 

 scarcely a! loved even by the whispers 

 of coaipJaint ; its loyal, plundered, aud 

 contented people, were models on 

 ■which autocracy might mould its fa- 

 vourite subjects. 



Some of them, from territorial grants 

 obtained by the favour of rulers, a few 

 perhaps, froiu t!ie effects of indus- 

 try, a rare virtue hcie, as among all 

 people so governed, had acquired 

 wealth; aud among the families of such 

 were distiibuted the secondary offices 

 of the church, commissions in the 

 provincial corps, and such otlier public 

 employments as from file little rank 

 and emolument couferred by their pos- 

 session, were not ut3Jects of particular 

 desire to the European adventurers: 

 while the remaining members of these 

 families, not so provided for, embraced 

 the profession of the law, a field as 

 productive iu this country as in Eu- 

 rope, in the harvest of chicane. 



These families had for some time 

 cast looks of desire, at the more lucra- 

 t'we and potential offices engrossed by 

 the native Spaniards among them, 

 when the catastrophe of Spain afforded 

 an opportunity, or imposed a necessity, 

 cf drawing asunder the loose knot, 

 which long had rather sreraed to bind 

 than really bou:id, the countries to 

 each other, and thus of possessing (hem- 

 >el res at once and almost without a 

 struggle, of the objects of their desire. 



'J"o the secuiity of possession inde- 

 pendance was necessary, and its de- 

 claration was not uninfluenced also by 

 an honest desire of bettering the con- 

 -<lition of the country ; but flie benight- 

 ed intellect towaids wliicli the light of 

 knowledge liad not been suffered to 

 radiate, unable to strike at once into 

 tlie new and easy road of good institu- 

 tions, has 'wandered blindly and de- 

 viously among tiie dirty paths long 

 trodden by sordid predecessors, while 

 selfish appetite for power and emolu- 

 ment has been engaged in perpetual 

 struggles for personal ascendancy, and, 

 more unhappily still, tlie contracted 

 ambition aud circumscribed views, 

 common to ignorant minds, have 

 led the influential j)eop]e of Buenos 

 Ayres, accustomed to consider their 

 city tlie seat and centre of the vice- 

 royalty, to assume tlie posture of su- 

 periority, and attempt to impose its 

 own views of government upon the 

 other provinces. Hence the numerous 

 changes of government, or revolutions, 

 Monthly Mau. No. J50. 



17 



wliich have disgraced this city ; hence 

 tlie dissentions and civil wars which 

 have desolated and are desolating it 

 aud the provinces ; Isence fbe occupa- 

 tion of tbe iianda Oriental (of which 

 Monte Video is the capital) by the 

 Portuguese, the consequence of one of 

 these civil wars ; hence the rapid de- 

 moralization of the people, another 

 consequence of these civil wars. To 

 the ignorance aud barbarism inflicted 

 by Spain during her long exercise of 

 power here, are therefore to be attri- 

 buted all the present evils of this un- 

 ha}»py country, all the evils she has 

 yet to struggle through in her progress 

 to the attainment of rational govern- 

 ment. 



Can any friend to mankind wish 

 her recommitted to such a master? 

 It were only to deprive her of all the 

 benefits of a dear bought experience, 

 from which she is growing every day 

 the wiser, and by the aid of which she 

 will find her way, but not without some 

 further struggles, to peace aud happi- 

 ness. 



The contest for powei, or for opi- 

 nion, which, after this country had 

 determined to govern itself, produced 

 for a long time, in this city, a rapid 

 succession of ephemeral rulers, some 

 times single, sometimes triumvi- 

 rate, had subsided into a compara- 

 tive calm ; aud Pueyredon had un- 

 der the tide of supreme director, con- 

 ducted for about four years the affahs 

 of government, when in January last, 

 the detection of the plan, v/hich, in 

 conjunction with the leading members 

 of the congress, he had laid for import- 

 ing a prince of the Bourbon race, in tlie 

 wretched hope, it would appear, that 

 I)csi<lcs the personal advantages to be 

 expected from his giatitude, a governor 

 in quality of king would so strengthen 

 the weakness of Buenos Ayres, or ex- 

 cite the respect of the refractory pro- 

 vinces, and their several rulers, as to 

 produce spontaneous union, or render 

 practicable the enforcement of submis- 

 sion to so august a head, produced a 

 popular commotion, which compelled 

 him to seek lefuge in Monte Video. 

 Another alternation of rulers followed, 

 and on my arrival here iu May, I found 

 Sarratea, the tenth in succession from 

 Pueyredon, officiating as governor. 

 A few days after, lie was in turn obliged 

 to fly, aud his place was for a few days 

 occupied by an obscure lawyer called 

 Ramus Mexia. 



But to go no further with uninterest- 

 ing details or general observalions, 1 

 C will 



