595 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



their mother country. The Cata- 

 lans and Biscayans form the great- 

 est body of emigrants. 



Few Creoles visit Europe, 

 against which both distance 

 and prejudice operate ; and they 

 acquire little more than a local 

 education, which some, however, 

 accomplish by the energy of their 

 own minds. The attachment that 

 might arise from schooling her co- 

 lonial youth in the mother coun- 

 try, Spain seems to have consi- 

 dered as undeserving her notice ; 

 but the French thought it of ma- 

 terial consequence. They sup- 

 pressed all colleges abroad, in or- 

 der to monopolize the education 

 of male and female cliildren in 

 Europe, that they might there 

 form connections ; and civil and 

 military promotions were to be 

 obtained tiiere only. This created 

 alliances and connections which 

 lasted through life, and contri- 

 buted to a union of interests. 

 Even the spurious descendants 

 of planters in St. Domingo re- 

 ceived this mode of education. 



The traveller through Spain and 

 Portugal, has at all times been asto- 

 nishedat the superabundant quan- 

 tity of friars and clergy that are 

 met with, and has considered 

 them the greatest tax possible 

 upon the working poor communi- 

 ties, from whom they derive their 

 principal support. This remark 

 holds equally good on South Ame- 

 rica; for the numbers seem to vie 

 with those of the mother country, 

 so much so, that the higher ranks 

 are filled with little else than 

 friars, seculars, nuns, lawyers, and 

 nominal officers ; and it is the 

 best criterion of the size and con- 

 sequence of a town, to sum up 



the quantity of convents it has 

 within its precincts. The clergy- 

 man, who assists at the dying mo- 

 ments of the sick, and the notary 

 called to draw up his last wishes, 

 equally remind him of the church; 

 and if he be considered rich, not 

 to leave a legacy or prebend, were 

 an act of irreligion that would 

 shock the good pastorandhis flock, 

 so that if this practice continues 

 in successive ages, they will ex- 

 clusively become the principal 

 owners of property in the country, 

 and are, indeed, amongst the first 

 now. 



The Creoles are particularly at- 

 tached to their own country, which 

 they think the best of any in the 

 world, from its having been in 

 every war a point of attack to 

 England ; the great object of 

 French intrigue, the subject of 

 envy and enterprize to their free 

 neighbours on the north, and, in 

 short, a bone of contention for 

 them all. When they contrast it 

 with European Spain, they see 

 nothing but poor adventurers, who 

 came amongst tliera with a view 

 to get riches, by filling the most 

 menial offices ; and as ease and 

 affluence are their chief good, 

 they judge of all by the species 

 that come amongst them. They 

 feel pride and consequence from 

 being born iu a new hemisphere, 

 and conceive that to Creolism is 

 attached a degree of dignity and 

 honour. It will not, therefore, 

 appear singular, that a nation 

 which has no emigrations, but re- 

 ceives those from her mother 

 country, is drained by no wars, 

 and is blessed with a genial cli- 

 mate and prolific people, should 

 have risen, from the time of its 



