SPANISH COLONIAL SYSTEM. 



57 



and error ; and there were consequently few 

 Spaniards who did not look to the return of the 

 Royal army with great anxiety ; and still fewer 

 who placed any real confidence in San Martin, 

 or who took sufficient pains to conceal their dis- 

 like. This led afterwards to a series of despotic 

 measures on the part of the Protector, by which 

 nearly all the Spaniards were ruined, and eventu- 

 ally banished from the country. 



With respect to society, the most conspicuous 

 traits which the extraordinary nature of the times 

 developed, were a constant apprehension of fur- 

 ther change, and an engrossing selfishness ; feel- 

 ings, natural enough, perhaps, during the panic 

 which at first overspread the city ; but which, it 

 may be thought, ought to have subsided when the 

 immediate danger was gone, and a new and secure 

 system established. It was quite otherwise, how- 

 ever ; and the reason may be, that the Limenians, 

 long pampered by luxury and security, and now 

 for the first time fairly awakened to the real 

 miseries and dangers of life, could not all at once 

 acquire the faculty of balancing motives, or of 

 distinguishing what was useful and secure in 

 their new state, from what was ruinous or 

 degrading. In short, the circumstances to which 

 they had been suddenly brought were so totally 

 new, that, considering all things, their selfishness 

 and alarm were very excusable. As these feel- 

 ings were not confined to any one class, but per- 

 vaded the whole, social intercourse was at an end ; 

 and we took leave of Lima, for the second time, 

 without much regret. We had now seen it in all 

 the miseries of a siege, and again in all the dis- 

 traction and exultation of the first moments of a 

 revolution, before anything had settled into its 

 proper station, and before confidence had again 

 sprung up, in place of the universal distrust which 

 preceded the catastrophe. 



CHAPTER XXL 



SPANISH COLONIAL SYSTEM BEFORE THE 

 REVOLUTION. 



Exclusion of the Natives from Situations of Trust and 

 Profit. — Laws of the Indies. — Discouragement of Science, 

 Letters, Agriculture, and Commerce. — Rigorous Mea- 

 sures against Foreigners. — Suppression of Colleges and 

 Schools. — Oppressive Taxes and Imprisonments. 



The interest inspired by the present political 

 state of South America has thrown its former 

 condition somewhat into the shade. It will be 

 useful, however, now that we have witnessed one 

 of the last struggles for power made by the 

 Spaniards, to take a general view of the colonial 



! system, which the revolution has abolished ; 

 that it may be seen what the grievances really 

 were from which the inhabitants have been 

 relieved. Every writer who has treated of South 

 America furnishes numberless details of the 

 monstrous abuses which affected those countries : 

 but the following sketch is confined chiefly to a 

 general view of the most prominent features of 



j the old administration, illustrated by a few well- 

 authenticated anecdotes, selected not so much on 

 account of any peculiar point or interest in them- 

 selves, as from their serving to show the general 

 temper and spirit of the policy by which the 



government of Spain was actuated, in her admi- 

 nistration of the colonies. 



The Spanish American possessions were consi- 

 dered, in law, from the time of the conquest, as 

 integral parts of the monarchy, not as colonies of 

 the mother- country : they were held in fief by the 

 crown in virtue of a grant from the Pope ; and 

 their affairs were supposed to be regulated, not by 

 the government of Spain, but by the King, assisted 

 by a special board, named the Council of the 

 Indies. A separate code of laws also was es- 

 tablished expressly for them, called the laws of 

 the Indies. America then was nominally inde- 

 pendent of the Spanish nation : and upon this 

 principle the South Americans, after Ferdinand's 

 imprisonment by Buonaparte, claimed an equal 

 right with Spain to name juntas to regulate tiieir 

 affairs, in the absence of the king, their only legal 

 head. At a moment such as that alluded to, this 

 argument had some force and utility ; but of course, 

 South America was always virtually governed by 

 the ministers of Spain. 



The country was divided into viceroyalties, 

 captain-generalships, intendancies, and various 

 other subdivisions. Each separate government 

 was independent of the others, but all were im- 

 mediately under the king and the Council of the 

 Indies. 



Without going into minute details, it is sufficient 

 to state, that the principle on which the colonial 

 government rested was, that no single department 

 should be allowed to act without being checked by 

 some other : a principle weak and ruinous, as it 

 demonstrated a total want of confidence in the 

 executive officers ; and by virtually depriving 

 them of responsibility, yet still exacting obedience, 

 took away the highest and most effective motive 

 to the performance of their duty. The viceroy 

 was nominally controlled by a body called the 

 Audiencia, the members of which were European 

 Spaniards, who were not allowed to hold lands, 

 or to marry in the country. The Audiencia had 

 the privilege of remonstrating with the viceroy, 

 and of corresponding directly with the Council 

 of the Indies. But any beneficial effect which 

 this might have had in protecting the people 

 was counteracted by the inordinate power of the 

 viceroys, and their consequent means of influ- 

 encing the Audiencia, and every other subordi- 

 nate authority, civil, military, judicial, or ecclesi- 

 astical. 



In free states administered by a representative 

 body, and when men are allowed to act and think 

 for themselves, the legislative, executive, and 

 judicial branches of the constitution are easily 

 kept separate by the essential distinctions in their ! 

 nature. But in states absolutely governed, it in- 

 variably happens that these totally distinct function- 

 aries either clash or blend themselves with one 

 another, and mutually neutralise their respective 

 good effects. In order, as it was pretended, to 

 remedy the constant mischief arising out of this 

 practical inefficiency, the number of official autho- 

 rities in every department of the state was 

 multiplied beyond all example ; for every new- 

 office required afterwards a dozen others to watch 

 it. The original complexity of the machine was 

 thus daily augmented by the introduction of these 

 wheels within wheels, and its operative effect 

 became less and less. 



