EDUCATION CURBED. 



V.) 



breathes.' In a few hours this victim of Spanish 

 barbarity died*." 



Sometimes the intruders were sent to Spain, 

 after being long confined in the colonial prisons, 

 and from thence were remitted to Ceuta, in Africa, 

 after which they were seldom heard of more. 

 Sometimes they were sent as convicts to Malaga, 

 and other Spanish ports, where they were forced 

 to work in chains. By these and other means, the 

 spirit of the laws of the Indies was most rigorously 

 enforced, and it required an extraordinary combi- 

 nation of favourable circumstances, and the stimu- 

 lus of the most powerful motives of interest and 

 patriotism, to free the country from their baneful 

 influence. 



It may naturally be asked, what possible motive 

 could give birth and permanence to so unwise and 

 so wicked a system as this ? It was no other, than 

 that Spain alone, and her sons, should derive the 

 whole wealth of the country, without allowing to 

 the Americans themselves the smallest partici- 

 pation, or even the slightest hope of ever partici- 

 pating, in those riches. 



That evil must spring out of principles and 

 practices so repugnant to the laws of our nature, 

 might have been anticipated. The reaction, 

 indeed, which we have witnessed upon Spain her- 

 self, was inevitable ; and in the decay and final 

 ruin of the mother-country we distinctly recog- 

 nise a severe but merited retribution for the 

 injuries cast upon the colonies. The enormous 

 colonial patronage which the court possessed 

 completely crushed the liberties of the mother 

 country ; — the ill-gotten money which came to it 

 from America, not being the produce of Spanish 

 industry, passed off to other countries, without 

 leaving a trace of national wealth behind, — and 

 the restricted commerce which was intended to 

 benefit the Peninsula alone, destroyed her credit, 

 ruined her manufactures, and finally lost her the 

 market of the colonies. 



To accomplish the base, selfish, and short-sighted 

 purpose alluded to, the clumsy device of degrading 

 the whole population of South America was the 

 only one which suggested itself to the cupidity of 

 the Spaniards. And to ensure the permanence 

 of a system so liable to revulsion, the whole country 

 was covered with active and experienced agents, 

 deeply interested in the maintenance of the same 

 order of things. Humboldt has ascertained, that 

 there were no less than three hundred thousand 

 Old Spaniards in the colonies. Every art also was 

 used to prevent the increase of population, by 

 collecting the people together in towns, where, 

 besides being more easily controlled by by the mili- 

 tary, they were prevented from forming establish- 

 ments, and augmenting their wealth ; as they 

 unquestionably would have done, had they been 

 allowed to spread themselves over this fertile 

 country, wherever their tastes or interests should 

 direct them. Agriculture, indeed, was not allowed 

 to extend itself ; and even so late as 1 803, when 

 Humboldt was in Mexico, orders were received 

 from Spain to root up all the vines in the northern 

 provinces, because the Cadiz merchants complained 

 of a diminution in the consumption of Spanish 

 wines. I was informed at Tepic of a measure 



* Robinson's Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution, vol. I. 

 page 313. 



precisely similar having been a few years befbi e 

 actually carried into effect in New Oalieia, in the 

 case of some extensive and flourishing tobacco- 

 plantations. The Americans were prevented, under 

 severe penalties, from raising flax, hemp, or saffron. 

 The culture of the grape and olive was forbidden, 

 as Spain was understood to supply the colonies 

 with wine and oil. At Buenos Ayres, indeed, they 

 were allowed to cultivate grapes and olives, but 

 by special permission, and only in sufficient quan- 

 tity for the table. 



Precisely in the same spirit, colleges were not 

 allowed to be founded, though permission was 

 earnestly applied for by the inhabitants ; and, in 

 many instances, even schools were prohibited. A 

 well-known Spanish minister observed, that a 

 knowledge of reading and writing was quite enough 

 for an American ; and King Charles the Fourth 

 said, he did not think it proper that information 

 should become general in America. 



In the manifesto published by the constitutional 

 congress of Buenos Ayres, in October 1816, these 

 grievances are forcibly drawn. " It was forbid- 

 den," they state, " to teach the liberal sciences ; 

 we were only permitted to learn the Latin gram- 

 mar, the philosophy of the schools, and civil and \ 

 ecclesiastical jurisprudence. The viceroy, Don 

 Joaquim Pino, gave much offence by permitting a 

 nautical school at Buenos Ayres, and in compli- 

 ance with a mandate of the court it was shut ; 

 while at the same time it was strictly prohibited 

 to send our youth to Paris for the purpose of 

 studying the science of chemistry, in order to 

 teach it on their return. " 



The change in this respect brought about by 

 the revolution, is one of the most remarkable 

 cjreumstances which have attended that great 

 event. Schools have been established in all parts 

 of the country, where the actual presence of the 

 war has not rendered it impossible : and the thirst 

 for knowledge and instruction, formerly described 

 as having no existence, has proved to be quite 

 universal. The following extract from a Mexican 

 newspaper is interesting on more accounts than 

 one : — 



tl ADVERTISEMENT. 

 " LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL. 



" The managers have the satisfaction to inform 

 the subscribers of the said school, that the place 

 appointed for its commencement is one of the 

 halls of the abolished (extinguida) Inquisition, 

 which is now under preparation as a school-room. 

 It is therefore necessary that the subscribers 

 present their children, or those whom they think 

 fit to recommend, to Don Andres Gonzalo Millan, 

 master of the first class, (the director named by 

 the patrons of the school,) who lives in No. 2, 

 Manrique Street, in order that they may be duly 

 classed, and informed of the day of meeting. 



" The subscribers will send, in a similar view, 

 the children of poor people also, who wish to be 

 admitted ; giving to each child a ticket to certify 

 his being entitled to admission. If, in eight days 

 from the publication of this notice, the full number 

 of children have not been presented by the sub- 

 scribers, the managers will fill up the vacancies 

 at their own discretion. 



" Mexico, Wednesday the 20th March, 1822.' 



