COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. 



305 



ly to what each prisoner had to say, and at once 

 ordered a great number to be liberated, who had 

 been wantonly placed there, without any sufficient 

 charge, — directed proper provisions in future to 

 be supplied to those who remained, — and appoint- 

 ed a commission, who were ordered to hear and 

 determine the whole of the cases within the space 

 of twenty days, though many of them had been 

 standing over for several years. The most admi- 

 rable regulations were afterwards established re- 

 specting the prison^ of Lima.* 

 ^ The commercial system was in strict character 

 fwith all the rest of this extraordinary mass of mis- 

 government. The old principle, that the colonies 

 existed only for the benefit of the mother country, 

 was acted up to completely. The sole objects 

 thought of were to gather wealth into the hands 

 of Spaniards, by abstracting the riches of South 

 America ; and to take care that the Americans 

 neither supplied themselves with any article which 



* The article entitled Sobre Carceles/' in the Biblio- 

 teca Americana, is well worthy of the attention of any 

 person interested in these subjects. 



VOL. I. U 



