FREE TRADE. 



69 



that, with the worst form of government likely to 

 be established, these resources will be less pro- 

 ductive than heretofore. The desire to enjoy the 

 luxuries and comforts, now, for the first time, 

 placed within reach of the inhabitants, is proba- 

 bly the feeling most generally diffused amongst 

 them, and would be the least easily controlled, or 

 taken away. Perhaps the wish for independence 

 is, at this moment, a stronger emotion, but it is 

 not yet so extensively felt as the other : to the 

 great mass of the people, these abstract political 

 ideas, standing alone, are quite unintelligible ; 

 but, when associated with the practical advan- 

 tages we have been speaking of, they acquire a 

 distinctness unattainable by other means. Had 

 the Spaniards, some years ago, been judicious 

 enough to concede a free commerce to the colo- 

 nies, there can be little doubt, that, although they 

 would, by that means, have involuntarily sown 

 the seeds of future political freedom, by giving 

 the inhabitants a foretaste of its enjoyments, they 

 might have put off what they considered the evil 

 day, to a much later period : and the cry for In- 

 dependence, now so loud and irresistible, might. 



