272 



CONSEQUENCE OF 



and which no hberal Spaniard that I have met 

 with attempted to deny ; feel I considerable re- 

 morse for using such ungracious terms, however 

 just, in speaking of a class of society, to very 

 many of whom I am indebted for much disinter- 

 ested kindness, and for whom I shall always re- 

 tain the sincerest esteem and regard. 



Persons removed, as in England, to a great 

 distance from the scene, are too apt to err on 

 the other side ; and to overlook, altogether, the 

 sufferings of men who, taken individually, deserve 

 no such hard fate as that which has lately befal- 

 len the Spaniards. We forget that whatever the 

 national injustice may have been with which the 

 colonies have been administered, the existing 

 Spanish members of the society in America came 

 honestly by their possessions and privileges. We 

 make no allowance for their personal worth and 

 claims, but see without regret the property right- 

 fully possessed by a whole class of deserving per- 

 sons, rudely transferred to other hands ; who take 

 advantage of the times, to seize on it under the 

 pretence of an abstract right. Sometimes too in 

 no very charitable spirit, we permit ourselves to 



