PERSONAL OBSERVATION. 



derive a kind of ungenerous satisfaction, when we 

 think of the mortification and sorrow with which 

 the ruined Spaniards have been thus rudely ex- 

 pelled from America, — as if it were just, sudden- 

 ly to visit the accumulated errors of three cen- 

 turies, on the heads of the last, and perhaps the 

 least offending generation. 



A personal acquaintance, as I have said, with 

 a few of the suffering individuals, softens down 

 these illiberal sentiments, in a wonderful degree ; 

 and begets a more considerate and charitable way 

 of thinking. This kindly feeling towards the 

 members of the sinking party, which in no degree 

 blinds the judgment to the true merits of the great 

 question of Independence, is perhaps the chief 

 satisfaction, though it be a very melancholy one, 

 which results from seeing things with one^^s own 

 eyes, and on the spot ; instead of viewing them 

 at a distance, and through a medium wilfully 

 coloured by interest, prejudice, and passion. 



VOL. Tr. 



