POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



Society, are envy, discord, and inapplication. It is certain, 

 and I have wept it even with tears of blood, that in my be- 

 loved Quito, the spirit of litigation has been very predomi- 

 nant : but henceforth, I doubt not that all my beloved Qui- 

 tinians (Quitenos) will sedulously vie with each other, in 

 crowning themselves with the laurel of peace, and the con- 

 cord of souls, in such a w^ay as that this illustrious Society of 

 the Friends of the Country may be the bond of christian and 

 political charity. With the concord of souls, the most lowly 

 republics have been re-established and resuscitated ; and with- 

 out it, the greatest empires have been submerged. Let us all, 

 then, with a patriotic emulation, proceed to obtain, that of 

 the noble and learned Quitinians it may be said : justiciae legem 

 in Concordia disposuerufit, as Solomon spake of the patriotism of 

 the Hebrews. 



" To you, gentlemen, it belongs to devise, discover, and 

 make a trial of the most seasonable means for the resurre6l:ion 

 of this our dying country. With the greatest joy of my heart 

 I see in Quito (now that the royal university is re-integrated 

 and revived by our illustrious president), that to ignorance 

 succeed the sciences ; to remissness, application ; to indo- 

 lence, industry ; to incommodity, enjoyment ; and to misery 

 and wretchedness, opulence and riches : in a word, that the 

 throne of public prosperity is ere6led on the infelicity and ex- 

 treme poverty of this our beloved country. Om?ua quippe docuit 

 dur 'is in rebus urgens egestas. 



" All this I already consider as certain, and very certain. 

 For what may not Quito promise itself from a Society ani- 

 mated, swayed, and prote6ted, by a learned president, and 

 by a governor and captain-general, in whom Mars and Minerva 



dispute 



