HISTORICAL SKETCH. 229 



The governing party (consisting chiefly 

 of the descendants of European Spaniards, 

 who, with very few exceptions, were by 

 the successive rulers of Spain excluded 

 from any share of authority, and called 

 by the Spaniards, as a term of degradation, 

 Creoles) form only a limited proportion of 

 the population. They are, however, natu- 

 rally entitled to the ascendancy, from their 

 large possessions and superior intellectual 

 endowments : indeed they had, for a long 

 period, considerable and increasing influ- 

 ence ; and had Spain, only a very few years 

 since, conciliated them by yielding a share 

 of authority, Spanish America might still 

 have remained a colonial appendage to the 

 mother-country. 



Refusing to give up a portion of her au- 

 thority and patronage, in order to preserve 

 the remainder, the consequence was, that 



