238 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



abundantly obvious, that a continent like 

 North America, when it became numerously 

 peopled, could not, in the nature of things, 

 continue to be a mere colonial appendage of 

 England. But this feeling of attachment 

 was very soon merged in an ardent desire for 

 independence ; and that attained, the mo- 

 ther-country and her late colonies came at 

 once into a state of relations with each 

 other, little different from that which sub- 

 sists between Great Britain and any Euro- 

 pean power. 



The attachment, on the other hand, of 

 the Hispano-Americans to their mother-coun- 

 try, was not only deep-rooted, and par- 

 taking of considerable intensity of feeling, 

 but it long continued, in spite of ill usage 

 and oppression. It may indeed be doubt- 

 ed, whether it would at last have yield- 

 ed to a spirit of independence, had it not 

 been for the peculiar circumstances in which 



