HISTORICAL SKETCH. 239 



Spain was placed, by the revolution that 

 occurred there, and the strange and infatu- 

 ated policy, with regard to Spanish Ameri- 

 ca, which was adopted and acted upon by 

 the individuals who successively claimed or 

 exercised authority in the mother- country, 

 during the absence of the sovereign, or 

 during the contest as to who was to be con- 

 sidered the sovereign. The attachment of 

 the Hispano-Americans to the parent state 

 then gave way to a feeling of independence ; 

 but with the restoration of Ferdinand VII. 

 to the throne, it again revived to a con- 

 siderable extent, but has since then, from 

 his impolitic conduct, entirely subsided, and 

 Spanish America may be considered as lost 

 to the mother-country for ever. 



This anomaly may, perhaps, be attributed 

 to the character of the Spanish institutions, 

 which are themselves, in a certain degree, 

 anomalous : originating in principles of free- 



