HISTORICAL SKETCH. 241 



very anxiously by many ; and there is little 

 doubt that, by making certain concessions, 

 Spain might have preserved her ascendancy. 

 It was only when they were urged to the 

 last extremity, when not only there did 

 not remain the most distant hope of con- 

 cession on the part of the mother-country, 

 but when they found that they must either 

 advance or be sacrificed to the vengeance 

 of the parent state, that the Hispano-Ame- 

 ricans united in despair, to effect the work 

 of independence. 



To graft free constitutions upon the stock 

 of Spanish laws, was a labour of no or- 

 dinary difficulty; to pull down the whole 

 edifice, in order to erect a new one, was 

 impossible ; too many individuals were in- 

 terested in the continuance of the privileges 

 which, in many instances, the law of Spain 

 conferred, to allow of such an attempt being 

 for a moment contemplated. Thus, as in 



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