262 SPANISH amp:rica. 



Of the church establishment it is needless 

 to speak, it being similar to that which ex- 

 isted in Spain. 



Under this system of internal adminis- 

 tration, the South Americans might have 

 been governed mildly, and with a due re- 

 gard to their interests and welfare. Some 

 of the machinery was good, but it was ge- 

 nerally worked in a wrong direction, and so 

 as to produce not only mere negative advan- 

 tage, but positive injury to those for whose 

 good it was nominally intended. It was 

 held out to the world, by the government 

 of Spain, that the South American provinces 

 were considered as integral parts of the 

 Spanish monarchy; whilst in reality they 

 were treated as colonies, and that too in 

 the most restricted sense of the term. The 

 privileges of the natives were construed to 

 mean anything or nothing, at the will and 

 pleasure of the Spanish authorities; and 



