ILLIBERAL POLICY. 263 



they were, in fact, despotically ruled by a 

 distant government, which had neither the 

 means nor the inclination to attend to their 

 complaints or to redress their grievances. 

 It is a well-known fact, that the agents of 

 Spain, in South America, generally had op- 

 portunities to deceive their government, as 

 to any circumstances which they wished 

 to conceal or misrepresent; and thus the 

 government, disinclined from system to do 

 any thing favourable to the natives, was fre- 

 quently destitute of the requisite inform- 

 ation to enable it to act, had it been so 

 inclined, with justice or with good policy. 



The great error, however, was in the sys- 

 tem of rule established in South America 

 by the Spanish government, under the mask 

 of a liberal policy ; but which was framed 

 with the narrowest views, for the sole pur- 

 pose of exclusively benefitting the mother- 

 country, without the slightest regard to the 



