THE CORTES. 317 



The Cortes, which succeeded the Regency, 

 inherited the sentiments of that body, with 

 regard to South America; and manifested a 

 determination to keep the Spanish Ameri- 

 cans in a state of subjection, the impolicy 

 of which was rendered the more glaringly 

 ridiculous by its impotence. 



Had the different provinces of Spanish 

 America at that time acted in concert, 

 there is little doubt that their independence 

 would have been speedily achieved. This 

 however, with reference to any combined 

 movement, has, from the operation of a 

 variety of causes, never been the case ; but 

 the progress made, under such circum- 

 stances, by the Spanish Americans, in their 

 contest for independence, and their final 

 success, decidedly prove how generally, 

 and to how great an extent, the tyrannical 

 and impolitic measures of the successive 



