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A P P E N n I X. 



(A.) Page 44. 



•^HE revolution of the provinces of Rio de la Plata ought not to be considered 

 as a momentary commotion caused by a party, or as a public ferment of but 

 transient duration. It is an unanimous proceeding of all the people, which had 

 been long in preparation, and the execution of which was called for by circum- 

 stances — by the dismemberment of the Spanish monarchy, and by the consequent 

 necessity, that America should provide for her own exiftence, by constituting her- 

 self at least in such a form as should shelter her from the ruin that threatened the 

 great whole. To view it in this light, we need only consider the simultaneous 

 commotions which took place in other distinct parts of Spanish America, which, 

 without any previous combination of plans, produced the same general results as 

 in this division of the colonies, and which, notwithstanding the difficulties opposed 

 to them, have lasted two years, not only without abatement, but with an accession 

 of strength, from the very obstacles employed to quell them. 

 . Considered as a political event which threatens to change the aspect of an ex- 

 tensive continent, the revolution of Buenos Ayres well merits the trouble and 

 attention of tracing its causes, its progress, and its effects ; nor ought we to act 

 so lightly towards a people, as to censure their conduct, without ascertaining the 

 motives and objects by which it was actuated. As the spirit of party is one of the 

 effects of every revolution, and, as the innovations in America must have had as 

 many enemies as there were individuals united by interest to the ancient form of 

 government, or subsisting on the infamous monopoly by which she has been op- 

 pressed for three centuries, it will not appear strange, that the selfish and the nar- 

 row-minded should have misrepresented the proceedings of the inhabitants in the out- 



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