312 



servitude, find themselves suddenly at liberty to 

 dispose of their existence for the improvement 

 of their prosperity. The Spanish Americans, it 

 is unceasingly repeated, are not sufficiently ad- 

 vanced in intellectual cultivation to be fitted 

 for free institutions. I remember that at a 

 period little remote, the same reasoning was 

 applied to other nations, who were said to have 

 made too great a progress in civilization. Ex- 

 perience, no doubt, proves that nations, like in- 

 dividuals, find ability and learning often una- 

 vailing to happiness ; but without denying the 

 necessity of a certain mass of knowledge and 

 popular instruction for the stability of republics 

 or constitutional monarchies, we believe that 

 stability to depend much less on the degree 

 of intellectual improvement than on the strength 

 of the national character ; on that proportion of 

 energy and tranquillity, of ardor and patience^ 

 which maintains and perpetuates new institu- 

 tions ; on the local circumstances in which a 

 nation is placed ; and on the political relations 

 of a country with the neighbouring states. 



If all modern colonies, at the period of their 

 emancipation, manifest a tendency more or less 

 decided for republican forms of government, the 

 cause of this phenomenon must not be attri- 

 buted solely to a principle of imitation, which 

 acts still more powerfully on masses of men 

 than on individuals. It is founded principally 



