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tics were shipwricked, was the epocha also of 

 the conquest of Mexico, Peru, and Cundina- 

 marca; a conquest which, according to the 

 noble expressions of the author of V Esprit des 

 Lois, leaves the mother country an immense debt 

 to pay in order to acquit itself towards human 

 nature. Vast provinces opened to colonists by 

 Castillian valour, were united by the ties of a 

 common language, manners, and worship. 

 Thus, by a strange coincidence of events, the 

 reign of the most powerful and absolute mo- 

 narch of Europe, Charles the Fifth, prepared 

 the struggle of the 19th century, and laid the 

 basis of those political associations, which, 

 though scarcely traced, astonish us by their ex. 

 tent, and the uniform tendency of their prin- 

 ciples. If the emancipation of Spanish Ame- 

 rica be consolidated, as every thing hitherto 

 leads us to hope, the Atlantic will display on 

 its opposite shores, forms of government which 

 are not necessarily hostile because they are dif- 

 ferent. The same institutions cannot be salu- 

 tary to every nation of both worlds, and the 

 growing prosperity of a republic is no outrage 

 to monarchies that are governed with wisdom, 

 and a respect for the laws and public liberty. 



