authority, that the Persians are so enslaved as to be habitually guilty of what in their own opinion must be an act of sinful idolatry, namely, the making an inclination of the head when they approach the king's picture, (see p. 168.)

Our opinion of Mr. Morier as an author will be collected from the remarks which we have already made on. his book. In its present state we do not think it deserves to be placed by the side of Chardin; but if Mr. Morier will revise his work (beginning by striking out every sentence which sounds well to his own ear and comparing it again, as he still has the opportunity, with the actual state of things in Persia) he may give it to the world, in a new edition, not merely with fewer faults, but with a well-founded claim to the confidence of the best class of readers, who consider a strict adherence to truth as of more value than all the embellishments of style or of fiction.

ART. VII. An impartial Examination of the Dispute between Spain and her American Colonies. By Alvaro Florez Estrada. Translated from the Original by W. Burdon. London, Sherwood, 1812, 8vo. 3s.

M. FLOREZ ESTRADA is a Spaniard of liberal sentiments and enlightened mind. His politics are founded on the broad basis of justice, and his views are directed to the general good of his country and of its dependencies. In the present instance, he appears to us to have taken rather too confined a view of the true interest of Spain and of her colonies. It does not appear to be for the real interest of Spain to retain her vast American possessions in a state of dependence on the mother country, and whilst the wide Atlantic is rolled between them and that country, it seems absurd to talk of their forming an integral part of Old Spain. This integral union of the colonies and the parent state, supposes a greater identity of interests and feelings than ever can exist between countries placed at such distant parts of the globe and existing under such different circumstances. Old Spain is unwilling to part with the mines of Mexico and Peru, but have not those mines, even whilst they enriched the royal treasury, impoverished the soil of the mother country?

The Spanish colonies have, like those which once belonged to Great Britain in North America, arrived at a

maturity of growth when they are capable of framing their own laws and administering their own government. Like individuals, they have passed the state of minority, and have arrived at that period when they may both have and exercise a will of their own. If we consider colonies in the relation of children to their parents, there must be a time when the controul arising from the relation of paternity must come to an end, and when self-government becomes at once a duty and a right. When colonies have arrived at what we call the period of majority, which those of South America have reached, they must be able to provide for their interest and security, and to make laws suited to their necessities and circumstances better than can be done by a senate situated in another hemisphere, the greater part of whom must be strangers to their manners, habits, their local and provincial, their particular and general character, interests and relations.

Even though the United States of America might have had a few representatives in the British Parliament, can we suppose, that that parliament could have legislated with as much judgment and utility for Pennsylvania, and New York and New England, as for Kent, Middlesex, and Northumberland? That popular feeling and sentiment of approbation or disapprobation of particular measures, which may be readily communicated from the English counties to an English House of Commons, could not so readily have been vibrated across the Atlantic from the American states to the parliament in London. The American states indeed could, under no possible combinations of policy, have long formed an integral part of the British empire. They would have been extremities placed at too great a distance from the heart of the government to profit by its motion, or to act upon it with due reciprocity by any common circulation of interests, spmpathies, and opinions.

The above remarks are applicable in all their forcet the Spanish colonies in South America. They may be represented in the Cortes of the mother country; but the mother country will never be able to legislate with any suitable fitness or efficacy for the general good and particular interests of the colonies. The public sentiment, which may pervade the colonies on particular measures, will never reach the Cortes at Cadiz or Madrid, or will be so chilled or diluted on its passage, that its power of operating on the mind of the legislature will be impaired or lost.

It seems, therefore, perfectly absurd to us in M. Florez

Estrada to talk of the Spanish colonies across the Atlantic forming an integral part of the European peninsula, under one and the same sovereign legislative assembly.

The general principles of law which have or ought to have a point of union in the great trunk of JUSTICE, must be the same whether in America or in Europe; but these principles must often be modified by circumstances, both local and temporal; by characters, manners, and usages, which have a particular and circumscribed existence; and how is the general principle to be adapted to these circum-stances, by which it must necessarily be modified in its application, except by those who are familiarized with the people and the locality in which they more especially abound?

M. Florez Estrada talks of the efforts of Buenos Ayres and the Caraccas to establish a free and independent government, as acts of rebellion and as unauthorized usurpations. But when the mother country could no longer protect the colonies, was it not high time for the colonies to think of protecting themselves? To call the attempt an insurrection and other hard names, is only to imitate the language of Bonaparte towards Spain. Why should the Spanish colonies crouch to the government of the mother country, by which they have been kept in a state of pupillage for two or three hundred years, when they have become sufficiently wise and sufficiently strong to govern themselves? It is impossible on those principles of justice which M. Florez Estrada appears so sincerely to respect, to deny the right of the Spanish colonies to choose their own legislators, and to make those laws which they deem most conducive to their interest, which no other people can understand so well as themselves, and which, accordingly, it is rank injustice in any other nation, though bearing the name of the mother country, to endeavour to

usurp.

The arguments which M. Florez Estrada employs to prove the attempt of the Spanish colonies to establish their independence to be unjust, appear to us to be charac terized by the languor of sophistry rather than the force of truth. To determine,' says he, whether the cause of the Americans is just or unjust, we must, before all things, inquire whether or no its object was public liberty.' It appears to us, that M. Florez Estrada is removed to too great a distance from the scene to be able to appretiate the motives and character of the actors, and the general state of sentiment among the people, so as to determine whether the revolution in the Caraccas were prompted by the pure

love of liberty or the base selfishness of individual ambition. The author, however, takes upon himself to settle this point in the way which seems most favourable to the opinion which he has adopted, and to the cause which he wishes to maintain. But whilst he is endeavouring to preserve the colonies in subjection to the mother country on one side of the Atlantic, they are fighting for liberty on

the other.

M. Florez Estrada seems to entertain a great dread respecting the separation of the colonies from the mother country; but yet he says, p. 175, that the basis on which Spain ought to build her opulence, is agriculture.' But have not the Spaniards learned, from the experience of more than two centuries, that it is the mines of Mexico and Peru which have impeded the progress of their agriculture, and that the treasures of gold and silver which Spain has brought from her colonies, has increased the laziness of her citizens? If a nation is to be sunk in poverty and wretchedness, it matters not of what materials the weight may be made which produces the effect. As long as the effect is produced, it is of little moment whether it be by a millstone or a bar of gold. If a man's throat is cut, the destruction is not less certain because the hilt of the sword was spangled with jewels.

Spain clings to her colonies not with the affection of a fond mother, who cannot separate her happiness from that of her children, but with that of a tyrant, who, whilst he is jealous of the independence of his subjects, is fearful of losing what contributes at once to pamper his avarice and his pride. To us it appears, that Spain would in fact be richer, if she obtained only one-fourth part of the wealth of her South American colonies by commercial exchange, than if she extorted the whole as the talliage of sovereignty. But nations, like individuals, are the dupes of selfishness and pride.

The author says, p. 194, that both the Spanish government and the Spanish people consider her,' (that is, Great Britain), as having promised to guarantee the integrity of the Spanish empire.' In the vocabulary of the author, 'the integrity of the Spanish empire,' means the subjection of the South American colonies to the mother country.

But if the whole of these colonies, imitating the conduct of the Caraccas, should think proper to assert their independence and to form a government of their own, without waiting for the fiat of a sovereign in Old Spain, is Great Britain to engage in another ruinous and hopeless war, in

order to reduce these colonies to subjection and to gratify the pride of the court of Cadiz or Madrid? The friendship of Spain is certainly of great importance to Great Britain, and we trust, that nothing will intervene to disturb the harmony of the two countries; but if Great Britain cannot retain this friendship of Spain, without supporting an army in South America to extinguish the spirit of liberty and independence in the colonies, it would be more for her honour and her interest to renounce this alliance than to preserve it on ignominious and disadvantageous terms.

Though we totally differ from the author in what he has said on the connection between Spain and her colonies, yet we must say, that we have found some generous sentiments in his work which do not harbour in the breast of every politician. The author affects to make justice the basis of his policy, and he who does this, can err only when he mistakes that in which justice consists. On this occasion, the author appears to have erred in his views of the justice on which the South American colonies may rest their claim to independence.

One of the various sentiments which occur in this work, and do great credit to the author, is the following. The interests of nations are never in opposition but when they seek to act unjustly.' How true is this, and yet how little regarded in that conflict of all the selfish passions which interrupt the harmony and impair the happiness of nations! The interests of nations must for ever be the same, as far as they are under the controul of justice, and one is not studiously eager to found its prosperity on the deception or oppression of its neighbour. The same sentiment is true with respect to individuals, and a great part of the aggregate of human ills is occasioned by neglecting or despising it in the common intercourse of life. As long as individuals adhere in their conduct to the great rules of justice, they can have no divided interests. They must be one and the same. For, Justice dictates what is for the good of all. And hence we see, that as far as Justice is concerned, the good of the community can never be in opposition to that of Individuals, nor the good of individuals to that of the community. What more is wanting to make the social scale which, at present, on so many occasions, preponderates with misery, turn uniformly in favour of happiness? When justice is respected by nations and individuals, dissensions will cease; and peace, supported by virtue, will extend her dominion over the world.