100 MEXICO. Colonies that they had but little practical relief to expect from Spain ; and that political freedom alone covdd emancipate them from those commercial restrictions, by which their na- tural resources had been so long paralized.* It led them to doubt the sincerity (or the value, at least,) of every other concession ; to insist upon perfect equality of representation in the Cortes, by which they hoped to acquire, (and would, undoubtedly, have acquired, ultimately,) an equality upon all other points ; and, when this was denied them, to seek, by the direct road of independence, those rights which it was almost impossible to withhold, from the moment that they became sensible of their importance. Vain were the endeavours of the Regency to soothe or cajole them ; vain the admission of errors, and the promises of amendment ; although the first were carried so far as to allow, " that, for upwards of twenty years, the door to preferment, in every class of public employment, had been shut against all persons of information, patriotism, and real merit,-|- while it had been opened, by intrigue and court favour, to persons depraved, vicious, or, at best, totally unfit to command.' The Colonists were not to be satisfied with words; they thought, and said, that any thing short of specific reforms would be unavailing ; and that " the best laws were useless, as long as a Captain-general could affirm, with impunity, that
- Things were carried so far, with respect to the Decree of the 17th
of Miiv, that the Minister and several clerks of the Colonial department were put under arrest, when it was repealed, in order to induce the public to believe that it had not, in fact, I'eceived the sanction of the Regency. t Lest these terms be thought too strong, I subjoin the passage in the original, as contained in a Circular of the Regency, dated, Isla de Leon, 15th February, 1810. " Convencido el Consejo, &c. " de que el favor, la intriga, y la inmoralidad, al mismo tiempo que ban tenido ccrrada la puerta, de veinte anos a' esta parte, para toda clase de empleos, a los sugetos de luces, patriotismo, y verdadero merito, la han franqueado a una porcion de personas, depravadas, inmorales, o'ineptas quando menos."
