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166 tablished and are maintaining their independence of Spain.” His attacks became more virulent. For instance: “If Lord Castlereagh says we may recognize, we do; if not, we do not. A single expression of the British Minister to the present Secretary of State, then our minister abroad, I am ashamed to say, has moulded the policy of our government toward South America.” In the same speech he furnished a picture of the character of the South American people and their future relations with the people of the United States, as his imagination painted it. “That country has now a population of eighteen millions. The same activity in the principle of population would exist in that country as here. Twenty-five years hence, it might be estimated at thirty-six millions; fifty years hence at seventy-two. We have now a population of ten millions. From the character of our population we must always take the lead in commerce and manufactures. Imagine the vast power of the two countries, and the value of the intercourse between them, when we shall have a population of forty, and they of seventy millions!” The fifty years are over, and we have had ample opportunity to appreciate this forecast. As to their political capabilities, too, he entertained glowing expectations. “Some gentlemen,” he said, “had intimated that the people of the South were unfit for freedom. In some particulars, he ventured to say, the people of South America were in advance of us. Grenada, Venezuela, and Buenos Ayres