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 106 MEXICO. blies ; which were very justly regarded, by the most enhght- ened men amongst them, as the greatest blessing that could be conferred upon their country. They might indeed, (and probably would,) have prepared the way for ultimate inde- pendence, by initiating the New States in the art of self- government ; but their emancipation must have been gra- dual, and would have been effected, at last, on terms highly favourable to the Mother country : while the Crown, acting as a centre of union in America, would have prevented those desultory struggles for systems, or for power, which have involved the whole Continent in the calamities of civil war, and rendered its fairest provinces a scene of desolation. Unfortunately, both for Spain and for the New World, any project of distinct Colonial legislation was incompatible with that exclusive system, with regard to trade, which the Mother country had always conceived it to be its interest to maintain. This was the great bar to accommodation on both sides. Pecuniary advantages might have afforded a compen- sation for the loss of a portion of that authority, which could hardly have been retained much longer, under any circum- stances, in its former extent : but freedom of discussion and commercial monopoly could not exist together. Ignorance was its basis, and the strong arm of power its support. To allow of inquiry or interference on the part of the Colonies, (and who was to check them, if once a Legislative assembly were granted .^*) was virtually to abrogate the prohibitory laws; and against this, the pride and the prejudices of the Peninsula alike rebelled. Neither the Constitution of 1812, nor the overthrow of that Constitution in 1814, nor its re-establishment in 1820, created any material difference in the Colonial policy of Spain : the King, on his return from captivity, though he reprobated all the other acts of the Cortes, adopted their system with regard to America, and even pursued it with additional vigour. General Murillo's expedition against Car-