Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/531

 APPENDIX. 491 state of wretchedness, and compelled them to abandon a laboui* which no longer repays them for the toil and expense with which it is attended. The freedom of trade in America was not proscribed as a real evil, but because it was a sacrifice required of the colonies by the Mother- country. The events which led to the gradual increase of this exclusive commerce, till it became a monopoly of the Cadiz merchants, are well known. Well informed men exclaimed in vain against a system so weak, so ruinous, and so ill judged; but inveterate evils are not to be cured at once. Minor x-eforms had paved the way for a system founded upon sounder principles, when the late extraordinary events, changing entirely the political state of Spain, destroyed by one unforseen blow all the pre- texts by which the prohibitory laws had been previously supported. — The new order of things which the Mother- country has proclaimed as the happy commencement of national prosperity, has completely changed the motives for the prohibitory system, and demonstrated, in their fullest extent, the advantages that must result to the country from a free trade. Good policy, therefore, and the natural wish to apply a remedy to pres-. sing evils, are converted into a positive duty, which the first magistrate of the state cannot, in reason, or justice, neglect. Is it just that the fruits of our agricultural labours should be lost, be- cause the unfortunate provinces of Spain can no longer consume them ? Is it just that the abundant productions of the country should rot in our magazines, because the navy of Spain is too weak to export them ? Is it just that we should increase the distress of the Mother-country, by the tidings of our own critical and vacillating state, when the means are of- fei-ed to us of consolidating our safety upon the firmest basis ? Is it just, that, when the subjects of a friendly and generous nation present them- selves in our ports, and olfer us, at a cheap rate, the merchandize of which we are in want, and with which Spain cannot supply us, we should reject the proposal, and convert, by so doing, their good intentions to the exclusive advantage of a few European merchants, who, by means of a contraband trade, render themselves masters of the whole imports of the country ? Is it just, that when we are entreated to sell our accumulated agricultural produce, we should, by refusing to do so, decree at the same time the ruin of our landed-proprietors, of the country, and of society together ? If your Excellency wishes to diminish the extraction of specie, which has taken place latterly to so great an extent, there is no other mode of effecting it than to open the ports to the English, and thus to enable them to extend their speculations to other objects. It is one of the fatal consequences of the contraband trade, that the importer is absolutely compelled to receive the value of his imports in the precious metals i^lone. His true interest, indeed, consists in exchanging them at once fov articles' that may become the objects of a new speculation ; but the