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102 so long supported. Its defects, in theory, are by no means so great as many have supposed; the evil consisted in the practice; and in the application of the whole political power of the crown to the maintenance of a system of revenue laws, by which the interest of the Colonies was entirely sacrificed to that of the Mother country. Upon both these points it will be necessary for me to enter into some details.

With regard to the first, (the difference between the theory and the practice of Spain, in her Colonial system,) the history of the last two centuries sufficiently proves, how entirely the conciliatory intentions of the first framers of the laws of the Indies were lost sight of, by the total exclusion of the Creoles from any participation in the government of their respective countries. Every situation in the gift of the crown, from the Viceroy to the lowest custom-house officer, was bestowed upon an European; nor is there an instance, for many years before the revolution, either in the church, the army, or the law, in which the door of preferment was opened to a native. It became the darling policy of Spain to disseminate, throughout her American dominions, a class of men, distinct from the natives in feelings, habits, and interests; taught to consider themselves