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138 with powers only the more formidable because, under the supposed reign of the law, no legal bounds were prescribed for them: their re-admission into the Colonies was insisted upon, as a preliminary to any accommodation; and yet, although these onerous conditions were not accompanied by any one practical concession, the Creoles were assured "that they were Spanish citizens, inhabiting one of the component parts of the Monarchy, and equal in rights to their brethren of the Peninsula."

From such a system as this, nothing good could result. Had the demands of the Creoles been fairly met, some arrangement might have been possible; but dissimulation only gave rise to distrust, and thus, amidst reciprocal assurances of the most amicable intentions, preparations were made for an appeal to arms, by which it was but too soon evident that the question must ultimately be decided.

In this war of words I do not mean to accuse either party of unnecessary hypocrisy; there was perhaps as much of the good faith, which both professed, on the one side, as on the other, (and this is not saying much for the aggregate;) but each