Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/97

 On the retirement of Colonel Beauchef in June, 1829, Lieut. -Colonel Tupper unfortunately for him- self, as it necessarily embroiled him in the approaching commotion, accepted the command of his old batta- lion, No. 8, and on the following month he was made full colonel. A few weeks before hostilities commenced between the rival parties, Colonel Tupper with the same prophetic spirit which is visible in a preceding letter, and with a presentiment which was too soon to be realized, thus wrote to a member of his family in Guernsey : —

" I naturally cannot consider my life of long dura- tion ; I am too immediately acted upon by every revolution in this country not to be prepared for death, and to be perfectly resigned to it when the day shall arrive ; even in my time how many foreign officers have not perished by climate and by the sword. I shall have lived long enough if I leave my children a subsistence and a name unblemished. My late elevation in rank is an earnest of my rising repu- tation, and I have perhaps reason to hope that when I fall, my rank and the circumstances of my death will place an obligation on Chile towards my family, which she may be willing to acknowledge."

Spain has indeed much to answer for, not only to her late South American colonies, but to general civilization and humanity, for three centuries of the grossest misrule that ever disgraced any age or coun- try. Her dominion on that continent, having been from the first pregnant with avarice and cruelty, is perhaps the foulest blot on the moral history of the world. But she has not escaped the punishment of her political offences, and the hand of retributive justice is surely visible in her present state of degra-

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