167_135.xml

Title: [1820. July 28. Rid yourselves of Ultramaria]

Description: 1820. July 28.

Rid yourselves of Ultramaria.

'.6. Representatives no security

But, suppose the Spanish-american Representatives all chosen by their proper Constituents - all chosen in the best mode. How, in respect of corruption and uncorruption, would the case be bettered? Alas! not much. In the one as in the other hemisphere, every object of ambition being secretly disposed of,- disposed of by some agreement or other, that would be formed between the influential members of the legislative Cortes, and the influential members of the Executive Junta, the Council of State corruptive influence would pervade the whole system of government, would fill it with its poison interests of the greater part of the ruling few in Spanish America as well as the subject many in both countries would be the victims of it. As vultures to a carcase, place-hunters from Spanish America would be perpetually flocking to Madrid. At Madrid, Spanish American Election would be settled by the ruling powers: by a Committee, and that of course an unauthorized and secret one, composed, in some proportion or other, of members of the legislative and those of the Executive. As in England, so in Spain, every thing would be sham, nothing what it professed to be. The Spanish Constitution would be poisoned, and without any advantage to their constituents the hands of the Spanish American Representatives would be the hands of to poison it.

167_134.xml

Title: [[clxvii. 134] 1820. July 28.]

Description: [clxvii. 134]

1820. July 28.

Rid yourselves of Ultramaria

'.6. Representatives no security to Creoles

averse to submission before, will they be reconciled to it by being informed that they have done such and such things: those same things being the very things which they know they have not done? that they have chosen, and commissioned as their representatives, such and such men, whom in that character they never heard of? If not disposed to submission already, is there, in any such treatment, any thing that can tend to dispose them of it? Much more naturally, if before disposed to submission, would a man, by such means, be rendered averse. In England - oh yes, in England - all this would be unexceptionable: all this we have, and worse. Imposture is the very basis on which the Constitution, and every thing belonging to it, is built: in one branch fictitious election, in the two others factitious excellence. Give it but age, no imposture, no folly, no wickedness so gross to be worshipped and defended: defended, oh yes, to the very death. But note well this difference. Our impostures have age on their side: all of them. But this of yours?- It is but of yesterday. Adverse to such wider spreading interests and feelings, it will find all eyes open to the detection of it, all hearts prepared for the resisting of it.

Spaniards! In thus speaking of what has been done in this matter, think no that I have had any such meaning as that of passing condemnation upon it. In truth, nothing in it do I see to which, had it depended upon me, I might not myself, for aught I can say, have given my concurrence. With the book of the Constitution laying open as it stands, I see not how that which had been done could have been left undone. Even independently of the mandate of the existing law, so far as it concerns information - receipt of appropriate information - no better course would the nature of the case admitt of. But, to furnish information to the seat of power is one thing: to possess and exercise a share in that same power is a very different thing.

True it is that the arrangement here in question is but a temporary one: it was not intended for any thing more: that it was not is out of doubt by the articles. For On the occasion of all future Cortes, for Spanish America as for Spain, Members are to be elected by those whose representatives they are stiled: elected, and in the same mode. See articles 28 to 100. But this arrangement, temporary as it is in appearance, think what it is in effect. By this assembly, of which not a single member has been chosen by any one Province in Spanish America - by this assembly it is, that the fate of all these provinces is proposed to be decided. For the persons they elected in what capacity they to be received and all? Not merely as persons communicating wishes and furnishing information in support of those wishes. in a word not as mere Agents or informants, but as Co-Legislators.

JB_162_013.xml

Title: [[clxii. 13] 1820. July 28 Emancipation]

Description: [clxii. 13]

1820. July 28

Emancipation Spanish

Summary

Alas! how heterogeneous, and altogether incongruous a mixture! In both countries the subject many will be sufferers by it: in Spain in one way, in Spanish America in another way. In Spain, Spanish members, in whatever degree be their moral aptitude, can not fail to be more or less acquainted with the state and interests of the subject many in their respective districts, and thus far in a greater or less degree, especially when compared with the influx from the other hemisphere, fit in respect of intellectual aptitude: while, with reference to that same state of things, the Spanish American members will be nearly in the dark. In so far as their Representatives are honest, what then to the subject many in Spain can be the use to see their representatives - what, to those same representatives the satisfaction to see themselves, outvoted on this or that occasion by these strangers who know nothing about the matter? So much for intellectual aptitude. Now as to appropriate probity: appropriate moral aptitude. The constitutional honey moon at an end - the warmth of social sympathy evaporated, and self-regard with its calculation left, what, with reference to the members of the Executive will the Spanish-American Members of the Cortes be? - Instead of vigilant Inspectors , they will be creatures and instruments.

Enter into the Cortes a company of men styling themselves representatives of the several Spanish American Provinces, received as such probably by the representatives of the Spanish Provinces, received as such at any rate by the Members of the Executive Government:- of the Junta by which they were got together. But, in point of fact by whom have they been chosen? By the people of the several provinces of which they are stiled representatives? No: not so much as in a single instance. By whom then? In the instance of each Election by some, or at the best by all, those natives of the provinces in question who at the time happened to be present on the spot. In those several instances was the Election free? That it was so, it can scarcely, on any sufficient grounds be easy for any one to say, even in Spain: here in England it is impossible. Thus much however may be said, and said in any part of the world and with incontestable truth: that in no instance, in which the votes were given in any other than the secret mode, is it possible that the Election should have been free. Be this as it may, in what state of mind is it that they will have entered the chamber of the Cortes? If not of direct promises brim full of hopes and fears imbibed from the two constituted authorities: from the members of the Junta to which they were there both to be received; from their Spanish colleagues to whom they are there being actually received.