1822. April 30th

Rid yourselves

Part II. Lett. 2. Appeals unendurable

effectual remedy: unsupported, unrestrained, by any local legislature, every Governor

so situated is either a cypher or a tyrant: distance, even without the help of

Articles from 314 to 337, would suffice to reduce him to this alternative: the fault

would be his if of the written documents capable of testifying against him, any

remained unarrested and undestroyed: of witnesses any that reached Europe: any that

were not either destroyed in a dungeon, detained in a dungeon, or rendered meek or

favourable to him by corruptive influence.

While the pen is moving, a paragraph in the Morning Chronicle lies before me: date

of the paper 30th. April 1822: date of the latest intelligence from the army of

Bolivar at Rosario de Cucuta in New Granada 18th October 1821. On that same day,

suppose oppression at that same Rosario de Cucuta, by what time were New Granada

still loyal - by what time through Secretario del dispatcho para Ultramar and

Gobernacion and Gobierno and King and Cortes and King and Council of State and

Gobernacion again and Gobierno again, and Secretario de dispatcho again, and

secretario del despatcho de Marine, and Captain of the Government vessel, if there be

any such that is fit for use, when shall relief attach upon it?

Think of evil in all its forms - think of evil in all its sources, physical and

political: eathquakes, inundations, fires; hostility within, hostility from without:

hostility from neighbouring colonies: hostility from distant mother countries: evil

from inaptitude in the legislative system: evil from the non-existence of a local

legislative authority: evil from inaptitude in the administrative department: evil

from inaptitude in the judicial department, think of the slowest pace of evil in all

these shapes from all these sources: think if it is from Spain they are to come - think of the quickest pace of relief or remedy. If

death is to come to me from Spain

may it come to me: (prayed somebody to whom Death would not, it seems, have been a

welcome visitor). O yes: and Death being the looked for

visitor, not without reason. But had it been Relief - from

Spain of all countries - from Spain would it have been called for?