1822 March 30

Rid Yourselves

5. Ult.

Gold and diamonds to ruler in belief that the one has least need of them will be

most hard to [...?] and those who have to [...?] themselves rich and reputed this had

such of useful knowledge yet [...?] sufficient will have least of them. But in

England a persuasion thus convenient finds its causes in inveterate habits and

acknowledged principles, and in your Ultramaria neither in existing nor in future

probable circumstances are any such convenient causes to be found. We in England have

no Constitutional Code at all. You in Spain have a Constitutional Code such as it is:

and in the 8th and 339 Article of it as mentioned /observed/ in my last letter stands

a /the/ declaration of equal rights. Take from us they will say to his Excellency and

his Intendantship take from us as many millions worth of reals as you please and send

it to your Peninsula: but at the same time give us articles to the same value from

thence: otherwise not a maravedi shall you have from us.

In my former letter I spoke of Article 8 in which equal rights are spoken of only in

general terms only. But now looking at Article 339 I find a particular application

made to the subject of contributions: and there I see that contributions

(contributions of all kinds) are to be distributed among all Spaniards in proportion

to their means without any exception or privilege. Upon this and all such provisions,

Your Rulers will put one construction, your Ultramarian kinsmen, another; but in the

meantime, there where it is the money stays: and neither you nor your rulers are the

better for it.

Yes: if in every Ultramarian Province there were an Emperor or King it were better a

King with a Crown a sceptre and a throne and a palace for example without bounds for

the preservation of the splendour the lustre and the dignity of all their several

implications, but upon a single King /functionary/ resident in Spain the power of

supplying the matter of corruption and delusion all the power that could be collected

from both Spains has been expended. In peninsula Spain as in England the living idol

is visible audible and tangible: in no part of Ultramaria is there any thing of it

but a name.