Mexico Author:Henry George Ward Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BOOK II. SECTION I. EFFECTS PRODUCED BY THE EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1808 IN THE PENINSULA. I Have endeavoured to give, in the preceding section, a fair and d... more »ispassionate view of the system by which the possessions of Spain in the New World were governed, during a period of three centuries. It was not in the nature of things that such a system should be endured any longer than the power to enforce it was retained. There was little mutual affection, and no reciprocity of advantages; so that the question of right, between the Mother country and the Colonies, became, in fact, a question of might; and resistance, on the part of the Creoles, the almost inevitable consequence of a consciousness of strength. It is uncertain, however, how long a disposition to assert their rights might have been cherished by the more enlightened, without being sufficiently generalized to admit of its being declared, had not the events of the year 1808 favoured its developement. .. The history of Europe, (and more particularly of the Peninsula,) during this period, is so intimately connected with that of American Independence, that it is impossible to consider them apart, or even to understand the one, without a previous acquaintance with the other. I shall, therefore, not apologize for reminding such of my readers, as may have forgotten the course of Spanish affairs, amidst the endless changes which have since occurred, that, in 1808, the schemes long cherished by Napoleon, for the establishment of his brother on the throne of Spain, were carried into effect. Advantage was taken of the burst of national indignation, by which the ministry of the Prince of Peace was terminated, and of the abdication of Charles IV., which followed the dismissal of his favourite, to entice the whole Royal Family to Bayo...« less