IMPORTANT RESULTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 87

at length compelled to adopt a measure which struck another and decisive blow at Spanish supremacy. This was the opening of the port to foreign vessels and foreign goods, on the payment of certain duties;—a concession made, no doubt, to the pecuniary wants of the state; although the viceroy's resolution on the subject was much influenced by the powerful and eloquent pleadings of Don Mariano Moreno, in his celebrated paper, entitled, "Representation in the name of the landowners of the provinces of the River Plate, in favour of a free trade with the English nation.”

Doctor Moreno was at once the most estimable, the most enlightened, and probably the purest patriot that Buenos Ayres ever produced. He was the originator of the revolution. Bold, penetrating, and intrepid,—of high principles, yet gifted with great suavity of manners;-the irreproachable innocence of his life and integrity of his conduct, his warm heart and his unsullied honour, commanded the love of his countrymen, the respect of his enemies, and the firmest attachment of the large circle of his friends, the élite of his native city. Alas! scarcely had he shown all his value, when he was cut short in his career. He

88

THE VICEROY CISNEROS.

lived only long enough to prove to his fellow citizens, the loss which they sustained, and over which they had to mourn, when death bereaved their country of his talents and his patriotism.

Such was the man who, under a despotic viceroyalty of Spain, advocated the rights of a free trade, and who, by his earnest eloquence, was mainly instrumental in establishing them for his oppressed countrymen. The old Spaniards with much reason looked upon this great measure as a death blow to their own power, and thenceforth hating Cisneros more cordially than they ever had loved him, they left no stone unturned to ensure his ruin. Thus the viceroy became entirely isolated, losing the support of the Spanish party, while he never had been able to gain the confidence of the American.

Cisneros belonged to the naval service of Spain, and had commanded a ship in the battle of Trafalgar. He had nothing attractive in his manners or deportment. He was cold and taciturn, and with all the plainness, he had none of the engaging frankness of the sailor. He had been elevated to his present dignity by a power, the central Junta, whose duration was more than doubtful, and his precarious tenure of office, with his surrounding difficulties,

THE REVOLUTION.

89

caused him to vacillate and temporize, which only made the ultimate catastrophe of the ruin of Spain more certain. "Another man of talent and decision," as Don Manuel Moreno* justly observes, "would have kept back for some time, the then threatening crisis,-Cisneros, amid his apprehensions and suspicions, only hastened it."

By way of conciliating the Americans, Cisneros took from Elio the rank which had been conferred on him, of inspector-general, and he relaxed his persecution of Liniers, whom he permitted to retire to Cordova. But on the other hand, he allowed the Peruvian viceroy's commander-in-chief, General Goyeneche, a man whose name is linked with everything which is cruel, and who was then engaged in a crusade against the Peruvian patriots, to extend his merciless fury to the inhabitants of La Paz, which depended on Cisneros; and the underhand mode of proceeding of the latter, only exasperated the Americans the more against the joint authors of the cold blooded atrocities which Goyeneche committed.

In the midst of the coming storm, Buenos Ayres

* Don Mariano Moreno, of whom we have just spoken, was his brother.

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DONA CARLOTA DE BOURBON.

was all anarchy and confusion, as was Spain among the contending juntas; and the South American question was further entangled by the pretensions of Doña Carlota de Bourbon, wife of Don Juan of Portugal, who, as an infanta of Spain, made pretensions to the regency of the Indies. But the views of the patriots centred more and more on the project of taking the government into their own hands; and the state of affairs between Cisneros and the old Spaniards greatly forwarded their designs. The latter indeed began now to court the patriots, with an apparent spirit of union, in order to put down the viceroy, and create a junta in his place; and to this effect, on the 1st of January, 1810, when the municipal elections took place, they allowed one-half of the offices to be filled by Americans, a composition of that body, which was seen for the first time since the foundation of the city.* Your's, &c.

THE AUTHORS.

* Alzaga disdained to be a member of this mongrel body, as he called it, of civic councillors.

LETTER XXIX.

THE AUTHORS to GENERAL MILLER.

The French in Spain-The Viceroy Cisneros-Ferdinand the Seventh -The Municipal Body of Buenos Ayres-Installation of the Junta -First Acknowledgment of its Authority-The Commissioner Cardoso-Pino's Retreat-Supremacy of the Junta-Buenos Ayres Press-Oidores-Their Expulsion-Adhesion of the Provinces to the Junta-Policy of England.

London, 1842.

IN May, 1810, news reached Buenos Ayres that the victorious army of France had entered Seville, that the Central Junta had fled, that its members had been maltreated, and that the whole body, accused of having betrayed the country, had been dissolved by a tumultuous popular meeting.

Cisneros felt that his fate was no longer in his own hands, and, fearing a fatal termination of his public career, he issued a proclamation in which he declared his intention to place his authority in the hands of the people.

The old Spaniards were equally alarmed: they believed their native country to be on the point of subjugation by France, and they felt that their own