supported by cunning, intrigue, and a tortuous diplomacy, use shameful efforts eternally to mislead the people by deceptive policy, and to shed the blood of their subjects in quarrels in which they have no interest; or whether this honor and this loyalty be the characteristics of a national government, founded on the general interest, which considers not liberty as an empty principle, and which, convinced that "the world is extensive enough for all its inhabitants, that it is a field open to the intelligence and activity of all mankind"*—is ready resolutely to arm itself to combat, if necessary, the political ambition, or the errors of the old systems that still militate against the deliverance of America.

• The words of Mr. Canning.

B. SA....

OF FRENCH ESPIONAGE IN SOUTH AMERICA.THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND THE HAYTIAN GOVERNMENT.

Every day discloses some new intrigue of the French government against the liberty of nations, and especially against the independence of the New World. Nothing more clearly shews,its Machiavelian principles than the secret springs it is continually setting in motion to obstruct the progress and impede the accomplishment of this great event. Too much enslaved, and too foolish to throw off all connection with a system which is exploded, and which cannot be received; too timid and too feeble openly to avow its shameful doctrines, it is by intrigues and dark machinations that it meets the policy of the English government, by whose frankness and fidelity its measures are counteracted.

For the last two years particularly, the deceptive conduct of the cabinet of the Tuilleries, upon the important question of the American independence must have been a subject of peculiar attention to all who interest themselves in the happiness of nations, and in the cause of humanity. They see, in this cabinet, a restless endeavour to paralize, by underhand means, the principles which it has neither the courage nor the good faith openly to combat, and which it even sometimes affects to approve; they also perceive the extraordinary example of a government

which substitutes for diplomacy the most vile system of espionage, and which blushes not to introduce into its foreign relations all the manoeuvres of that base police system on which it rests its sole dependence at home.

In order justly to appreciate these intrigues, it is indispensable to refer to a period of some years past. We have before us documents which prove incontestably that in February, 1817, a treaty was concluded between the cabinet of Petersburgh and that of Madrid, in virtue of which, the first engaged to exert all its influence to prevent the government of the United States from acknowledging the independence of the Spanish colonies, and was to induce it, if possible, to declare war against them. The conditions were that, if Russia succeeded, Spain should immediately cede to her the islands of Majorca and Minorca, which had for so many years, been the objects of her secret ambition, in order that she might establish herself in the Mediterranean, obstruct there the progress of the English power, and increase the influence already so excessive which she exercises over the destinies of Europe; an influence which this artful cabinet has managed to acquire for the last half century, (during which, the political relations of all Europe have been thrown into a state of confusion and disorder by war), by taking an active part in the affairs of other nations, although its interposition was, in no respect, necessary.* Russia, as a means of inducement,

* The part which Russia took in the seven years war, the history of the campaign of the year 1807 in Italy and in Switzerland, the perseverance with which this empire has, for nearly a hundred years,

went so far as to offer to the United States to relinquish her claims on the north-west coast of America; but not having succeeded in her project of counteracting the policy of these republicans in regard to their brethren of the southern continent, she transferred her attention to France, and, in concert with the Spanish cabinet, she made overtures tending to the same end to the cabinet of the Tuilleries. These overtures were favorably received by the French government, which dispatched instructions to M. Hyde de Neuville, then minister to the United States, to send secret agents into all the Spanish colonies. They were to inform themselves of the dispositions of the inhabitants, and to give a detailed account of the civil and military situation of the states. These emissaries who were sent to Mexico, Buenos Ayres, and Chili, received orders to exert their utmost efforts for the re-establishment of the absolute power of Spain, and to direct all their measures to that object alone, for the success of which they were to employ every means and make every sacrifice.

"You will bend yourselves to all circumstances" were the words of the ministerial instructions given to Colonel

harrassed Turkey; the fear with which it has continually inspired Denmark, the perpetual dissentions which it has fomented in Sweden, the destruction of Poland, the repeated shocks which it has given to the federal system of Germany, its obstinate interference in the affairs of France and the two peninsulas, its recent alliance with the Low Countries, and many other unequivocal symptoms of the most ungovernable ambition, prove that the whole of Europe cannot be sufficiently careful to put itself in a position of vigilance and defence with regard to Russia, if it does not wish to be suddenly overrun by a new

1

要

Galabert, an agent sent to Mexico," You will bend TO ALL CIRCUMSTANCES for the purpose of sowing division among the parties, and particularly among the military, who, by their disposition to passive obedience, and hierarchical subordination, are more calculated to receive an impulse independent of their own will. The kind of subordinate state in

which the civil power has endeavoured to keep the army, since the fall of Iturbide, is a lever which, skilfully used, may produce the most advantageous results. The rivalry between the citizens and the military is a circumstance which must furnish the most powerful means of success."

As to the maps you have taken on the spot and which you have transmitted with your different statements, they shall be dispatched to Madrid as soon as copies of them are taken. That of the gulf of Mexico is finished as well as that which indicates the military points of the Floridas.*

Animportant subject upon which you have given us but slight information, is the disposition of the Mexican clergy, composed of different orders, and subject to different ecclesiastical supremacies. There must be some rivalries and differences among them upon which it is desirable we should be perfectly informed. Without doubt, the blindest superstition reigns in the midst of the most frightful licentiousness. The people suffer all the consequences of a religious slavery, and the clergy must, of themselves, be sufficiently powerful to effect a revolution; but it is necessary to know those who have influence among the superior clergy, and the temper with which the priests and the monks view the revolution and the separation from Spain."

The instructions given to Mr. Chasseriau, emissary to Colombia, were composed in the same spirit as the extract just read, and contain, also, these words,

• A hint to the United States!!