Mise en riche demoiselle, Et lui conserver mon cœur. This is a delightful and harmonious piece of versification, but surely it is not the natural language of a rustic maiden. "Charger ses atours de rubans et de dentelle" would better suit the lips of a fine lady of fashion. "J'ai refusé mon bonheur" contradicts the next two lines, and inconsistency is an unpardonable error in such a writer as Rousseau. From him criticism has a right to expect perfection. Favart has imitated this song of Collette, and his copy breathes the pure air of the village. Bastienne sings: We consider this song a triumph of genius. We hear the voice of a rural beauty who has been frequently exposed to the snares of the seducer. Her song is at once lively and true, and contains an indirect criticism on morals. Favart evidently intended it as a trial of skill against his talented competitor, and most assuredly he gained the prize. How felicitously has he seized the dialect of the village and preserved the idiomatic expressions of rural life? How harmonious is the cadence, how chaste the sentiment, how natural the reflections, how pure and sincere the devoted attachment of Bastienne? The following is, however, if possible, even superior, and it is not copied from any model in the Devin du Village. Bastienne sings: I. Autrefois à sa maîtresse D'une autre amante aujourd'hui ? Queuq' chos' que n' fut pas à lui? II. Pour qu'il eut tout l'avantage De rubans à tout étage, C' n'est pas que je la regrette Here is another gem of poesy. Never did nature, in the artless and unsophisticated simplicity of rural life, pour forth strains more true, more tender, or more graceful. How delicate and ingenuous are the feelings of Bastienne! "J'ons defait mon biau corset" is above all praise: what could a village girl do more to prove her sincerity? "C' n'est pas que je la regrette" flows from the heart. She seems desirous to convince herself that no bitter querulousness is mingled with her reproaches. How exquisite is the soft confession contained in "Malgré moi l'ingrat me plait." Who would not throw himself at the feet of this enchanting shepherdess? The chorus is full of similar interest: yes, Bastienne, your lover would have been a villain had he deserted you. Colin and Let us once more place Rousseau and Favart in contrast. Bastien are both confident of the fidelity of their mistresses, despite some little misgivings. Let us first hear Rousseau. Non, non, Colette n'est pas trompeuse, Peut-elle être amoreuse D'un autre berger que moi ? We have no fault to find with this couplet, as far as it goes; but it is meagre and insufficient. How much richer is the imagination of Favart, when he makes Bastien speak of his sweetheart. He absolutely pleads his case, and argues as for a verdict. He constitutes himself judge, jury, and advocate, and exults in the certainty of a favourable decision. Favart has, in this song, amplified the "Malo me Galatea petit" of Virgil, and most beautifully has he improved on the original. How superior is Bastien to Colin. Clown though he be, he understands the rationale of love. "Ce sont des preuves que ça" bespeaks a knowledge of human nature which would not discredit a philosopher. Fontenelle has seized the same thought in one of his eclogues. Iris is conversing with her swain, and expresses her doubts of the sincerity of two lovers. Croyez-vous que, pour être et fidèle et sincere, On en trouve toujours autant dans sa bergere? Virgil, Fontenelle, and Favart, have all expressed the feeling of true love, ever accompanied by delicacy. Love is intense and expanded esteem, and it is exclusive. It repudiates all plurality, and is ever based on unity. A woman who yields her little favours and attentions to more than one man is accounted a coquette, and true love never nestles itself in a fickle bosom. Bastien knew that he was the favoured swain from the innocent and playful familiarity of his mistress. He says in the first verse that she is "de bonne foi," and that she was incapable of uttering a "oui" for a "non." He knew that she was not a flirt or a coquette. He gave her credit for delicacy of mind, and therefore was certain that she would not have taken any liberty with him, unless he possessed her affections. Bastien was in fact a philosopher, without knowing it, and understood the principles of human action without ever having studied them. In the village as well as in the metropolis the approving smile of beauty is easily penetrated, and Bastien took the hint as it was intended; hence the multum in parvo contained in the line: "Ce sont des preuves que ça." ON THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION IN SOUTH AMERICA. DURING three centuries the court of Madrid exercised undisputed sovereignty over her possessions in the New World. Her reign had been exclusive, partial, and unjust, sacrificing all the rights of the Creoles to the avarice of the Spaniards. The natives were treated as the absolute property of the mother country, and deprived of almost every privilege which appertains to humanity. This continued system of misrule had kindled the materials of revolution, and a favourable opportunity only was wanted to rouse the inhabitants of Spanish America into open revolt. The insurrection of Aranjuez in Old Spain, 1808, which led to the dismissal of Godoy, the prince of peace, and to the abdication of Charles the Fourth, gave the first shock to the royal authority. The subsequent invasion of the Peninsula by Napoleon, the captivity of the Spanish monarch, and the deposition of the old dynasty by the memorable decrees at Bayonne, effectually destroyed that illusive charm of omnipotence which the colonists had imagined to surround and consecrate the sceptre of their ancient kings. The spell was now broken by the victorious legions of France, and the sword of Buonaparte cut asunder that moral force which had hitherto secured to the court of Madrid the obedience of seventeen millions of transatlantic subjects. Our readers are aware that after the occurrence of these events the government of Old Spain was vested in local juntas, which started up in every province and city. The juntas of Asturias and Seville, the two first established in the mother country, despatched commissioners to America, clothed with powers equivalent to the royal prerogative. Now, it is highly important to observe, that it was a fundamental principle of Spanish jurisprudence, with regard to her colonial possessions, to consider them as vested in the crown, and not in the state. When the commissioners presented themselves, and displayed their credentials, that established and universally recognised principle was instantly brought forward against their pretensions, the natives being resolutely determined not to admit the validity of any written instrument which did not bear the king's seal and signature. The Creoles further contended that these commissioners were merely provincial delegates from two districts, which, of themselves, composed only a fraction of the mother country, an additional argument, strong and just, against their interference. Thus the first brick was taken out of the old building, an ominous presage of its entire and speedy demolition. The principle of non-intervention being thus insisted on, the native leaders deduced from it the following conclusions: "The king being in captivity, the allegiance of his subjects is suspended, and therefore, during the term of his imprisonment, the people have a right to frame some system of temporary government to prevent the horrors of anarchy. Let then the inhabitants of Old Spain establish local juntas, or a central junta, for the maintenance of order in the mother country, as they may deem most politic. With such internal arrangements the Creoles have no concern, but they protest against any extension of that assumed power to the colonies, for Spanish America never belonged to the state, but to the crown. The Creoles will adopt the same measures as the Spaniards, and establish juntas composed of natives, and rule their own country, as they think fit, until the restoration of the king to his throne, for to the king alone their allegiance is due." The commissioners refused to listen to these arguments, and both parties resolved to appeal to arms. Such, in few words, was the proximate cause of the out-breaking of the revolution; but the remote cause must be sought for in three centuries of oppression. The materials of combustion were all collected; it required but a spark to kindle them into flames. It is the object of this article to give an outline of the colonial policy which Spain adopted towards America during the long period of her unresisted domination, and our readers will then judge for themselves whether the facts and statements adduced afford both an apology and a justification for the protracted and sanguinary war of independence. With the exception of Brazil, Dutch and French Guiana, and the present British Colonies of Demerara and Esequibo, the Spanish possessions included the whole of South America, the Isthmus of Panama, and a portion of the Northern Continent, which extended to the confines of the United States. This vast territory was divided into four viceroyalties and five captain generalships. The former comprised Mexico, Peru, Rio de la Plata, otherwise designated Buenos Ayres, and New Grenada; the latter, the Peninsula of Yucatan, Guatemala, Chile, Venezuela, and the Island of Cuba. The captains general, although holding situations of minor importance, were independent of the viceroys, as were the viceroys of each other. Indeed, in most cases, natural barriers precluded the possibility of interference. These great officers of state were invested with almost kingly power, though there were three limitations to their authority, which, however, were rather nominal than real. The first of these checks on their complete irresponsibility was the council of the Indies, which was held at Madrid. This board was created in 1511, by Ferdinand the Second, and remodelled by Charles the Fifth, in 1524, for the exclusive superintendence of the affairs of the colonies. Over this supreme tribunal the king was supposed to preside in person. The second rein on the viceroys and captains general was expressed by the curious phrase "residencia." It involved accountability, the governors being subject, on their return home, to have their conduct legally investigated, during their residence abroad, at the sole will and pleasure of the king, but this appears to have been very seldom, if ever, enforced. The third restraint to which they were subjected, was the authority of the "audiencia," a local board composed entirely of Europeans, and of which the viceroy was honorary president. This court had controul over all the colonial tribunals, ecclesiastical as well as civil, where the value of the object in litigation was under ten thousand dollars; but if it exceeded that sum, an appeal lay to the council of the Indies. The viceroy and the members of the audiencia always understood each other, and their interests rarely came into collision. The local laws enacted by this tribunal, the precedents of cases they had decided, and the decrees transmitted from Madrid for enrolment, formed that system of jurisprudence called "Recopilacion de las Leyes de las Indias," or, General Collection of the Laws of the Indies. They were printed and bound together in four folio volumes, but the work was |