of any distinction, but pretends to be a military officer, without having paid any attention to those qualifications which are indispensable for the profession of There is not one, whether originally white, or become so by generation, who is not ambitious of becoming a lawyer, a priest or a monk. Those whose pretensions are not so great, wish at least to be notaries, scriveners, or clerks, or to be attached to some religious community, as lay-brothers, pupils, or foundlings. Thus the fields are deserted, whilst their fertility reproaches our inactivity. The laborious husbandman is an object of contempt. Every one wishes to be a gentleman, to lead an idle life, addicted to the frightful vices of luxury, gaming, chicane and calumny. It is thus that law suits are multiplied, the wicked thrive, the good are discouraged, and every thing goes to wreck.

"It is the want of a cultivated understanding which makes people persevere in errors so prejudicial to their felicity. If they knew that no work is more agreeable to God than what tends to the preservation of his worship, their own good, and that of their neighbours, the prebends, which are foundedfor saying mass, the endowments made for celebrating the festivals of saints with drums and bonfires, the pious contributions made for ridiculous processions and noisy revelry, the expenses incurred in blazoning their ensigns armorial for escorts and funeral pomp, and other liberal distributions, which, notwithstanding they are of a religious nature, and spring from the best intentions, yet are by no means indispensable-I say the amount of all those expenditures would be appropriated to the use

of schools, to the liberal support of good teachers capable of inspiring youth betimes with religious and political maxims. From such a course of education might be expected wise magistrates, enlightened citizens, who, not abusing authority in order to flatter their passions, nor religion in order to conceal their ignorance under the veil of hypocrisy and superstition, nor power or riches in order to oppress the poor, would become the ornament of society, and the active promoters of public prosperity. We see convents and fraternities with immense endowments, and very rich images; priests with prebends invested with 10, 20, 30 and 40 thousand dollars. Who without indignation can see in this province all property without exception subject to ecclesiastic and monastic rents, whilst not the smallest provision is made for the payment of the teachers who publicly instruct the rising generation in the principles of the religion which they profess, and in the duties which are incumbent on them as men, and as subjects?

"The misfortune which arises from giving youth an education which disposes them to enter into holy orders is equally to be lamented. The parents of those children who do not become priests, monks, or friars, though they have not previously examined whether nature has designed them for either of these vocations, feel theselves miserably mortified at the disappointment. Without any other reason or motive but that they have been bred in some convent, or he in

some capacity or other served in a church, they get themselves ordained, or take the vows, merely to gratify their parents, or because they cannot resist the taste which, from the habits of education, they have contracted for that kind of life. Thus the number of privileged persons is multiplied, and the rest of the citizens are overcharged with prebends, fees and rents, which are founded for the subsistence of ecclesiastics, besides other duties and contributions, from which their profession is exempted."

This portrait, solely designed for the city of Caraccas, is equally descriptive of the other parts of the country, which my work contemplates. It exhibits. all the characters of truth. The hand, however, that directed the pencil has given too dark a colouring to the features. It is true, that the Spanish Creoles do not receive such an education as would be necessary to make them statesmen, but neither is it so defective as to make ignorance their distinguishing character. The motive which prompted this declamation will require no other explanation than to be informed, that the person who speaks, is a friend to the prosperity of his country; a man who wishes that the light of reason, with which he himself isso eminently favoured, should dissipate the darkness in which his countrymen are unhappily involved; a father of a family, who thinks that the most precious inheritance which can be transmitted from one generation to another, is the practice of virtue, which implies a hearty and sincere homage from the creature

to the Creator, a respect for the depositaries of the public authorities, obedience to the laws, and the love of industry. In order to substitute wholesome for vicious opinions, useful for baneful customs, he has painted abuses and prejudices under the most hideous forms, that a strong persuasion of the enormity of the evil, might the more readily dispose to adopt a remedy.

Aptitude of the Creoles for the Sciences.

The truth is that the Creoles of Terra Firma possess a quick, penetrating mind, and are more capable of application, than the Creoles of our colonies. They are inferior to them in elegant accomplishments, agreeable manners and genteel deportment, because the military exercises, horsemanship, dancing, music and drawing, constitute no part of their education. But from their successful application in the schools, and the facility with which they acquire a perfect knowledge of the civil law, one may judge, that nothing is wanting for the improvement of their disposition, but a direction towards objects, the knowledge of which tends to open the understanding, form the judgment and adorn the mind. Till the present period, the education of the Spanish Creoles, partook of those national prejudices, which inspired contempt for every thing that did not originate amongst themselves. They were fully persuaded, that there existed no just sentiments, no solid principles, nor sound morality, but amongst the Spaniards, and consequently that they would incur a loss

by a mixture of their own productions, with those of foreign nations. But a happy revolution of opinion is now on the eve of being accomplished, and every thing announces that the succeeding generation will exhibit to the astonished world the spectacle of a moral amelioration, atchieved by the increased energy of the national wisdom in consequence of the admission of whatever is useful in the principles of other nations. Indeed, all the Spanish youth, fully sensible of the insufficiency of their education, apply with avidity to the reading of foreign books, to supply the deficiency of domestic instruction. Amongst these very few are to be seen, who do not, with the aid alone of a dictionary, make a shift to translate French and English, and use every exertion to speak them both, but particularly the former. They do not, like their fathers, think that geography is an useless science, and that the history of mankind does not, by giving a view of the past, throw some light upon the future. It is at present agreed that commerce contains a theory more worthy of being attended to, than it has yet been among the Spaniards. They begin to be less ashamed of studying its regulations, and even of pursuing it as an occupation. Their extravagant passion for distinction is the only prejudice which seems to maintain its ground; but that in its turn will naturally yield to the progress of reason.

This revolution, which is daily progressing among the Spaniards, discovers itself even in the articles of dress and external show, in which their partiality appears decidedly in favour of the French fashions. The sword, that dear companion of every Spaniard, VOL. I.

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