Page 345 - Vida y Obra de Vizcardo Guzman - Vol-1

Nueva Colección Documental de la Independencia del Perú
Vida y obra de Juan Pablo Viscardo y Guzmán
re of the oppression to which the colonies of Spain have been subjected; and,
after enlarging on the galling restraints in respect to personal liberty and the
ruinous effects of the exorbitant commercial monopoly to which they have
been condemned, he alludes to their exclusion from all offices of profit and
trust, even their own country, in a strain of patriotic indignation.
After this picture of slavery, the author proceeds to demonstrate the
foundations of iberty; and, considering the education he had received, the
country where he was reared, and the society to wich he belonged, the bene-
ficence and justness of hie views are worthy of no ordinary approbation. He
then displays the solid principles of liberty which were orginally interwoven
in the constitution of Spain and assited by the spirit of the people; and, in
the following short passage, states, with much discemmet, the miserable, but
delusive causes of its loss.
La reunion des reyaumes de Castille et d’Arragon, ainsi que les grands
Etats, qui dans le meme temps échurent aux rois d’Espagne, et les trésors des
Indes, dennerent a la couronne d’Espagne une prépondérance imprévue, et
qui devint su puissante, qu’en tres peu de temps elle renversa toutes les ba-
rrieres élevés par la prudence de nos ayeux, pour assurer la liberté de leur
postérité: l’autorité royale, telle que la mer sortie de ses bornes, inonda toute la
monarchie, et la volunté du roi et de ses ministres devint la loi universelle.
Le pouvoir despotique une fois si solidement établi, l’ombre meme de
ses anciens cortes n’exista plus; il ne resta aux droits naturels, civils [279] et re-
ligieux des Espagnols d’autre sauvegarde que le bon plasir des ministres ou les
anciennes formalités de justice, appellées voies juridiques; ces demieres ont pu
quelquefois s’opposer a l’oppression de l’innocence, sans empecher cependant
que le proverbe ne soit toujours vérifié: La vont les lois, ou veulent les rois’ (p.
23, 24).
When he at last comes to call upon his countrymen, from a united
view of the nature of things and of their own particular circumstances, to
adopt the resolution of becoming their own masters, he cites, for their exam-
ple, the ceebrated revolt of the provinces of Holland, which all the word ad-
mires, against the tyranny and oppression of Spain; that of Portugal against
the same country; the recent acquisition of independence by teir neighbours
in North America, an event which had made upon them, as might be expec-
ted, teh deepest impression; and concludes, in a strainof of fublime piety and
genuine philanthropy, which cannot be too much admired— including every

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