Note 83 — PART I
Reading edition
Of the prohibitory system pursued by Spain towards her colonies, it may perhaps be said, with as much justice as of her wars, that it was, “en faire un desert pour s’en assurer l’empire;”83 for few systems could have been better calculated to assure the first object; the last has miserably disappointed its advocates, and left a striking lesson to the world, at which humanity has cause to rejoice.