the upper classes by the lower, tyranny and licentiousness would follow, smothering, perhaps in its very cradle, each national autonomy. How the proposed new political organization was to increase this danger does not appear. Possibly opposition on the part of Great Britain was foreseen, or Cárlos could not be brought to voluntarily abdicate his undivided sovereignty over the immense domains of America. Aranda at an audience persisted in his views, but the king continued his objections.[1] The plan was, therefore, postponed to a future day; and the policy of crossing the races was warmly persevered in.
The real object in view on the minister's part, as avowed by him, for an independent Mexico, was to counteract Anglo-Saxon supremacy and protestantism in America.[2] Indeed, Aranda apprehended serious evils to Spain from the act he had just performed at Paris, on the ground that the American federal republic would in due time assume greatness, and forget the benefits received at the hands of France and Spain, and think only of self-aggrandizement; and this would naturally be at the expense of the Spanish possessions in America, beginning with the Floridas in order to obtain control of the gulf of Mexico.[3]
The administration of public affairs had been by direction of Viceroy Galvez in charge of the real audiencia since the 20th of October. On the evening of the 3d of November, just fifteen minutes after
- ↑ It is related, and I give the story for what it may be worth, deeming it well suited to the character of both men, that the king playfully twitted the minister with stubbornness, and was repaid in kind. 'Conde de Aranda, thou art more stubborn than an Aragonese mule.' 'Pardon me, please your Majesty, I know another still more stubborn than myself.' 'And who may he be?' asked the king. 'The sacred royal majesty of my liege lord, Cárlos III.,' was the reply. The king smiled and dismissed him with his usual afiability. Tejas, Ligeras Indic., 3.
- ↑ 'Neutralizar la prepotencia y consiguientes influencias de la raza sajona, y con ellas del protestantismo en el Nuevo Mundo.' Martinez, V. J., Sinópsis hist. filosóf. polít., i. 20.
- ↑ Aranda, Mem. Secreta, in Variedades de Jurisp., v. app. 39-43; Aranda, Mem., in El Indicador, iii. 158-05; Ramirez, Vida de Motolinia, in Icazbalceta. Col. de Doc., i. cxvii.-viii.
