the country, in which they were destined to hold so conspicuous a station, until they were sent out to enter at once upon its richest benefices.
It is true that some of these new Dignitaries displayed a spirit truly apostolical; while others have left monuments of their munificence, which prove, that they regarded their revenues, not as a patrimony, but as held in trust for the benefit of their adopted country.[1] Still they were strangers,—they were a privileged Caste, they held, what they did hold, to the prejudice, and exclusion of the Natives; and these were offences which no virtues could redeem. They sufficiently account for the fact of so many of the first leaders of the Revolution having been Clergymen: Hidalgo, Morelos, Matamoros, and numberless others, who perished during the war, were all Curas, or Parish priests; and the facility with which they induced the lower classes to follow their standards, at a time, when, out of twenty of their adherents, nineteen knew nothing of the rights of the cause in which they were engaged, is no mean proof of the advantages which the Crown might have derived from their support, had it been secured by a timely participation in the honours of their profession.
As it was, they were compelled, like the rest of
- ↑ I allude more particularly to the establishment of hospitals, which seems to have been general in all the Bishoprics, and to the construction of the magnificent Aqueduct of Valladolid, which was the work of one of the Bishops of that See.
