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"If, however, the sick man is endowed with a strong constitution, that with timely prescription promises a probabie return of health, it would be unpardonable to act the part of a passive spectator. We heed not that the selfish condemn, that the self-admiring wise censure, or the parricidal accuse us. Reflections of a higher nature guide us, and in the spirit of our responsible calling as a public writer, we will never cease to cry aloud, 'Let us save our country let us save our country!"'"

Nothing would more forcibly illustrate the rapid encroachment of despotism in the Island than the publication of a document like the above, or anything discreditable, or disparaging to the slave-dealers. Whoever should dare make the experiment, would most certainly do it at the risk of his life. Further comment on the progress of tyranny is unnecessary.

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CHAPTER XXIII.

A Wily Old General.

OT to lose sight of the order of events, it must be borne in

NOT

mind that immediately after the overthrow of the constitution,

and precisely at the time the persecution for revolutionary opinions commenced under the order of 1825, the country was in its most flourishing and healthy period. The fruits of the several acts for promoting the country's welfare and the development of its resources, which owed their origin to corporations, before they had lost their vitality, had been gathered. Moreover, the judicious and liberal policy already described was continued by the intendant, who could then act with great independence. As chief of the financial department, the Count de Villanueva regulated the mode of keeping accounts, corrected abuses, introduced greater simplicity in the collection of taxes, and established several facilities beneficial to the merchants.

By means of his great influence at Madrid, he was enabled to supersede the captain-general in the presidency of the consulado, and directing the labors of that body, he made them subserve the development and improvement of the country. Availing himself of the general wealth, and of the increasing agriculture of the Island, he daringly taxed its products, and it is generally believed that it was during his administration, taxes of various kinds were imposed for the first time without the consent of those to be affected by them. He represented "de facto" the people of Cuba; was the chief fiscal agent; the friend and adviser of the captain-general; the favorite of Ferdinand's government.

A skillful and mighty authority like his could, at such a period, draw abundant resources from the country for the metropolis, and promote at the same time the interests of the former by reforming

abuses. To both these objects were his exertions successfully directed. To his discriminating judgment it was very evident that a vast territory, capable of great agricultural production, could not maintain its position, much less make progress, should its commerce be again limited to the mother-country. He was aware that the probable results of such limitation would be the total annihilation of the surplus revenue, of which they were so desirous at court; the immediate paralysis of agriculture, the fountain of the Island's wealth; and a very extensive contraband trade.

Public Improvements.

Villaneuva had the waters of the Husille brought into the city by a well-devised though costly plan; the roads near Havana macadamized, and a mud-machine erected to clear the anchorage and preserve the wharves. He established the more modern and rational system of selling at auction to the lowest bidder the performance of various services, particularly for the government or the public. He enlarged the Spanish navy from the navy-yard of Havana; the regular intercourse between the two countries by mail packets was his suggestion, and the Güines railroad is a crowning, ever-memorable and enduring monument of his enterprise and genius.

Amidst these improvements, beneficial to Spain and the Island, the count was enabled to make frequent and heavy remittances to the general treasury in Spain, which was so received by them that the demands were gradually augmented without any regard to the means of meeting them, and the inevitable consequence was the sacrifice of the necessities of the Island to the urgency of their payment. Thus it happened that the Bank of St. Ferdinand, the establishment of which was one of the acts which do honor to Villanueva, had no opportunity of doing any service to the public, as its capital was specially sent for from Madrid.

In brief, Count Villanueva's administration can in no way be better appreciated than by bearing in mind that whatever liberal and enlightened views he carried into practical effect, he had nothing similar to guide him or excite his emulation in all the Spanish territory.

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His power in Cuba was great, his influence in Madrid had no equal, and his credit abroad was such that his promise and acceptance was a source of revenue at court. The authority of the Captain-General himself being eclipsed by his, it is certainly no matter of surprise that public bodies and individuals should have sunk into insignificance.

It was in such a state of political weakness and general prosperity that the enactment concerning the holding of property, which was the first liberal act of Christina's regency, found Cuba. Under it the inhabitants of the Island observed, as they always had done, the laws promulgated in the mother country. A number of members were added to the municipalities, equal to the number of hereditary members, and the former were by express proviso to be individuals who were highest on the tax list. Thus formed, these corporations elected the deputies who represented the interests of the Island at the Spanish Congress.

Deprived of Deputies to Madrid.

This slight political change, which enabled the corporations of Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Puerto Principe to name three deputies in the "estamentos" without other free institutions, was certainly not calculated to alarm the royal authority, however jealous it might be supposed. Three votes, more or less, could not of course cause any uneasiness; but it is ever the consequence of free institutions, in just proportion to their worth, to diminish the importance of individuals. Here, then, was one of the causes of that strenuous opposition so successfully exerted to deprive the Island of deputies to Madrid.

Such a refusal, where there is an immense amount of productive capital to be benefited or injured, or destroyed by the enactments of government, and where the colony is not even allowed delegates to represent its interests at court, has no parallel in any civilized country professing to approve of liberal institutions.

The Island was at that time governed by General Tacon, whose short-sighted, narrow views, and jealous and weak mind, were joined to an uncommon stubbornness of character. Never satiated with power, it was through his influence that the wealthy portion of the community was divested of the privileges conferred on them by the

estatuto. He even deprived the old municipalities of Havana of the faculty of naming the under-commissaries of police.

In his own immodest report of his reign, as it was justly termed, he enumerated the very extensive and costly buildings and public works he had constructed, and from the singular manner in which he accounts for procuring the ordinary means, we must suppose he had the power of working miracles. To sustain his absolute government by trampling on every institution, was the necessary consequence of his first violent and unjustifiable act. It was consequential upon his own and his followers' efforts.

Outrages on Personal Liberty.

For any power, any institution, not dependent on the palace of the captain-general, might be the means of denouncing abuses, of exposing the real deformity of his and their pretended patriotism; and the numberless parasites whose interest ever was to blind the royal eyes, magnified the virtues of their hero, while they were rapidly accumulating fortunes at his side. In order to obtain credit in the management of the police, he displayed a despotic and even brutal activity in the mode of exacting from the under-officers, distributed in the several wards of the city, under personal responsibility, the apprehension and summary prosecution of criminals. They soon found that there would be no complaint, provided they acted vigorously and brought up prisoners. So far from presuming their innocence, or requiring proof of their crimes, those who were once arrested were put to the negative and difficult task of proving their innocence. The more unwarrantable the acts of his subalterns the more acceptable to him, since they, in his opinion, exhibited the energy of his authority. They trembled in his presence, and left it to persecute, to invent accusations, to imprison, and spread terror and desolation among the families of the land!

It is but just to add, that the banditti and thieves and professed gamblers were terrified by his sweeping scythe, and became much more modest than they had been during the brief government of the weak and infirm General Roquefort, the predecessor of Tacon. The

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