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DEPOSITION OF THE VICEROY LINIERS.

chief immediately took part against Liniers. Alzaga returned to Buenos Ayres; once more inflamed the public mind at a meeting of the municipality; raised forthwith a formidable tumult, rung the alarmbell, raised the royal standard; and the end of the whole was an incessant cry of " Down with Liniers! a Junta! a Junta! as in Spain!"

A deputation from the Cabildo waited on Liniers, and actually procured his signature to a deed of abdication. But although the whole business had been managed so quickly and secretly, as to take him quite by surprise; it was soon found that he was a man of too much determination and energy to allow his enemies to draw a permanent advantage from a momentary alarm. The result of the fracas was the triumph of the viceroy. That very day, and ere sunset, the viceroy seized Alzaga, and several of his municipal colleagues, who, in their robes of office, were escorted by an armed force from the town-hall to a small vessel; and during a cold and stormy night, they were embarked, and found themselves on their way to Patagonia, as banished men, without having even been permitted to communicate with either families or friends.

The public affairs of Buenos Ayres were now in a peculiar position. The contest for political supre

ALZAGA AND ELIO.

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macy lay between the viceroy and the municipality; the strictly legal power of the former was supported by the civic troops and the leading creoles or patricians of the colony; the pretensions of the latter, founded on their staunch adhesion to the juntas of the mother country, were seconded by all the Spaniards in Buenos Ayres.

By both parties the dispute was referred to the government at Madrid; but in the meantime General Elio sent a vessel of war to Patagonia, the captain of which, with an armed force, landed, released the exiles, and carried them in triumph to Monte Video.

The Spanish government, or central junta, decided in favour of Alzaga and his party; the municipal body was restored to all its honours, and the old Spaniards at large were informed that the mother country did not doubt of their fidelity. Elio was in particular distinguished by the Court, and a higher rank in the army conferred upon him. On the other hand, Don Baltazar Hidalgo de Cisneros, was named viceroy in the room of Liniers, who was recalled to Spain in disgrace; and the creoles were made to feel in many indirect and insulting ways, the displeasure of the central Junta

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ACCESSION OF CISNEROS.

at home, on account of their support of the legitimate authority of Liniers.

The accession of Cisneros to the viceroyalty increased among the creoles their now awakened hatred of the rule of Spain. The new viceroy's power emanated from a weak body: he exercised it with great indiscretion, and, at times, with much cruelty. He placed himself in connexion with Elio; approached Buenos Ayres with precaution and distrust; ordered Liniers precipitately to give up his command; banished all French officers; expelled foreign merchants; arrested creoles on unfounded suspicions; and caused altogether a strong feeling throughout the country against his coming rule.

But if the creoles received him with only a constrained respect, he was hailed with raptures by the Spaniards, who thought they once more saw their ascendancy secure. Yet Cisneros was encompassed by difficulties. He could not trust to his troops, who had all loved his predecessor; and he could the less count on their services that he was unable to pay them. His treasury was exhausted; and having in vain appealed to the Spanish merchants for aid, he was

IMPORTANT RESULTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 87

at length compelled to adopt a measure which struck another and decisive blow at Spanish supremacy. This was the opening of the port to foreign vessels and foreign goods, on the payment of certain duties;-a concession made, no doubt, to the pecuniary wants of the state; although the viceroy's resolution on the subject was much influenced by the powerful and eloquent pleadings of Don Mariano Moreno, in his celebrated paper, entitled, Representation in the name of the landowners of the provinces of the River Plate, in favour of a free trade with the English nation."

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Doctor Moreno was at once the most estimable, the most enlightened, and probably the purest patriot that Buenos Ayres ever produced. He was the originator of the revolution. Bold, penetrating, and intrepid,—of high principles, yet gifted with great suavity of manners;-the irreproachable innocence of his life and integrity of his conduct, his warm heart and his unsullied honour, commanded the love of his countrymen, the respect of his enemies, and the firmest attachment of the large circle of his friends, the élite of his native city. Alas! scarcely had he shown all his value, when he was cut short in his career. He

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THE VICEROY CISNEROS.

lived only long enough to prove to his fellow citizens, the loss which they sustained, and over which they had to mourn, when death bereaved their country of his talents and his patriotism.

Such was the man who, under a despotic viceroyalty of Spain, advocated the rights of a free trade, and who, by his earnest eloquence, was mainly instrumental in establishing them for his oppressed countrymen. The old Spaniards with much reason looked upon this great measure as a death blow to their own power, and thenceforth hating Cisneros more cordially than they ever had loved him, they left no stone unturned to ensure his ruin. Thus the viceroy became entirely isolated, losing the support of the Spanish party, while he never had been able to gain the confidence of the American.

Cisneros belonged to the naval service of Spain, and had commanded a ship in the battle of Trafalgar. He had nothing attractive in his manners or deportment. He was cold and taciturn, and with all the plainness, he had none of the engaging frankness of the sailor. He had been elevated to his present dignity by a power, the central Junta, whose duration was more than doubtful, and his precarious tenure of office, with his surrounding difficulties,