Nothing could possibly be more favourable to the colonies than the publication of a constitutional form of government, and the liberty of the press, as it was sanctioned by the cortes. The restrictions were such as would have produced a clamour in England, but to a slave an hour of rest is an hour of perfect freedom, and to men whose pens had been chained by political trammels and inquisitorial anathemas, a relief from such restrictions was hailed as an absolute immunity. Those colonies that still remained faithful to the mother country had an opportunity of reading the periodical papers, a thing unknown at this time, unless we except the government gazette; and although such news as was unfavourable to the Spanish system did not appear in print, yet the barefaced falsehoods of the old ministerial paper were checked in their exaggerations, by the appearance of authentic intelligence in the new papers, and the public were informed of such facts as had taken place: they were apprised of the establishment of republican governments in Mexico, Colombia, Buenos Ayres, and Chile--facts that would have been disguised by the old established authorities, and the people would have been stigmatized by the name of banditti, of discontented indians, a gang of traitors, or a horde of highwaymen and freebooters. The inhabitants of Lima wished for a change in their form of government as ardently perhaps as those of any other part of America; and for not having established one, they have been considered by many as a race of effeminate listless cowards, and have been reported as such--but most undeservedly. Although in a cause adverse to their own interest, for many years they sustained the brunt of the war against all the forces that could be brought to the field by those whom they were taught to consider as enemies. Soldiers are instructed by the precepts and the examples of their commanders, and rarely reflect on what is right or wrong; otherwise history would not present us with such numberless instances of armed forces acting in open hostility against their very homes, their friends, and their parents; wherever a city is garrisoned by a military force, the inhabitants as well as the soldiers must submit to the will of the commanders. Such was the state of Lima: many of the soldiers it is true were Limeños, but many were from different parts of Peru, and nearly the whole of the officers were Spaniards, and those who were not were under the suspicious eye of jealous masters.