The great distance that lay between Spain and America rendered it impossible for the mother country to be closely in touch with the colonies of the Pacific Coast; and, as time went on, the traditions of their ancestors became dimmed in the minds of succeeding generations of Spanish-Americans. Gradually the influence of the clergy and nobility of Peruvian birth began to be exerted in patriotic measures. In 1750, schools were placed in charge of the secular clergy, who were nearly all native Peruvians, with a natural sympathy for the welfare of their country. The enormous prestige of the home government suffered successive shocks in consequence of scandals that rang from one end of the colony to the other, reporting evils practised by the highest colonial officials, both of the Church and State. The Inquisition, the banishment of the Jesuits and the declining influence of Spain among the European powers, all tended toward a weakening of the royal authority; and though the effects were more perceptible in the provinces remote from the centre of Spanish power, yet even in Lima, under the very shadow of the viceroy’s palace, the patriotic spirit found expression. In the _tertulias_ of the Spanish-American nobility, as well as in the private councils of educators—who were forbidden to bring into the country any scientific books, or even the necessary apparatus for teaching physics, astronomy, and mechanics—the question of national independence began to be discussed, as early as the period of the French Revolution. Dr. Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza, rector of the college of San Carlos, and Bishop Pedro José Chavez, of Arequipa, were powerful advocates of reform; and the bishop’s disciples, Luna Pizarro, afterward Archbishop of Lima, and Gonzalez Vigil, exercised great influence in favor of national liberty. Dr. Unánue, president of the School of Medicine, Don José Gregorio Paredes, Don Gavino Chacaltana of Ica and Don José Pezet, editor of _La Gaceta de Lima_, were among the leading men of science and letters who declared themselves in favor of independence, though their reunions had to be suspended in consequence of the viceroy’s opposition. Two young lawyers, named Pardo and Silva, were arrested for holding patriotic meetings, the former being banished and the latter imprisoned for ten years. Secret societies were formed under the protection of the colonial nobility, and even in the drawing-rooms of noble dames the forbidden topic was discussed. The cause had its innocent victims, as all great reforms have had,—visionaries, whose aspirations were their only crime. José Gabriel Aguilar, of Huánuco, and Manuel Ubalde, of Cuzco, were put to death in the plaza of Cuzco, in 1805, for having interpreted a dream to signify that America would rise up against Spain and that they would be the chiefs of the insurrection.