The Spaniards determined that none of the learning of their
country should pass into the colonies. A certain number of volumes were
permitted to cross the sea, it is true, but these were of the species
that might be readily understood by a child of a few summers, and were
ridiculously inadequate to the most ordinary intellect of adults in
civilized regions. These themselves were subjected first of all to a
close inspection on the part of the Inquisition in Spain. After this
they had to pass the Board of Censors appointed by the Council of the
Indies. Even here the precautions did not end, for on their arrival in
the colony they were once again inspected as a safeguard, lest any
secular matter or work of fiction should by any chance be overlooked and
suffered to remain.
In short, the policy by which the motherland endeavoured to retain for
her own benefit the riches of her colonies was undoubtedly one of the
most benighted ever conceived by a European nation. It amounted to
nothing less than a consistent checking and deadening of the
intelligence of her sons oversea in order that their atrophied senses
should fail to detect the true manner in which they were being shorn of
their property and privileges.
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