Nevertheless, the peasant contrived to support himself on the
maize and vegetables which he grew in the neighbourhood of his hut and
by the pigs which he reared. He knew well enough, nevertheless, that,
although he might expect to maintain a precarious existence by this
means, he could anticipate nothing whatever beyond.
It was many years before the financial benefits of the rebellion
filtered through to these humble classes. The greater part of the
peasants, being fond of show and amusement, were Royalist at heart, and
were more adapted for a Monarchy than for a Republic. As is usually the
case with folk of a peaceful and tractable disposition, they were not
consulted in the matter at all. They had groaned on occasion under the
Monarchy, and on the first establishment of the Republic they continued
to groan from an even greater cause.
The matter was very different with the superior classes of colonists.
The cause for which they had fought was of vital importance to them, and
by the change from the status of a colony to that of a Republic they had
gained everything. Before, they had been mere colonials, slighted by the
Spaniards on every possible occasion, and permitted no say in public
affairs; now they had leaped at a bound to their proper place, and were
at the head of their new State.
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