Conrad's English readers are also meant to disregard, on another level, the general
indictment. Though artfully dressed up with references to the Spanish race, "the
rest of Europe" is equally implicated here, and "our character,"
"our independence," "our institutions," "our
laws" gain in the mouth of Decoud an even more universal scope. Certainly
the paragraph eloquently sums up the specific tragedies of South America, but
the fact that the actors mentioned are all fictional emphasizes its illustrative
quality, and we need only recall Holroyd to find "high-sounding sentiments
and a supine morality" elsewhere.