r the
lists and struggle for its independence, with all the fury of the
captive who breaks the long-worn fetters from his chafed and bleeding
limbs, and seeks his deliverance in the utter extermination of his
jailers.

For three hundred years had the Mexicans groaned under the lash of their
taskmasters, ruled by monarchs whom they never beheld, and enduring
innumerable evils, without nourishing a single rebellious or
revolutionary thought. If the breeze of liberty that blew over from the
north, occasionally awakened in their minds the idea of an improved
state of things, the hope, or rather wish, speedily died away, crushed
and annihilated under the well-combined system of oppression employed by
the Spaniards. The nobles had ranged themselves entirely on the side of
the government, the middle classes had followed their example, and the
people were compelled to obey. All was quiet in Mexico, long after
insurrections had broken out in Spanish colonies further south; and this
state of tranquillity was not even disturbed, when news were brought of
the invasion of Spain by its hereditary foe, of the occupation of Madrid
by French armies, and of the scenes of butchery that took place in that
capital on the second day of May 1808. The Mexicans, far from availing
themselves of this favourable opportunity to proclaim their own
independence, hastened to give proofs of their sympathy with the
aggrieved honour of the mother country; and on all sides resounded
curses upon the head of the powerful usurper who had ousted their
legitimate but unknown monarch from his throne, and now detained him in
captivity. Intelligence of the Junta's declaration of war against
Napoleon was received with unbounded applause, and all were striving to
demonstrate their enthusiasm in the most efficient manner, when a royal
decree arrived, issued by the very prince whose misfortunes they were
deploring, and by which Mexico was ordered to recognise as its sovereign
the brother of that usurper who had dispossessed its rightful king.

A stronger proof of Ferdinand's unworthiness to rule, could hardly have
been given to the Mexicans than the decree in question. Loyalty had long
been an article of faith with the whole nation; but even as the blindest
superstition is sometimes metamorphosed on a sudden into total
infidelity, passing from one extreme to the other, so was all feeling of
loyalty utterly extinguished in the breast of the Mexican people by this
in