stance of regal abjectness. It would have been long before they
revolted against their hereditary Spanish ruler; but to find themselves
given away by him in so ignominious a manner, was a degradation which
they felt the more deeply from its being almost the only one that had
been hitherto spared them. Discontent was universal; and by a unanimous
and popular movement, the decree was publicly burned.

With just indignation did the Mexicans now discover that those persons
who had hitherto most prided themselves on their loyalty and fidelity to
the king and the reigning dynasty, were precisely the first to transfer
their allegiance to the new sovereign. The whole of the government
officers, Spaniards nearly to a man, hastened to take measures for the
surrender of the nation to its new ruler, without even enquiring whether
it approved of the change. One man only was in favour of a more
honourable expedient, and that man was Iturrigaray, the viceroy. Well
acquainted with the cowardice and cunning of his captive sovereign, the
former of which qualities had dictated the decree, he had nevertheless
formed a plan to preserve Mexico for him, in accordance with the wish of
its population. A junta, composed of Spaniards and of the most
distinguished Mexicans, was to represent the nation till the arrival of
further news or orders from Europe. This plan was generally approved of
by the Mexicans, who looked forward with unbounded delight to the moment
when they should have a voice in the public affairs of their country.
The joy was universal; but in the very midst of this joy, and of the
preliminaries to the carrying out of this project, the author of it, the
viceroy himself, was seized in his palace by his own countrymen,
conducted with his family to Vera Cruz, and slipped off to Spain as a
state prisoner.

By this lawless proceeding, it was made evident to the weakest
comprehension, that so long as the Spaniard ruled, the Mexican must
remain in a state of unconditional slavery; that he could never hope to
obtain a share in the management of his country; and that the act of
violence of which Iturrigaray had been the victim, had been solely
caused by the disposition he had shown to pave the way for the gradual
emancipation of the Creoles. From this moment may be dated the decision
of the Mexicans to get rid of the Spaniards at any price; and a
conspiracy was immediately organized, which was joined by at least a
hundred of the principa