$20 
' Is it not, on the contrary, but too 
evident, that the absolute command of 
the province, the troops, and the trea- 
sure, confided to this man by the Vice- 
roy Apodaca, inspired him with the idea 
of attaining to the sovereignty of Mex- 
ico? Indeed, what other motive can be 
assigned for so sudden a desertion of 
the royal cause? If, by some miracle, 
he had been convérted into a real_pa- 
triot, at that critical moment, would he 
not have imitated the example of San- 
Martin, and devolved the mighty task 
of framing a constitution to a national 
convention,—instead ‘of imposing one 
upon the nation, and, to. the most 
zealous friends of freedom, a_ highly 
obnoxious one, by the “Plan of Ienala?”’ 
Previous to the meeting of the Cortes, 
he had himself determined that Mexico 
should be governed by an Emperor ; and, 
though a mock offer of the imperial 
crown was to be made to Ferdinand 
VII., all his measures really and mani- 
festly tended to secure it to himself. 
But was he not, at the same time, per- 
fectly conscious, that neither this, nor 
any other form. of monarchy, would, or 
could, by any moral possibility, be pre- 
ferred by the Mexicans to a republic, 
with such examples before their eyes as 
Europeafforded on oneside, and America 
on the other? In fact, notwithstanding 
all the artful precautions of Iturbidé, 
the republican spirit, in a very short 
time, broke. out in the national assem- 
bly, and gained a decided ascendancy. 
His violent dissolution of the Cortes 
plainly proved that he had no hesitation 
to sacrifice the most sacred rights of 
the people at the shrine of his ambition. 
His subsequent. abdication was, doubt- 
less, the effect of fear, or compulsion ; 
and his declaration, on that occasion, 
and on the eye of his wild attempt to 
resume. the crown, exhibits the mere 
common-place of pseudo-patriotism. As 
the grand instrument by which. the 
Mexican nation was roused to success- 
ful resistance against Spain, it might 
have been wished that, whatever _ his 
motives, were, he had been reserved. to 
a better fate: but the safety of his 
country forbade. That the Mexican 
government was not influenced. by any 
low or base revenge, appears from the 
provision of 8,000 dollars per annum, 
settled on the relict of this unfortunate 
and ambitious man; who. chosé to imi- 
tate the example of a Buonaparte, rather 
than that of a Washington. 
M.M. 
— 
Doubts regarding the Disinterment of Cromwell, &c. [May 1, 
For the Monthly Magazine. 4 
Historic Dousrs relative to the Distx- 
TERMENT of CroMWELL, BrapsHaw 
and Iruton. 
N reading that excellent criticism 
of “Southey’s Book of the Church, 
&c.,” which appeared in the last Num- 
ber of the Westminster Review, I was 
much -pleased to see with what power- 
ful discrimination the writer examined 
and refuted every false statement and 
dishonest | principle, therein advanced. 
But when the Reviewer is speaking of 
the Church, at, the period of the com- 
monwealth,—of the principal active 
characters at that time, and their subse- 
quent cruel treatment, he quotes, incon- 
siderately, I think, a story.in p. 196:— 
“That the bodies of Cromwell, Brad- 
shaw and Ireton were taken out of their 
graves, and drawn upon hurdles to Tyburn,; 
where they were hung up from ten in the 
morning tillsunset-of the next day; after 
which, their, heads were cut off, that they 
might be stuck up in public places,—and 
their trunks buried altogether, in one hole 
under the gallows.” 
This account. appears to me to be 
quite erroneous... As far as it respects 
Treton, it cannot be true; for Hume, in 
his History of England, states, certainly, 
that Ireton died in Ireland, of the 
plague, soon after the siege of Limerick. 
Respecting President Bradshaw, it 
appears equally untrue. A similar im- 
probable story is told by the author of 
* The Life of the Philipses, Milton’s 
Nephews,”’ lately published. - He relates 
of Bradshaw, that he died on the Ist of 
November 1659, and was dug out of his 
grave on the 30th of January 1661, after 
the Restoration, and hanged with Crom- 
well, Ireton and Pride. But, supposing 
him. to-have been buried in London, 
after his body had lain in the grave one 
year and three months, is it possible 
that it was in a state to be either hanged 
or beheaded, or even to be removed 
from its resting-place? I strongly sus- 
pect. that the above false account was 
trumped up, as many others. were, by 
their.malignant enemies, who were very 
numerous.at that period,;— and the party 
writers who followed, either unthink- 
ingly, or wickedly, copied it...I cannot 
reconcile this “account, nor’ that in 
*Neale’s History of the Puritans,” or 
Brookes’ Lives of the Puritans,” with 
what the learned and judicious Arch- 
deacon Blackburn relates: He states, 
with confidence, that Bradshaw died in 
Jamaica. It is highly probable,. that 
Bradshaw 
