»2 



FEELINGS ON NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. 



Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs saw no 

 reason to oppose this amendment. The Govern- 

 ment would of course reserve to itself the right of 

 withdrawing the pension, if the family neglected 

 to observe the condition of residence on which it 

 was granted. Two members objected to the 

 granting of any pension, on the ground that other 

 widows and orphans deserved better of the 

 republic, and ought to have their claims first 

 attended to. The first part of the proposition, 

 granting the pension to Madame Iturbide, was 

 agreed to. The latter part of it, extending the 

 same to her family after her death, was postponed 

 for further consideration. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



State of the public Feeling in Mexico with respect to Na- 

 tional Independence. — Iturbide's Views with respect to 

 the Revolution in Mexico. — Excellent Character of the 

 Spaniards, considered individually. 



. It has sometimes been thought by strangers, 

 that the South Americans generally were indifferent 

 to the independence of their country, and that a 

 great European force, by encouraging and pro- 

 tecting the expression of contrary opinions, might, 

 ere long, succeed in re-establishing the ancient 

 authority. This I am thoroughly convinced is a 

 mistake, and he who should reason by analogy 

 from the fate of Spain to that of South America, 

 if exposed to the same trial, would confound two 

 things essentially dissimilar. Were he to sup- 

 pose that the cry of " Viva la Independencia " in the 

 one, and " Viva la Constitution " in the other, are 

 indicative of an equal degree of sincerity and of 

 right apprehension of these subjects, he would be 

 greatly in error. There is this important distinc- 

 tion : the greater number of those people in Spain 

 who called out for the constitution, knew very 

 imperfectly what they were asking for ; whereas, 

 every individual in the new States of South 

 America, however ignorant of the true nature 

 and extent of civil liberty, or however indifferent 

 about other political matters, is strongly possessed 

 of the same clear, consistent, and steady concep- 

 tion, of what national independence means ; and 

 well knows its important practical consequences. 

 It is because these sentiments are universal, and 

 receive every hour more and more strength and 

 confirmation, from every incident, fortunate or 

 otherwise, which arises, that I venture to speak so 

 decidedly of the utter impossibility of again re- 

 ducing to political and moral thraldom so vast a 

 population, every member of which is at length 

 fully awakened to a sense of his own interest and 

 honour. 



In all companies, the conversation invariably 

 turned on political topics ; and it was very curious 

 to observe, amidst much prejudice and error in 

 reasoning} and much exaggeration and mis-state- 

 ment of facts, how justly every one felt on the 

 occasion, and witli what delight they exercised the 

 new privilege of uttering their thoughts freely ; a 

 privilege} it may bo remarked, which is at once 

 cause and effect : since we know, that in former 

 times, when no freedom of speech was permitted, 



the faculty of thinking to any purpose- was equally 

 repressed. These are truths which, though mere 



common-places, are not, on that account, the less 

 interesting to see confirmed in practice. At this 

 time every one not only took a pride in saying 

 what his opinions were, but seized every oppor- 

 tunity that occurred, or could be devised, to mani- 

 fest his political sincerity. The borders of the 

 ladies' shawls were wrought into patriotic mottos ; 

 the tops of the newspapers and play-bills bore 

 similar inscriptions ; patriotic words were set to 

 all the old national airs ; and I saw a child a few 

 days old munching a piece of gilt gingerbread, 

 stamped with the word Independencia ! 



I am aware that all this show proves little ; and 

 that nothing is more unsubstantial than this sort 

 of verbal enthusiasm, which evaporates at the first 

 show of opposition ; and certainly, taken singly, it 

 would be of small moment in a political point of 

 view, however amusing to witness on a great scale. 

 But it is no bad accompaniment to successful ac- 

 tion, and helps to keep alive the new-born spirit 

 of independence, when other and more important 

 causes are ready to give practical effect to the 

 sentiment. 



Patriotic exertions are always thought more 

 highly of when viewed from a distance, than when 

 examined closely. But, even in the eyes of those 

 who are present, the interest which a show of 

 patriotism excites is often at first of a very lively 

 character. This dazzling effect, however, speedily 

 goes off : the real characters and motives of the 

 actors become so well known to us, that the ficti- 

 tious representation of pure, disinterested, public 

 spirit, no longer pleases ; and at last we see little 

 in this revolutionary drama that is acted to the 

 life, but the cruelty and the sorrow. 

 • In the case of the Mexican revolution, Iturbide 

 endeavoured to conciliate all parties, and tried, by 

 various means, to unite the interests of the Old 

 Spaniards with those of the natives : but the re- 

 sult of the experiment shows how vain all such 

 attempts are. It was, in fact, entirely contrary 

 to the habits of the Spaniards, to form a solid 

 friendship with the people over whom they had 

 so long held absolute dominion : it was equally 

 contrary to the feelings of the Americans to repose 

 confidence in those who had never trusted them. 

 It is due, however, to Iturbide to say, that by the 

 idea of uniting the two heartily together, the blow 

 which was sure to fall eventually on the heads of 

 the Spaniards was deferred ; and more time was 

 given for them to wind up their affairs, and ren- 

 der their fate as little severe as possible. If this 

 was really the object, the device of the three 

 Guarantees, which Iturbide fell upon, was inge- 

 nious and statesmanlike. 



Since the Second Edition of this Work was 

 printed, I had the satisfaction of conversing with 

 Iturbide himself in London, just before he sailed 

 for Mexico, where he lost his life ; and I was grati- 

 fied to learn from his own mouth, that, as far as 

 his motives and conduct were concerned, my 

 statements were accurate. 



But the poor Spaniards had a very difficult task 

 to perform, and, upon the whole, they did not exe- 

 cute it well. For they could not bring themselves 

 to make a sincere effort to deserve the good-will 

 of the Americans, but viewed, with mortification 

 and envy, the growing prosperity of the country, 

 no longer exclusively theirs. They felt the foun- 

 dation of their own fortunes gradually slipping 



