304 



HIS CAREER EXILED TO ITALY. 



also the establishment of a military tribunal in the capital, \fith 

 powers but little inferior to those exercised by the Spanish com- 

 mandants during the revolution ; and when these proposals were 

 firmly rejected, he arrested, on the night of the 26th August, 1822, 

 fourteen of the deputies who had advocated, during the discussion, 

 principles but little in unison with the views of the government." 



This high handed measure, and the openly manifested displea- 

 sure of congress, produced so complete a rupture between the em- 

 peror and the popular representatives, that it was impossible to 

 conduct public affairs with any concert of action. Accordingly, 

 Iturbide dissolved the assembly, and on the 30th of October, 1822, 

 created an Instituent Junta of forty-five persons selected by himself 

 from amongst the most pliant members of the recent congress. 

 This irregularly formed body was intolerable to the people, while 

 the expelled deputies, who returned to their respective districts, 

 soon spread the spirit of discontent and proclaimed the American 

 usurper to be as dangerous as the European despot. 



In November, General Garza headed a revolt in the northern 

 provinces. Santa Anna, then governor of Vera Cruz, declared 

 againt the emperor. General Echavari, sent by Iturbide to crush 

 the future president of Mexico, resolved not to stem the torrent of 

 public opinion, and joined the general he had been commissioned 

 to capture. Guadalupe Victoria, — driven to his fastnesses by the 

 emperor, who was unable to win the incorruptible patriot, de- 

 scended once more from the mountain forests, where he had been 

 concealed, and joined the battalions of Santa Anna. And, on the 

 1st of February, 1823, a convention, called the "Act of Casa- 

 Mata," was signed, by which the re-establishment of the National 

 Representative Assembly was pledged. 



The country was soon in arms. The Marques Vibanco, Gen- 

 erals Guerrero, Bravo, and Negrete, in various sections of the 

 nation, proclaimed their adhesion to the popular movement ; and 

 on the 8th of March, 1823, Iturbide, finding that the day was lost, 

 offered his abdication to such members of the old congress as he 

 was able to assemble hastily in the metropolis. The abdication 

 was, however, twice refused on the ground that congress, by ac- 

 cepting it, would necessarily sanction the legality of his right to 

 wear the crown ; nevertheless, that body permitted his departure 

 from Mexico, after endowing him liberally with an income of 

 twenty-five thousand dollars a year, besides providing a vessel to 

 bear him and his family to Leghorn in Italy. 



Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete entered the capital on the 27th of 



