IIEVOLUTION. 



237 



long and arduous contest contributed materially 

 to the more successful conduct of the second Re- 

 volution, of which I am about to give a very brief 

 sketch. 



About the middle of 1820, accounts were re- 

 ceived in Mexico of the Revolution in Spain, and 

 it was soon made known, that orders had been 

 sent to Apodaca, the Viceroy, to proclaim the 

 Constitution, to which Ferdinand the VII. had 

 been obliged to swear. But it appears that Apo- 

 daca, and some of the principal generals, acting 

 probably under secret orders from the king, re- 

 solved to resist the establishment of the constitu- 

 tion. The popular sentiment, as may be suppo- 

 sed, was against such a project ; and the seeds of 

 an extensive revolt were in this way sown by the 

 very persons, who, it may be supposed, had the 

 interests of the mother country most at heart. 

 New levies of troops were made by government to 

 suppress any attempt to declare the Constitution ; 

 and the whole country was gradually, and almost 

 insensibly, roused into military action. 



The chief obstacle, as it was thought by these 

 leaders, to the success of their plan, was the pre- 



