DECREE OF THE CORTES. 



259 



not renounced any one of the rights which she 

 possesses over the aforesaid colonies. 



3d. That government be charged to preserve^ 

 by all possible means, and reinforce with all speed, 

 those points in the American provinces which still 

 remain united with the mother country, obedient 

 to her authority, and opposed to the mal-contents ; 

 proposing to the Cortes such resources as it may 

 require, and which it has not at its own dis- 

 posal.''' 



This was, undoubtedly, what Iturbide, know- 

 ing the temper of the court of Madrid, had ex- 

 pected ; and the Congress, together with the in- 

 habitants of Mexico, and the troops, immediate- 

 ly decided, " That, by the foregoing declaration 

 of Spain, the Mexican nation was freed from the 

 obligations of that treaty, as far as Spain was 

 concerned ; and that, as, by the third article of 

 the treaty, the Constitutional Congress were left 

 at liberty, in such event, to name an Emperor ; 

 they thought fit, in consequence, not only in pur- 

 suance of their own opinion, but in accordance 

 with the voice of the people, to elect Don Au- 

 gustin de Iturbide the First, Constitutional Em- 



