262 



BANISHMENT OF ITURBIDE'. 



" There will not be wanting persons/' says he, 

 " who will charge me with a want of foresight, 

 and with weakness in reinstating a Congressj of 

 whose defects I was aware, and the members of 

 which will always continue to be my determined 

 enemies. My reason for so acting was this, that 

 I should leave in existence some acknowledged 

 authority, because the convocation of another 

 Congress would have required time, and circum- 

 stances did not admit of any delay. Had I taken 

 any other course, anarchy would inevitably have 

 ensued upon the different parties showing them- 

 selves, and the result would have been the disso- 

 lution of the state. It was my wish to make this 

 last sacrifice for my country * 



Iturbide was accordingly banished to Italy, 

 and came subsequently to England. He has 

 lately (June 1824) sailed for Mexico, having 

 been urgently solicited to do so by his country- 

 men, " who,*^' to use his own words, " consider 

 his presence as necessary to the establishment of 

 unanimity there, and to the establishment of Go- 



* Iturbide*s Statement^ p. 88. 



