POLITICAL FEELING. 



263 



vernment.*" * The result will show how far Itur- 

 bide'^s decision is a wise one : that it is a patriotic 

 and disinterested decision, I have not the smallest 

 doubt ; and there does not appear the least reason 

 for apprehending that his views have any other 

 direction than the service of Mexico, and resist- 

 ance of the Spaniards, or any other nation which 

 may seek to reconquer that country. 



It has sometimes been thought by strangers, 

 that many of the South Americans were in- 

 different to the independence of their country, 

 and that a great European force, by encouraging 

 and protecting the expression of contrary opi- 

 nions, might, ere long, succeed in re-establishing 

 the ancient authority. This, I am thoroughly 

 convinced, is a mistake, and he who should rea- 

 son by analogy from the fate of Spain to that 

 of South America, if exposed to the same trial, 

 would confound two things essentially dissimilar : 

 if he were to suppose that the cry of Viva la 

 Independencia'^' in the one, and Viva la Con- 

 stitucion"** in the other, were indicative of an 



* Preface to I turbide's Statement, p. 15. 



