444 SPANISH AMERICA. 



official intelligence was received that the 

 Cortes of Spain had declared the treaty of 

 Cordova illegal, null, and void. 



The army, whose determination was at 

 the time sanctioned by the Congress, then 

 elected Iturbid6 Emperor, who ascended 

 the throne, assuming the style of Augustin 

 .the First. The Congress, however, were not 

 cordially united in his favour ; and after 

 several squabbles, he at length, on the 30th 

 of October 1822, dissolved it by force, and 

 formed a new assembly, called the Insti- 

 tuent Junta, composed of forty-five members 

 of the Congress. An insurrection shortly 

 afterwards broke out, headed by an officer 

 named Santana, a strenuous republican; 

 and the chiefs who took upon them its di- 

 rection, having, in a document called the 

 act of Casa Mata, published the 1 st of Fe- 

 bruary 1823, decided that the Congress 

 should be again assembled, but proscribing 

 certain members, and directing others to 



