336 MEXICO. 
aftei ward, Iturbid6 ascended the Imperial throne, to enjoy a short and 
troubled reign ; and it was, perhaps, by the false direction given to 
public sentiment and the ideas of the masses at this early moment of Inde- 
pendence, that we may attribute the subsequent disorders of the Republic. 
It is true, that Mexico was not then prepared for perfect democracy ; but 
as the nation required a patriotic direction, efforts should have been made, 
under proper checks and balances, to win Ae minds of the people to a 
love of those free institutions which the part and intellectual men of the 
country have been ever desiring. Dissatisfied as the Mexicans were with 
the administration and principles of Iturbide, they resorted to no acts of vio- 
lence against an individual who had so signally aided them in their recent 
conflict. They provided an ample support for himself and family, after his 
dethronement, and on the eleventh of May, 1823, he sailed for Leghorn. 
It is at this period that, in fact, commences the portion of Mexican his- 
tory with which it is our chief interest to deal. The war of Independence, 
as we have seen, was a war of escape. It settled no principle, — estab- 
lished no system. And when the old order of things had entirely disap- 
peared, the question rose as to what should be the government hereafter. 
Independence had opened the rest of the world to the inspection of the 
Mexicans. They beheld the progress of art, civilization, and freedom 
among their immediate neighbors at the north, and they resolved to adopt 
our system. 
After the departure of the Emperor, the Government remained provis- 
ionally in the hands of Bravo, Victoria, and Negrete ; and a National 
Representative body, after a session of fourteen months, formed a Con- 
stitution, (proclaimed on the 4th of October, 1824,) by which the sixteen 
original States were united in a Federal Republic. 
On the 1st of January, 1825, the first Congress under this Constitution 
assembled in the City of Mexico, and General Victoria was installed as 
President of the Republic. During the administration of this person, the 
spirit of discontent already broke forth among the ambitious spirits of the 
country, and there were several " Pronunciamientos," or decl'drations of 
distinguished men, seconded by portions of the military, intended to ex- 
cite revolutionary movements against the existing Government. 
The first of these gritos was headed by Robato and Colonel Staboli, 
and designed, as they declared, to deprive every Spaniard throughout the 
country, of public employment. The next, was by Padre Arenas, against 
the Federative System', and in favor of Centralism ; — and another, (also 
SLgainstfederation,) called the " Plan of Montanyo," was made at Tulan- 
cingo, but soon suppressed by Guerrero. 
Upon the whole, however, the administration of Victoria passed off with 
some degree of popularity, until near its close, when the two great parties 
of the country became embodied and powerful in the associations known 
as the Escoceses and Yorkinos, or, Scotch and York lodges. 
The Escoceses, or Scotch party, was decidedly in favor of the establish- 
men* of a political power with central strength, if not, indeed, of bringing 
