Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/150

 118 MEXICO. were banished to the Philippine Islands, and others sent to Spain, to be there tried, or confined in the Castle of St. John of Ulloa. The Viceregal authority was confided, for the time, to the Archbishop Lizana, and an account of all that had taken place transmitted to Spain, for the approba- tion of the Central Junta. But although the Mexicans submitted at the moment to these innovations, they were far from viewing them with in- difference. The moral change which a few months had pro- duced was extraordinary ; they had learnt to think, and to act ; their old respect for the King's Lieutenant was destroyed by the manner in which his authority had been thrown off", and his dignity profaned by his countrymen ; and they felt that the question was now, not one between their Sovereign and themselves, as subjects, but between themselves, and their /e/Zow-subjects, the European Spaniards, as to which should possess the right of representing the absent King. The insolent manner in which this right was claimed, as exclusively their own, by the Europeans, increased not a little the general irritation. The Ayuntamiento of Mexico was told by the Audiencia, in reply to some remonstrance in favour of the Viceroy, " that it possessed no authority, except over the leperos (lazzaroni,) of the capital and it was a favourite maxim with the Oidor Bataller, " that while a Manchego mule, or a Castilian cobler remained in the Peninsula, he had a right to govern the Americas." These sentiments were re-echoed by all the Europeans, both in the Capital, and in the principal towns of the Interior : they every where formed Patriotic associations for the defence of what they termed their rights, and armed themselves against the Natives, whose spirit these very precautions contributed to arouse. The Archbishop, whose moderation and concilia- tory policy accorded but little with these views, was allowed to retain the reins of government but a short time. He was