Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/546

 506 APPENDIX. On the contrary, men were chosen who were well known for their at- tachment to the Independent cause : — men who had opposed all loan or donative to the Mother-country ; men who had voted for the Inde- pendent Juntas in 1808, or signed the representation of the clergy allu- ded to in Paragraph 41. 1 60. — The rebels had good reason to celebrate these elections, as they did, with salvos of artillery, and Te Deums, for they proved, (as they themselves said,) " That Mexico, and the whole kingdom, were in their favour, and that resistance would be no longer possible, since the power was in the hands of Creoles, who would force the Audiencia to be silent, or hang the Oidores and all the Gachupines together." 171. — The Viceroy's attempt to calm the agitation of the public by conciliatory measures proved utterly fruitless. 172. — The elections were just what was to be expected from the character of the electors. The two Alcaldes, the two Syndics, and sixteen Regidores, of whom the Ayuntamiento of Mexico was com- posed, were all men either justly suspected, or notoriously addicted to the Independent cause, and even in actual cori'espondenc.e with Insur- gent chiefs. 174.^The result of the Parochial elections for the ultimate election of Deputies to the Cortes, was equally unfortunate. Out of 591 electors, every one was taken from the class of the disaffected. 176. — The Junta, which was composed, at last, of twenty-eight elec- tors, (nineteen of the forty-one Partidos having sent no representatives,) contained only five Europeans, who came here to be the laughing-stock of the people : and of fourteen Deputies, 'and four Suplentes, — the Eu- ropeans and American patriots only obtained the sterile honour of a seat as Suplente. 181. — Such is the example held out to the other cities of this country, by the most excellent, noble, loyal and imperial city of Mexico ! 182. — Between it and the plan proposed in the name of the Insurgent Junta by one of its leaders. Dr. Cos, suggesting that the Europeans should resign the supreme authority, there is no other difference than fhat, what the rebels have merely established in theory, Mexico has put into practice. Nor can your Majesty entertain a doubt as to the persons to whom all Civil, Military, and Ecclesiastical employments would be confided, did it depend upon those, by whom the late elections have been made, to confer them. 183. — Not having been able as yet to attain that Independence for which they have so long sighed, (la suspirada Independencia,) they have shown the spirit by which they are animated, in excluding, by a species of Ostracism, from all elective charges, those patriotic citizens, who, if attention had been paid to the spirit of the Constitution, would have been more peculiarly called upon to fill them. 188. — The Constitution intended that the choice of the people in