Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/104

88 elected deputies declined going to Spain in the expectation that some new order would exclude them from the córtes on their arrival.

Such treatment of the colonies did not tend to promote more loyal feelings toward the mother country, in spite of the regency's proclamation that Spanish Americans were raised to the dignity of free men, and the extraordinary admission that hitherto they had been crushed by an oppressive yoke, regarded without consideration, and made the victims of avarice. Eventually on the 24th of September, 1810, without waiting for the arrival of the American deputies, the córtes were installed in the theatre of the island of Leon, and in the list of members I find New Spain represented by seven substitutes. But it is time to consider how affairs were progressing meanwhile in that country, and narrate the events which immediately preceded the revolution of independence.

Great as had been the sums of money contributed by the inhabitants of New Spain in the form of loans and donations for the support of the mother country, they seemed only to encourage further demands. On the 12th of March, 1809, the junta central issued a royal cédula for the negotiation of a loan