Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/47

Rh The merciless rigor with which the viceroy executed every oppressive decree, and the irritating fact that he and a host of officials profited by the ruin of others, gained him the odium of the sufferers. Any discussions of a scientific or practical nature on the part of her subjects was at this juncture bad for Spain. Permission had been granted Humboldt by the court to visit the New World, with the privilege of access to official archives. The result of his sojourn in Mexico was his famous treatise on New Spain, 44 containing abstracts of his political and economical observations. Some new ideas crept in upon the people concerning possibilities. With freedom, what might they not achieve! Such was the prevailing feeling which, mingled with the odium against the home government, increased by late acts of oppression, prepared Creoles and natives alike for revolution.

When Cárlos IV. ratified the humiliating treaty of 1796, which made him a subject rather than an ally of France, he considered neither the money he would have to pay, nor what would be the attitude of England. To annoy Napoleon, Great Britain offered the means of prolonging the war which broke out in 1803, while Spain, asserting her obligations to pay France former subsidies, maintained that she would be subject to far greater expense in case of further hostilities. This led to rupture with England; for though that power at first manifested no desire to declare open war with Spain, in 1805 neutrality was broken