Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/762

746 further discussion. A commission, nominated by Iturbide himself, was appointed to examine and report on his plan, and on the 17th the junta, which had been assisted by the regency in its deliberations, arrived at its decision. The result was that Iturbide's plan was adopted in all the main points. It was made obligatory in those provinces which, sent up four or more deputies that three of these, but no more, should be respectively a church man, a military officer, and a magistrate or lawyer.

It was also made compulsory that the agricultural, mining, commercial, and artisan classes should be represented; the provinces in which these pursuits respectively predominated were designated and the number of corresponding deputies to be elected assigned. The total number of representatives was fixed at 162. During these proceedings Iturbide was very humble and unassuming in his protestations to the public. Neither his colleagues in the regency, his military comrades, nor himself, he proclaimed, were other than devoted subjects of the sovereign people. The public weal was the loadstar of his aspirations, and he would withdraw to the retirement of private life if such were his country's wish. Nevertheless, no one was deceived by these asseverations.