Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/797

Rh a deputy to congress, the assembly made strenuous efforts to obtain his release, but it was not until after Iturbide had been proclaimed emperor that Dávila liberated him. If, as was suspected, the Spanish governor's motive in releasing him was to let loose a dragon of mischief to confound the empire, he succeeded. An uncompromising republican, he had hardly set foot on shore when he began to inveigh against monarchy; and on presenting himself before Iturbide, he manifested his contempt for royalty by omitting all titles of majesty in addressing him. Witticism, irony, and ridicule were likewise brought into play. The coronation was a farce; the inauguration of the order of Guadalupe was a performance of mummers, and its members were nicknamed accordingly; he burlesqued the government, satirized the emperor, and published a forcible essay in recommendation of a republican form of government.

Matters soon reached a climax. The republicans and masonic order were hard at work; the political organs El Sol advocating monarchy with a European prince on the throne and El Hombre Libre—sustaining republicanism were suppressed. Nevertheless, seditious sheets were scattered broadcast. French works promulgating the social principles of Rousseau were published in Spanish. Preached against by the clergy, and burned in the plazas, they were printed again. Early in August the germ of a republican conspiracy was discovered in Michoacan and nipped. Not discouraged, the faction planned a bolder move, which was to effect a revolution near the capital, declare that the congress had been deprived of its freedom of action in the election of Iturbide, remove the assembly to Tezcuco, and