MEXICO. 195 the decrees of the Cortes respecting Church property, to form an alliance with the great Dignitaries of the church in the Capital, in conjunction with whom, it is believed to have been his intention to proclaim a return to the old system, as the only means of saving the country from ruin, and religion from contamination. Don Agustin de IturbTde was the person chosen to carry this plan into execution ; and, to all appearance, it would have been impossible to select a fitter instrument. He was a Creole born, and could therefore address the Mexicans as his countrymen ; while, from the brilliancy of his military career, he was almost sure to be followed by the army. In addition to this, he was much esteemed by the high clergy, having been employed, for some time, in expiating the excesses of his former life, by a rigid course of penance and mortification, in the College of the Professa in the Capital. It is difficult in speaking of events so very recent as Itur- bides rise and fall, to arrive at the exact truth, or to divest statements of the party-colouring by which they are dis- figured : the following facts, however, seem to be universally admitted respecting the career of this extraordinary man. He was of a respectable, but by no means a wealthy family, of the Province of Valladolid ; and, at the commencement of the Revolution, was serving as lieutenant in a regiment of Provincial Militia. Distinguished by a fine person, a most captivating address, and polished manners, as well as by a daring and ambitious spirit, he was amongst the first of those who dipped in the plans for shaking off the yoke of Spain, in which the years 1808 and 1809 abounded. Of the termina- tion of his connexion with the first Insurgents, two very dif- ferent stories are told. He himself asserts that he was dis- gusted with their projects, and refused to take any share in their execution, although they offered him the rank of lieute- nant-general as the price of his co-operation ; while the In- surgents affirm that these were the conditions proposed by o 2
