Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/146

114 MEXICO. acquired that consciousness of strength, which, sooner or later, must, under any circumstances, have proved fatal to the dominion of Spain in the New World. Humboldt de- scribes the irritation excited amongst the higher classes of the Creoles in 1803, by the political insignificance to Avhich they were condemned ; and from what he says of " the sullen hatred with which they regarded the Mother country, and the contempt in which they held her once formidable re- sources," it seems evident that, even at that early period, the germ of all that has since taken place existed, and only re- quired a favourable opportunity to call it into action. Still, in Mexico as elsewhere, these feelings were confined to a com- paratively small circle ; for the same intelligent observer adds, " that the great majority of the people were indifferent to political rights, and not likely to join in any effort to acquire them." I believe this picture to have been perfectly correct, although it is difficult to reconcile the apparent apathy of the Creoles, with the energy displayed by them a few short years afterwards, in the struggle for those rights, which they were supposed to be incapable of appreciating ; unless, indeed, we allow that there are, in nations as in individuals, particular periods, at which a general fermentation takes place through- out the system, .rendering intolerable the pressure of some evil, which has been long and patiently supported, and in- spiring an irresistible longing for the attainment of some par- ticular blessing, the importance of which has not been before so acutely felt. Some great moral change of this description must have occurred in Mexico at the commencement of 1810, to render so general that disposition to rise against the established order of things, which was displayed in every part of the country, the moment that the standard of insurrection was imfurled. Men unconnected with the capital, or with poli- tics ; landowners resident upon their estates in the most re-