Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/542

502 APPENDIX. whom their enmity was directed, were agents of Napoleon^ as stated in Paragraph thirty-five. In consequence of this, Hidalgo had in a few days whole towns and provinces at his devotion, and advanced upon the Capital with an army infinitely more numerous than that by which it was defended. 38. — The prudence and firmness of the Viceroy saved the state. The rebels were repulsed at Las Cruces, and defeated at Aculco, by a Gene- ral, wliose consummate skill converted into invincible soldiers men, who, under any other direction but his, would have turned against their General and their country. The same General drove them from Gua- naxuato, and destroyed at last Hidalgo's whole force at the Puente de Calderon, while their chief expiated his crimes by the death which he had so well deserved in the Northern Provinces. 39. — But still the rebellion continues, has continued, and wiU continue, with no other change than the mere chances of war ; and even should the force of the Cura Morelos, which is now the only formidable one, be destroyed, yet the day is far distant when we can hope to see security and order restored. 40. — Many wonder at the ferocious spirit that characterized Hidalgo's rebellion, exemplified in the Alhondiga of Guanaxuato, and in the ra- vines of Valladolid, Guadalajara, Tehuacan, and Sultepec. •H. — But Hidalgo knew perfectly all the peculiarities of his situation, and turned them to account. Without the riches of the Europeans, he could not pay his own debts, much less undertake an expensive war : without these same riches as a bait, he could not gratify that thirst for plunder which possessed the immense legions by which he was followed. Besides, it was as difficult to establish independence while the Eui-opeans remained in power, as it was to prevent these vile and cruel traitors from giving loose to their rage against those who had from the first opposed its establishment. 42. — The flame which Hidalgo lighted in the little town of Dolores spread through the country with the rapidij;y of atmospheric pestilence. The clergy were the first to declare in favour of a liberty, unjust, pre- mature, and the forerunner of a thousand calamities : they profaned the pulpit and the confessional by making them vehicles for disseminating doctrines subversive of all true religion and all submision to the consti- tuted authorities. They even put themselves at the head of the re- bellion, fancying that their sacred character would shield them from punishment, as, from the mistaken piety of our monarchs, has been but too often the case. 44. — Such were the circumstances under which our new political insti- tutions were announced here, towards the establishment of which this tribunal has contributed by every means in its power. The result has proved how vain were the hopes that this change of system would pro- duce any beneficial effect. Morelos, at the very moment of the publica-