sentiments.[1] A general conspiracy against the government was soon inaugurated, agents being scattered throughout the provinces to make proselytes. The chief authority was derided; the government ridiculed and attacked on all sides by the press, at public meetings, and by corporations claiming powers which by law they did not possess. The example presented at the capital was readily followed in the provinces, and erelong the impression prevailed that before the end of the year another revolution would break out, headed by one or more of the pardoned leaders, or promoted by the clergy under the wing of the bishop of Puebla, who was strongly opposed to the new principles. Some even conjectured that the United States would revolutionize the country if the Floridas were not at once surrendered under the treaty of February, 1819. Such being the bent of the public mind, Odoardo, the fiscal of the real audiencia, recommended the temporary suspension of the constitutional system, and proposed that the country should be ruled under the laws of the Indies by a viceroy clothed with absolute powers. But it is easy to perceive that the remedy suggested was impracticable, when the universal tendency was to independence, the only difference of opinion being as to the best mode of effecting it.
Prior to the promulgation of the constitution, conferences were held at the rooms of Doctor Matías Monteagudo,[2] in the oratory of San Felipe Neri, and attended by men of high official and social standing,
- ↑ Alaman furnishes copious extracts from the important report made by the fiscal of the audiencia on the 24th of Oct. 1820, to the supreme government in Madrid, confirming the facts as stated in the text. The fiscal, José Hipólito Odoardo, was a man of extensive information, and had long resided in Mexico. Hist. Méj., v. 42-9.
- ↑ A canon of the metropolitan church, who played a prominent part in the deposal of Viceroy Iturrigaray, and thereby won a high standing among the Spaniards. Alaman says that he obtained particulars of these meetings from the fiscal Odoardo, which were afterward confirmed by Licentiate Zozaya, who was Iturbide's attorney in some personal matters, and had many conversations with him on public affairs. Hist. Méj., v. 50.
