to restore confidence. So great was the number of Spaniards who requested their passports that Iturbide on the 15th laid a motion before the junta that the 10th article of the treaty of Córdoba, which granted Europeans full liberty of retiring with their fortunes from the country, should be suspended for ninety days; and on the 9th of January, 1822, it was decreed that no more passports should be issued until the congress which was to be convened passed its decision on the matter. Thus the Spaniards were deprived of the option of returning to Spain, and of the right even to withdraw their capital. Yet still the press succeeded in aggravating animosity against them. During this period it not only made the guaranty of the union the mark for its shafts, but also the form of government, the pomp displayed by which, under the circumstances of a scanty treasury, was ridiculed and many of its provisions censured.[1] The party
- ↑ At this time Bustamante published a weekly periodical, styled La Abispa de Chilpancingo, a few copies of which exist in the library of Madrid. He dedicated it to the memory of Morelos, and each number in particular to some insurgent chief. This was sufficient to gain for him the enmity of Iturbide, and when in the fifth issue he held up to ridicule the impecuniosity of the imperial government, he was arrested and imprisoned. His confinement, how ever, only lasted a few hours. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 407-8. During this year he also published his Galeria de Príncipes Mexicanos, Tultecas y Aculhuas, compiled from some manuscripts of Boturini Benaducci, and began to issue his Cuadro Histórico de la Revolucion Mexicana, as I find a notice of these works on page 100 of the Gaceta Imperial de México, tom. i. The periodicals published in the capital were at first limited to the last-named gazette, which was the government organ, and El Noticioso General, which expressed the opinions of no political party, but was confined to the publication of decrees of the junta, resolutions of the government, and news from Spain. On the 5th of Dec., however, the Gaceta del Sol made its appearance. This was an important political organ established by the masonic order. The arrival of O'Donojú had given a great impulse to this society, the persons who had accompanied him having joined existing lodges and established others. One of these latter was named 'la logia del Sol,' and to it the periodical of the same name owes its origin. It was edited by Manuel Codorniu, a physician who had accompanied O'Donoju from Spain. The object of it was to sustain the plan of Iguala, to propagate the liberal principles which were gaining ground in Spain, to exclude the clergy from intervention in the education of the young, and to foment the Lancastrian system of schools, one of which was established in the capital, also under the name 'del Sol.' From this time the influence of the masonic orders waxed strong, and soon became a political power in the land.
nate enough to escape with only a few months' imprisonment, being allowed the benefit of the indulto general granted when congress was installed in March following. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 512.
