casion, as detailed by Iturbide himself;[1] and was kept up during the whole of the next day, when the Congress was employed in discussing the strange title to a crown, which the Commander-in-chief stated himself to have derived from the acclamations of a mob; while Iturbide, after filling the galleries with his partizans in arms, endeavoured, like the prince of hypocrites, as he proved himself upon this occasion, to obtain a hearing for those who were adverse to his nomination. The discussion ended, of course, by the approbation of a step, which it was not in the power of Congress to oppose; and Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor, with the sanction of the National Assembly. The choice was ratified by the Provinces, without opposition; and had the new Sovereign been able to moderate his impatience of restraint, and allowed his authority to be confined within the constitutional bounds, which the Congress was inclined to prescribe for it, there is little doubt that he would have been, at this day, in peaceable possession of the throne, to which his own abilities, and a concurrence of favourable circumstances, had raised him. But the struggle for power, far from being terminated by his elevation, seemed only to have become more implacable. The Emperor demanded privileges inconsistent with any balance of power;—a Veto upon all the articles of the Constitution then under discussion, and the right of ap-
- ↑ Vide Statement, pages 38, 39, and 40.
