of the regency. If it could be composed mainly of representatives not gifted with remarkable intelligence, and at the same well packed with more sagacious adherents of his own, his aim would be wellnigh accomplished. Accordingly, before the junta had read the form of convocation which had been drawn up by the commission appointed for that purpose, the regency urged it not to come to any resolution before it had heard certain suggestions which would shortly be laid before it. This led to long deliberations as to whether the junta could make any change in the mode of convoking congress as laid down in the Spanish constitution without infringing the treaty of Córdoba and plan of Iguala; but it finally passed a resolution that it had that power. On the 6th of November, therefore, the regency suggested that the future congress should be divided into two chambers, the one composed of deputies elected by the ecclesiastics and the military respectively, a procurator for the ayuntamiento of each city, and an attorney for each audiencia; the second chamber, from which the above classes were to be excluded, to consist of representatives chosen by the people at the rate of one for every 50,000 inhabitants.[1] The proposal was approved by the junta, and as Iturbide mainly relied upon the army and clergy, he thereby secured to his interests at least one half of the future congress. But this was not all: on the 8th he laid before the junta a plan for the election designed by himself, the basis of which was that each profession and class should be represented by deputies chosen by itself.[2] This caused
- ↑ Noticioso General, 14th Nov. 1821, 2-4.
- ↑ The number of deputies to be elected by each class was not to be decided by the number which composed it, but by its importance and intelligence. Iturbide proposed that the congress should be composed of 120 numbers thus apportioned: of the ecclesiastics, 18 representatives; of the agricultural, mining, artisan, and commercial classes, 10 each; of the army and navy, 9; of the officials in the government departments and in that of justice, 24; of the professional faculties, 18; of titled noblemen, 2; and of the common people, 9. In the election of most of these deputies the popular vote was left out of the question, the ecclesiastical chapters, military staff-officers, the consulados, the master artisans, university faculties, colleges of lawyers,
