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congress required time, whilst existing circumstances allowed of no delay. If any other plan had been adopted, anarchy was inevitable, as soon as the parties discovered their real designs, when the dissolution of the state must necessarily have followed. Even on that occasion, I wished to make the last sacrifice in behalf of my country.

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To this same congress did I leave the choice of the place where I was hereafter to dwell, as well as the appointment of the troops intended to accompany me as an escort, to the port of embarkation. The congress fixed on a port in the Mexican gulph, and 500 men, as an escort. I wished that the escort should be selected out of the troops who had withdrawn from my obedience and commanded by General Bravo, whom I also chose out of the party opposed to me,' in order to show that it was no motive of dread that induced me to decline the contest, and lay down my arms, in order to deliver myself up into the hands of persons of whose bad faith I had already such fatal experience.

The day on which I intended to leave Mexico I was unable to carry my design into effect, being prevented by the people. When the army which, without knowing why, was called the Liberating Army, entered the city, no demonstration was evinced that could be taken as a favorable reception. The troops were quartered, and the artillery posted in the principal avenues of the city. In the towns through which I passed, which were few, because care was taken to convey me from one estate to another, the people re ceived me with the ringing of bells, and, notwithstanding the violence with which they were treated by my conductors, the inhabitants ran forth, anxious to see and give me the most sincere testimonies of their love and respect. After my departure from Mexico, the armed force restrained the people, who still hailed me with shouts of applause; and when the Marquess de Vivanco, in his character of general-in-chief, harangued the troops left by me in Tacubaya, I had the mortification to hear them cry out, "Long live Augustin the First," and witness the disregard shown to his harangue. These and many others which, if they were mentioned, would not appear in the mere light of trifles, are demonstrations tending to show that my being withdrawn from the supreme command was by no means conformable to the general will.

I had before declared, that as soon as I became sensible that my government had ceased to be agreeable to the people, or that my remaining at the head of affairs was likely to disturb the public tranquillity, I would willingly descend from the throne. I had

1Of the troops I had in Tacubaya, I took with me two out of each company, in order to tranquillise the minds of the soldiers, and for them to allow me to depart.

further added, that if the nation chose a kind of government, in my opinion, injurious to it, I would not contribute to its establishment, because it is not in accordance with my principles to act contrary to what I consider just and expedient; but that I would nevertheless make no opposition, although it were in my power, and that I would abandon my country for ever. Such was the assurance which I gave, in October 1821, to the general junta of government, and repeatedly to the congress,' as well as to the constituent junta and the troops. I repeated the same to many individuals, in private and in public. The time arrived-I kept my word; and I have to thank my persecutors for having afforded me the opportunity of manifesting to the world that my words were always in strict accordance with my sentiments.

My greatest sacrifice has been to abandon a country at all times so dear to me; an idolised father, whose advanced age of 80 prevented me from bringing him with me; a sister, whom I cannot recollect without grief, and relatives and friends, who were my companions from my childhood, and whose society, in happier times, constituted the best part of my life.

Mexicans! this record will reach you. Its principal object is to manifest to you that the best of your friends never rendered himself unworthy of the affection and confidence which you once lavished on him. Fatal to me as was your choice, my gratitude will end only with my life. When you instruct your children in the history of your country, inspire them with love for the first commander of the army which obtained for you a triple guarantee to your independence; and if mine should ever require your aid and protection, remember that their father employed the best portion of his life in laboring to render you happy. Receive my last adieu, and may happiness attend you!

Country House, in the vicinity of Leghorn,
September 27th, 1823.

I always expressed my sentiments frankly; and as a proof 1 appeal to what I said to the congress on taking leave.

ADDRESSED TO

THE RIGHT HONORABLE

LORD VISCOUNT GODERICH,

ON THE FITNESS OF THE SYSTEM OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND,OF THE COUNTRY BANKS,—AND OF THE BRANCH BANKS OF ENGLAND, TO THE WANTS OF THE PEOPLE:

AND ON

THE AMPLE MEANS OF PROTECTION, WHICH PRIVATE BANKERS AND THE PUBLIC HAVE, AGAINST THE MONOPOLY OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

BY HENRY BURGESS.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:-1828.

To the Right Honorable Lord Viscount Goderich, First Lord
Commissioner of His Majesty's Treasury.

The Memorial of HENRY BURGESS, of 81, Lombard Street,
in the City of London,

SHOWETH; THAT your memorialist, feeling the greatest anxiety that your Lordship, and His Majesty's present government, should adopt principles and recommend measures, in regard to the important subject of the currency, founded on a correct knowlege of the case; has determined, at the risk of being charged with presumption for so doing, forthwith to submit his reflections, on one part of this momentous subject, to your Lordship's consideration.

That your memorialist firmly believes, that ruin the most extensive, and misery the most aggravated, have been produced, solely because the government, the parliament, and public bodies, have all along proceeded to act on erroneous or defective information, in regard to the money and banking affairs of this country.

That your memorialist, by much intercourse with bankers, deems himself thoroughly acquainted with their habits and opinions; but he prays, in a more especial manner, for your Lordship's serious attention to his statement; because he has had very peculiar opportunities of observing the habits, and knowing the interests and opinions, of farmers, graziers, traders, and the secondary class of manufacturers: these, which in the aggregate form the great

central body of the industrious portion of the community; on whom mainly depend the wealth, prosperity, and power of the state; have never been properly, consulted, as to the manner and degree in which their condition will be affected by arbitrary changes in the money affairs of the country.

When viewed in relation to the public and private money engagements of the kingdom, the general question of the currency is involved in perplexity and difficulty: your memorialist will therefore not be guilty of the gross indiscretion of attempting to convey, by memorial, his reflections on any but that part of the subject which requires the immediate consideration and interposition of the government. He will, therefore, confine his observations to the Bank of England-to the private bank system, and to the effect on bankers in general, and on the community, of establishing Branch Banks and suppressing country banks.

When the remarkable effects of alarm, in the beginning of the year 1826, threatened to exterminate a great proportion of country bank-note circulation, your memorialist was one who hastily adopted the erroneous opinion, that it was the duty of the directors of the Bank of England to establish branches to meet the emergency. The extraordinary and unprecedented nature of that emergency, greatly exténuates any error of judgment. The directors of the Bank of England resolved to establish branches, to remedy distressing temporary and local inconveniences. Looking at the early professions of the Bank directors, as set forth in open court by the governor, to limit their operations to "places where the particular accommodation they had the power of furnishing was justly required;"at their recent measures and their avowed purposes, no man of sense will deny that the present objects of the directors are; to prevent the circulation of all notes but those of the Bank of England, and to obtain all the most lucrative banking business of the country. The first they will speedily endeavor to accomplish by a new law; the second, they will attain by offering cheaper terms to the public, and sinking the capital stock of the proprietors in establishing connexions, till all wealthy bankers are driven from the field of competition, and they have an undisturbed monopoly.

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The Bank of England was established, by royal charter, in the year 1696; and their Majesties confirmed the Governor and Company of the Bank of England "one body politic and corporate," with "perpetual succession;" describing their motive" to be a desire to promote the public good and benefit of our people, which in these presents is chiefly designed and intended.'

See the Times newspaper, September 26th, 1826.

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