1821.] Notes written during a late Residence at Buenos Ayres. 129 



whites are inlisted or impressed ; the 

 blacks were raised by taking oue out of 

 every three slaves possessed by the iu- 

 liabitaiits,aiid afterwards by taking all 

 slaves of old Ppaniards. 



The volunteers of the town, called 

 civicos, are about tv.o thousand ; they 

 consist of nearly all the young men 

 who are not soldiers. All the iuliabi- 

 tants know the use of arms. 



Amongst their leading men, they 

 have alwaj'S had some u'.cu of superior 

 talents and information ; their great 

 want has been t hat of money ; some 

 of them have not been perfectly disin- 

 terested, nor, in some points, econo- 

 mical. They have repeatedly displayed 

 promptness and energy, tlie latter par- 

 taking somewhat of the ferocity which 

 characterised the French revolution. 



Here, as well as in all revolutionary 

 governments, there is a want of system 

 and perseverance ; decrees are made and 

 enforced with rigour, for a time, and 

 then sink into oblivion. One of tlieir 



laws does the patriots of the river Plata 



immortal honour. Soona.fter the 2i}th 



May, 1809, whence they date their po- 

 litical regeiieratiou, they decreed that 



no more slaves should be brought into 



the country, and that all peisons of 

 udiat colour soever, wiio should be born 



after that date, should be free. 

 Under the old Spaniards few books 



could be introduced into the country, 



from the influence of the priests; even 



the patriots, for a time, retained some- 

 what of this jealousy. Now any thing 



may be introduced without the slightest 



examination. The administration of 



justice is conducted by alcaldes, or 



justices of the peace, who sit daily : 



they hear the parties, and are as sum- 

 mary, and sometimes as unjust in their 



decision, as we may suppose a Turkish 



(^adi to be. There is an appeal from 



these to the governor, and afterwards 



to tlie camara, or cliamber, consisting 



of twelve lawyers, which 1 suppose to 



l)e in imitation of an English jury, 



(liough the very nature of a jury is 



unknown and foreign to the liabits of an 



European or American Spaniard, wlio 



would not take the trouble to sit as 



one, and who WDuld hardly lose their 



siesta to save a fellow-creature from im- 

 prisonment or death. The trial of cri- 

 minals is in private; and though there is 



a government gazette, notliiiig relating 



to Ihein ever appears in it ; all that (he 



public knows or cares to know aboiit 



them is, when (hey sec them led forth 



to execution. 



I liappened by chance to be present 

 Monthly Mau. No. Siil. 



when two men of colour were executed 

 for desertion and robbery. The place 

 of execution, on the NE. side of the 

 great squaie, was surrounded by troops 

 to the amount of two or three hundred. 

 Hither the prisoners Mere slowly con- 

 ducted, being in irons, each accompa- 

 nied by two friars ; in tlieir hands, 

 which were tied before them, they held 

 a crucifix. Being placed on two seats, 

 provided for such occasions, they were 

 shot, and the trnops were marched by 

 them as theyUy bleedingon theground. 

 The bodies were then taken on a cart 

 to the other side of the square, and 

 there suspended from a temporary gal- 

 lows, by roj<es passing under the arm- 

 pits, their hi^ads and faces being un- 

 covered. They were executed at ten 

 in the morning, and left hanging till 

 four in the afternoon. This is invari- 

 ably the mode of execution. Two men 

 went about amongst the crowd with 

 small baskets, calling out " An alms 

 for the souls of these poor men, for the 

 love of God ; " which money, of course, 

 goes to the priests. 



Here, as in all despotic governments, 

 the frequency of punishment depends 

 on the temper of the rulers. Doa 

 Carlos Maria A hear was probably 

 troubled with a bad digestion, as, during 

 the short time he was governor, no small 

 number of men were executed. Two 

 were shot on political gi-ouuds ; one a 

 captain, Ulbeda, for talking politics, 

 and expressing some disapprobation of 

 Alvear, was shot in the night, and was 

 seen by the people at day-break hang- 

 ing in the usual manner in the great 

 square. Another, a poor old man, a 

 native of Spain, who was found in a 

 cart, in the bottom of which lay a mus- 

 ket, though he knew nothing of it. It 

 was unla\\ful for any Spaniard to carry 

 or possess any kind of arms, and this 

 innocent man was seized and shot 

 within four hours, perhaps that people 

 might judge how dreadful would be 

 the fate of the guilty if such punish- 

 ment were inflicted on (he innocent. 



These murders by authority excited 

 some terror and some feeling. The in- 

 habitants, by turns, are bound to pa- 

 trole the streets, in parties, during the 

 night. There are also military patroles. 

 The (h)ty, however, is very negligently 

 performed, and there are no regular 

 watchmen. The perpetrators of crimes, 

 if caught ill (he fact, are either killed 

 outright or taken to prison ; if they 

 escap(! it is seldom that any enquiry is 

 made for them. 



( To be continued.) 



Q For 



