544 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



liberality prevailing among the 

 better informed classes is such as 

 to secure a virtual toleration for 

 the present. Besides, from the 

 circumstance of there being no 

 sects in the country, such a pro- 

 vision may wait the progress of 

 liberality in public opinion. In 

 fact, the human mind has been 

 set free on all matters of a general 

 abstract nature, although the li- 

 berty of the press is circumscribed 

 in some degree with respect to 

 strictures on public measures and 

 men, and the established religion ; 

 but there is neither inquisition 

 nor previous licence. They ac- 

 knowledge the Pope as a spiritual 

 head merely, and do not think 

 him entitled to any authority to 

 interfere with their temporal con- 

 cerns. His Bull in favour of the 

 King of Spain against the colo- 

 nies, which may be almost re- 

 garded as an excommunication, 

 produced little or no sensation. 



The number of monks and 

 nuns was verj' great in Buenos 

 Ayres, when compared w ith other 

 portions of the Spanish dominions. 

 They have diminished since the 

 revolution. There was at one 

 time a positive law passed, for- 

 bidding any one to become a 

 monk or a nun ; but they were 

 obliged to repeal it, and it was 

 afterwards passed with some mo- 

 difications. The restrictions sub- 

 stituted, aided by public opinion, 

 have nearly produced the desired 

 effect. Few of the youth of the 

 country apply themselves to the 

 study of theology, since other 

 occupations, much more tempting 

 to their ambition, have been open- 

 ed to their choice. Formerly the 

 priesthood was the chief aim of 

 young men of the best families, 



who v/ere desirous of distinction ; 

 as, in fact, it constituted almost 

 the only profession to which those 

 who had received a liberal edu' 

 cation could devote themselves ; 

 which will readily account for the 

 circumstance of so many of the 

 secular clergy directing their 

 attention, at present, almost ex- 

 clusively to politics. The regular 

 clergy, who are not permitted by 

 the nature of their profession, 

 to take part in the business of the 

 world, or to hold secular offices, 

 are many of them Europeans ; but 

 those of them who are natives, 

 take the same lively interest in 

 passing events, with the other 

 classes of the community. 



They have gone cautiously to 

 work in reforms in the different 

 branches of their municipal laws, 

 and the administration of them. 

 The number of offices has been 

 considerably diminished, and re- 

 sponsibility rendered more direct 

 and severe. The judiciary system 

 has undergone many improve- 

 ments, and nearly all the leading 

 features of the law, which did not 

 harmonize with the principles of 

 free government, have been ex- 

 punged, though some of the 

 former evils still remain. The 

 barbarous impositions on the 

 aborigines have been abolished — 

 the odious alcavala, and other 

 obnoxious taxes, modified, so as 

 to be no longer vexatious — 

 slavery, and the slave trade, for- 

 bidden in future — and all titles of 

 nobility prohibited, under the 

 pain of loss of citizenship. — The 

 law of primogeniture is also ex- 

 punged from their system. In 

 the provisional statute, as has 

 already been stated, nearly all 

 the principles of free representa- 

 tive 



