434 LIMA. 



on the west side, rows of sixpenny shops usurp the ground-floor, the occupants securing their 

 trashy goods from the action of the sun by awnings in keeping with their assortments. Well 

 do these box-like tenements deserve their name " cajones." Above them, on both sides, there 

 are open balconies ; but the whole pile is destitute of architectural taste or execution both 

 externally and within. Formerly the walls of a very large room, where the government now 

 gives occasional entertainments, were ornamented with portraits of the viceroys from Pizarro to 

 Pezuela forty-four in all ; whence it was called La sola de los Vireyes. After the triumph 

 of the patriots, these pictures were removed to the museum, where they still form a most attrac- 

 tive collection for the student of physiognomy. 



On one side of the old Plaza de la Inquisition, in the northeast part of the city, is the 

 Chamber of Deputies, built like most other houses round a quadrangular court. The walls 

 of its colonnade contain roughly executed allegorical fresco paintings of the sciences, arts, and 

 virtues. Booms for the secretary and other officers occupy three sides of the quadrangle ; the 

 Kepresentatives' hall nearly all of the fourth. The latter is an oblong room, tastefully orna- 

 mented with carved seats, paintings, and hangings. About one half of it is appropriated to 

 spectators. As in the English House of Peers, there is a long table at one end mid-way 

 between the side walls of that portion of the room. The presiding officer occupies a seat at the 

 farther extremity of the table, the secretary a chair on his left, and the deputies apparently 

 arranged in parties have high-backed chairs placed in two rows along the walls. About fifty 

 were present on the occasion of my visit, all of whom, except two or three priests, were men 

 from twenty-eight to thirty-five years of age. Speeches were made from two tribunes ; that to 

 the left of the President being considerably more elevated, and more costly in material and elabo- 

 rate carving, than its lowly vis a vis. Three brief speeches were delivered on a question of some 

 consequence ; two by members of the opposition, and one in reply by a minister (I supposed), 

 who ascended the left and higher tribune. Neither of them evinced much oratorical power. 

 Male spectators occupy benches on the same level with the deputies, from whom they are sepa- 

 rated only by a railing. Ladies are provided with massive and carved chairs of the same style 

 as the left tribune, arranged in a handsomely wrought gallery elevated above the floor. The 

 sitting was conducted with great decorum as well on the part of the deputies as by the limited 

 audience, and might serve as an example to other legislative bodies. Armed sentinels are 

 stationed on each side of the doors of entrance, and at the secretary's office. They offer mili- 

 tary honors to each passing deputy. 



Externally, there is nothing to designate the Senate chamber amid the range of buildings of 

 which it forms a part ; and as its honorable body was not in session on either occasion when it 

 was possible to visit it, there was no opportunity to examine its interior arrangement. But, if 

 one may judge from an hour's lounge in the outer court-yard, the " lobbying system" has found 

 its way from northern lands, both here and at the other chamber. True, the gentler sex only 

 conceal their persons in Lima, and no one invites a legislator from his seat ; but each expectant 

 suitor waylays his intended advocate en route through the court, forgetting not the courtly 

 blandishments so elegantly expressive in the language of Castile. 



A national library, established in 1824, is near the convent of San Pedro. It contains about 

 29,000 volumes, of which 450 are MSS. ; and is increased by the proceeds of a duty of six per 

 cent, on all imported books; from which sum the salaries of librarian, &c., are first to be paid. 

 The revenue thus collected varies little from $3,000 per annum ; and as the expenses amount to 

 $2,500, few additions can be made. It is open to the public from 10 A. M. to 3 P. M., except on 

 Sundays and feast-days. 



There is a museum of natural history in the same building, also open to the public. Its 

 riches are the suite of portraits before alluded to ; native mummies, with ornaments of the pre- 

 cious metals, and earthenware exhumed in various parts of the republic ; and a collection of 

 minerals. Government pays its director a moderate salary ; but the allowance for preserving 



