296 THE CONSTITUTION. Chap. XVIII. 



improvement was also adopted in tlie constitution of the 

 Senate. The members of that body are to be elected by the 

 Departments, each one electing a certain number according to 

 the number of its provinces, and the qualification of a senator 

 is raised to 1000 dollars a-year. Thus there is now an intel- 

 ligible diiference between the two chambers, and, in the 

 formation of the Senate, one of the few good points of the 

 constitution of the United States has been wisely adopted. 

 The executive power is in the hands of a President and two 

 Vice-Presidents elected for four years, and a council of 

 ministers. Finally the mischievous Juntas Departiiuntales, 

 which I believe had never been allowed to meet, were 

 abolished, while the municipal institutions of the constitu- 

 tion of 1856, which could only be productive of good, re- 

 mained in full force. 



Such is the present form of government in Peru, perhaps 

 as good a one as the country is fit for, and capable, in firm 

 and honest hands, of meeting aU the present requirements of 

 the people ; but it is of more importance to jpiow in whose 

 hands the government of the country is placed, and what 

 manner of men are intrusted with the destinies of a country 

 so rich in memories of the past, as well as in material re- 

 sources ; a young republic still bleeding at every pore from a 

 series of civil wars, yet with a growing desire to struggle up, 

 thi'ough shame and misfortune, to a respectable place among 

 the nations. I will give a few hasty sketches of the men 

 who formed the executive power during my stay at Lima in 

 1860. 



General Eamon Castilla, the President, is a native of Tara- 

 paca in the extreme south of Peru, and must now be close 

 upon seventy years of age. He is the son of Pedro Castilla, 

 who worked the refuse silver-ores of the mines of El Carmen,*^ 



^ Pedro Castilla discovered the class I of sUver). See Bollaert s Autiquarian 

 of ore called lecheador (chloro-bromide | and other Researches in Feru, &c. lu 



