1833.] STATE OF SOCIETY. 157 



tection besides his fire-arms ; and the constant habit of carrying 

 them is the main check to more frequent robberies. 



The character of the higher and more educated classes who 

 reside in the towns, partakes, but perhaps in a lesser degree, of tb.e 

 good parts of the Gaucho, but is, I fear, stained by many vices of 

 which he is free. Sensuality, mockery of all religion, and the 

 grossest corruption, are far from uncommon. Nearly every 

 public officer can be bribed. The head man in the post-office 

 sold forged government franks. The governor and prime minister 

 openly combined to plunder the state. Justice, where gold came 

 into play, was hardly expected by any one. I knew an Englisli- 

 man, who went to the Chief Justice (he told me, that not then 

 understanding the ways of the place, he trembled as he entered 

 the room), and said, '' Sir, I have come to offer you two hundred 

 (paper) dollars (value about five pounds sterling) if you will arrest 

 before a certain time a man who has cheated me. I know it is 

 against the law, but my lawyer (naming him) recommended me to 

 take this step.'* The Chief Justice smiled acquiescence, thanked 

 liim, and the man before night was safe in prison. With this entire 

 want of principle in many of the leading men, with the country 

 full of ill-})aid turbulent officers, the people yet hope that a de- 

 mocratic form of government can succeed ! 



On first entering society in these countries, two or three 

 features strike one as particularly remarkable. The polite and 

 dignified manners pervading every rank of life, the excellent 

 taste displayed by the women in their dresses, and the equality 

 amongst all ranks. At the Rio Colorado some men who kept 

 the humblest shops used to dine with General Rosas. A son of a 

 major at Bahia Blanca gained his livelihood by making paper 

 cigars, and he wislied to accompany me, as guide or servant, to 

 Buenos Ayres, but his father objected on the score of the danger 

 alone. Many officers in the army can neither read nor write, yet 

 all meet in society as equals. In Entre Rios, the Sala consisted 

 of only six representatives. One of them kept a common shop, 

 and evidently was not degraded by the office. All this is what 

 would be expected in a new country ; nevertheless the absence of 

 gentlemen by profession appears to an Englishman something 

 strange. 



When speaking of these countries, the manner in which they 



