1833.J STATE OF SOCIETY. 



nothing can succeed without it be begun when the moon is on the 

 increase ; so that half the month is lost from these two causes. 



Police and justice are quite inefficient. If a man who is pool- 

 commits murder and is taken, he will be imprisoned, and perhaps 

 even shot ; but if he is rich and has friends, he may rely on it no 

 very severe consequence will ensue. It is curious that the most 

 respectable inhabitants of the country invariably assist a murderer 

 to escape: they seem to think that the individual sins against the 

 government, and not against the people. A traveller has no pro- 

 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 the 

 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 Englishman, 

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

 standing 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, bxit my lawyer (naming him) recommended me to 

 take this step." The Chief Justice smiled acquiescence, thanked 

 him, 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-paid turbulent officers, the people yet hope that 

 a democratic 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 wished to 

 accompany me, as guide or servant, to Buenos Ayres, but his 

 father objected on the score of the danger alone. Many officers in 



