86 The Andes and the Amazon. 



ed,* nor can he exercise his functions more than twenty-five 

 miles from the cajDitaL But the law is often set aside by 

 those in power. During the administration of Garcia 

 Moreno, prominent citizens were shot or banished by his 

 order, without trial by jury. To every plea for mercy the 

 stern president replied, that as he could not save the coun- 

 try according to the Constitution, he should govern it ac- 

 cording to his own views of public necessity. 



Congress assembles on the 15th of September every 

 other year, and consists of eighteen senators and thirty 

 representatives. The chambers are small, and literally bar- 

 ren of ornament. The members sit in two rows facing 

 each other, have no desks, and give an affirmative vote by 

 a silent bow. Politics has less to do with principles and 

 parties than with personalities. Often it has a financial 

 aspect ; and the natural expression on learning of a revo- 

 lution is, " Somebody is out of money." The party in 

 feathers its nest as fast as possible ; there is scarcely a pub- 

 lic officer who is not open to bribery. The party out plots 

 a premature resurrection to power by the ladders of cor- 

 ruption, slander, and revolution.f Ee volution has so rap- 

 idly followed revolution that history has ceased to count 

 them ; and it may be said of them what Milton wrote of 

 the wars of the Saxon Heptarchy, " that they are not more 

 worthy of being recorded than the skirmishes of crows and 

 kites." The Grand Plaza, the heart where all the great 

 arteries of circulation meet and diverge, is where the high 

 tides of Quito affairs ebb and flow. 



* Since this was written, Garcica Moreno has been re-elected to the jn-esi- 

 dency and the Constitution revised. 



t Government has more than once paid its debts by repudiation. Con- 

 gress lately voted to pay only seven per cent, of the claims against the state 

 which are dated prior to a certain year. Among the sufferers is the vener- 

 able Dr. Jameson, a distinguished foreigner, who has served this country 

 faithfully for forty years, first as assayer, then as director of the mint, and 

 always by his scientific position. 



