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 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 English- 
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 
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 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 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 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 
