paisoNs. 



301 



possession the *^ Bula de Confesion,"*' could not 

 receive absolution on his death-bed ; his will be- 

 came invalid, and his property was confiscated. 



Every stage of legal proceedings was in the 

 most deplorable state that can possibly be conceiv- 

 ed. The administration of justice, which, even 

 in the best regulated governments, is so liable to 

 delay and individual hardship, had, in South 

 America, scarcely any existence whatever. There 

 were forms enough, and writings enough, and long 

 imprisonments without number ; but I never yet 

 met a single individual, either Spaniard or Ame- 

 rican, in any of those countries, who did not free- 

 ly admit, that substantial justice was in no case 

 to be looked for, even where the government had 

 no interest in the event. What chance any one 

 had when his cause involved a political question, 

 it is needless to say. Imprisonment, that bitter 

 torture, was the grand recipe for everything :— 

 " Sir,*^ said a man to me, who knew well, from 

 long experience, what it was to be engaged in a 

 South American law-suit, " they put you into 

 prison, whatever the case be — they turn the key, 

 and never think more of you." At the capture of 



