26 



DESCRIPTIVE OUTLINE 



attractive as possible, and men were called to see 

 and to admire, instead of to listen and to reflect. 



The power of the priests and monks has changed 

 very much since the revolution. At Buenos Aires 

 most of the convents have been suppressed, and 

 the general wish of almost all parties is to suppress 

 the remainder. Occasionally, an old mendicant 

 friar is seen, dressed in grey sackcloth, and covered 

 with dirt ; but as he walks through the street, look- 

 ing on the ground, his emaciated cheek and sunken 

 eye show that his power is crushed, and his influence 

 gone. The churches have lost their plate, the can- 

 dles are yellow, the pictures are bad, and the 

 images are dressed in coarse English cotton. On 

 great days, the ladies of Buenos Aires, dressed in 

 their best clothes, are seen going to church, followed 

 by a black child, in yellow or green livery, who 

 carries in his arms an English hearth-rug, always 

 of the most brilliant colours, on which the lady 

 kneels, with the black child behind her ; but gene- 

 rally the churches are deserted, and nobody is to be 

 seen in them but a decrepid old woman or two, 

 whispering into the chinks of the confessional box. 

 The sad consequence of all this is, that at Buenos 



