xii PREFACE, 



individuals in all classes of society, the military, 

 the clergy, the bar, and the officers of govern- 

 ment; my situation as secretary affording many 

 facilities, without the trammels of ceremony and 

 formality, that would have been imposed on me 

 by appearing in a different capacity. 



Some men profess to be in search of truth, 

 while they believe they have already found it; 

 others set out with theoretic frames, to which 

 every thing must conform, par aut impar^ and 

 are as sensitive in their favorite notions, as the 

 horns of a snail; but I know that we must be of- 

 ten wrong before we can be right. It is justly 

 observed by a celebrated philosopher, that the 

 simplest ideas are those which suggest themselves 

 last; first thoughts in matters of right and wrong 

 are probably the best, but not so in human 

 science and knowledge. 



Almost from the first moment of my arrival 

 at Buenos Ayres, 1 diligently sought after every 

 printed paper, no matter of how httle apparent 

 value, knowing that in countries struggling for 

 political life, every ejaculation of the press, (if I 

 may be allowed thus to speak,) should be exa- 

 mined, in order to discover whether it bears the 

 harsh stamp of despotism, or breathes the fra- 

 grant breath of hberty. I had the good fortune 

 to make an extensive collection of pamphlets, 

 files of newspapers, and political tracts; with the 

 help of these, and the histories of Greece^ of 



