specified in the different ordinances or by-laws.* He is to inspect the pulperias, the bakers' shops, to see that no violation of the ordinances takes place, has the care of the canals, and of the property of the city. There is also a defender of the poor, who attends to such as may have been arrested on accusation of having violated the penal laws. It is his duty to visit the prisons and houses of correction, to see that no abuses be practised. He must do this every week, and make a report to the cabildo of the state they are in. He is bound to afford every possible assistance to the poor in the management of their causes, to see that they be brought to speedy trial, and discharged, if innocent.† The syndic is to see to the execution of the city ordinances, and without his presence, the cabildo can make no new appropriations, or take any measure in relation to the public property without his knowledge. He is to represent the city in all suits, in which she may be interested.. He is to keep an account of the resources of the city, in its different branches, taking from the accountant a minute statement of them. These are some of the principal matters assigned to the different officers I have mentioned.

The cabildo appoints its ministerial officers by plurality of votes, but to be commissioned by the supreme director, and to hold their offices during good beha

Those passed since the revolution, have not been collected into a volume.

† I was told that under the old regime, there were instances of persons having been thirty years confined in prison, the original charge against them being forgotten.

vior. These are the alguazil mayor, whose duty it is to superintend the public prisons, to see that no abuses be committed on the prisoners-to serve all processes, and to be subject to the alcaldes in the discharge of his functions. He receives a fixed salary, his fees, specified in the fee-bill of 1787, being abolished on account of the abuses practised under it. He may appoint deputies, to be approved by the cabildo. The secretary of the cabildo, is to make a minute of the proceedings, and to have the care of the public documents, and archives. The contador, to keep an account of the city funds, settle accounts, pass vouchers, and to see that no impositions be practised. On the first of January, in every year, he is to make out a report of the receipts and disbursements, which is published for the information of the people. The treasurer, the notary, &c. have their respective duties also detailed.

There is nothing so much calculated to raise our estimation of the trial by jury, as to observe the operation of those judicial systems where it is unknown. In Buenos Ayres, they do not yet appreciate its blessings. Some have written in favor of it, but none understand it. Its introduction would be attended with difficulty, from the indifference of the people in the details of government. In Louisiana, the trial by jury is not popular to this day; and we learn from several enlightened writers, how hard it was to naturalize it in France. It is looked upon as a burthen to the citizen, and indeed the number who are qualified to act as jurors, is very small, from that want of general diffusion of the elementary principles of law and justice, which is indispensable. I frequent

ly attempted, but with very bad success, to explain the nature of the grand and petit jury, to some of their most intelligent men. Besides the want of the trial by jury, the trials are not sufficiently public, with the parties and witnesses present. They are conducted principally by written statements and arguments, depositions, counter depositions, and interlocutary decrees, which render a lawsuit extremely expensive. No one, who has not had some experience on this subject, can form an idea how difficult it is, to transplant the habits and customs of one country into another. My residence in Louisiana, once a Spanish colony, and a most estimable people, convinced me of this truth. The same idea is well expressed by Southey, in his History of Brazil. "Nasau could transplant forest and fruit trees in their full size and bearing; but not the beneficial institutions of his own country; for these things have their root in the history, habits, and feelings of those, with whom they have grown up, and to whose growth they have fitted themselves."

The profession of the law, I am informed, has become much more important that formerly. Eloquence, both spoken and written, are in higher repute, and have excited an increased emulation, as they are the most certain roads to preferment in the state. The business of war, however, throws all others for the present, in the back ground. The civil institutions have, notwithstanding, undergone as much improvement, as was to be expected in such times.

I have frequently repeated, that it would be folly to look here for a state of things any way approaching that of the United States, in correct practical

ideas of civil liberty. The government is not to be compared with ours or that of Great Britain, as to the security of personal rights, and the impartial administration of the laws. A comparison may be drawn with that of ancient Greece or Rome, with Switzerland, Holland, or with the Italian states. France was never more despotically ruled than under the reign of the jacobins; and we have too many false brethren of the republican party, who in heart and spirit are jacobins; who delight in mean detraction and slander of those above them in worth and merit, and yet prove the worst of tyrants, if by chance they find themselves "dressed in a little brief authority."

I was not disappointed in the progress made here since the revolution. They were formerly a stagnant pool-they are now a running stream; occasionally, it is true, tumbling down precipices, foaming and boiling among rocks, but again flowing with pure waters, the delight and ornament of the neighboring hills and plains. Their progress, in fact, exceeded my expectations. To criticise their institutions as though they were of some of our neighboring territories, shews a most pitiful narrowness of mind. To look here for liberty with all its proper guards, at a season like the present, is childish, and more especially, if some particular spot of the earth, be selected as the model by which to try their institutions. The manners, habits, and previous education of a people; are to be considered, and until these are changed, nothing can be said to be changed; for in spite of the visionary projects of paper constitution men, no matter what form be adopted, or what it may be called, despotism will still have sway, and break any restraint attempt

ed to be imposed on it. The forms of free government will only be so far operative as the people are fitted for freedom, and if they are fitted for a government in some measure free, its adoption, will in time fit them for one still more free. Such is the present state of Buenos Ayres; their present constitution is even more free in theory than in practice, and why? Because the great body of the people are indifferent about the details of government. They have been accustomed to be ruled by men, and they have not yet learned that reverence is alone due to the laws. In our country I would ask, if there be not such shades of difference in the character of the different states, as unavoidably to produce a variety in the state constitutions? Would the constitutions of Massachusetts and Virginia, suit every other state in the union? They certainly would not. Why then must we insist on the South Americans establishing a government precisely like ours, before we can extend to them our friendship? They must form their goverments, as they build their houses; with the materials they have at hand. There is no doubt it will be essentially republican, but will also differ considerably from ours.

In tracing the outline of their internal revolutions, there is nothing which struck me so forcibly, as their abstaining from shedding blood, in the midst of their most violent civil feuds. When compared to other revolutions, it may be very justly said to be bloodless. One of the writers of Buenos Ayres, in drawing a comparison between the conduct of Spain and that of his own country; uses these words, "what comparison is there to the revolutions of Spain, (the contests of the different provincial juntas, for the exclusive privi