gan by consecrating the principle, that it had been installed to govern by the ministry of the law, and in no wise by personal influence. All parties had equal rights and duties: it was, therefore, incumbent to place all these on the same footing; and to prevent them from being considered as the exclusive appurtenance of one part of the nation, and not of all. For this end a law was made, (Document D.) to which we gave the name of Law of Amnesty, which effected throughout the country a union of individuals of all classes, who, either proscribed or fugitive, would have shewn in other countries the failings and misfortunes of our own; and from the benefits of this law even those who had made war against the cause of independence were not excepted.

TOLERATION.

Religious toleration had existed de facto in my country since the first years of the revolution, more effectually than civil toleration, notwithstanding that the last existed de jure. That will, perhaps, appear to you somewhat astonishing; but you will be pleased to permit me here to abandon that spirit of analysis by which I have allowed myself to be carried away in the other points of my sketch, and to content myself with laying before you THE SIMPLE FACT. And now, con

fining ourselves to the work which occupies us, I must inform you that, in consequence of the new principles established, with which, and justly too, all things approaching to a spirit of intolerance were deemed incompatible, toleration, civil and political, was carried into effect, and the groundwork laid for legal religious toleration.

GENERAL REFORM.

The new Administration, protected by the public confidence, which in the first years of its career it had obtained by reason of the bases it had established, resolved, definitively, to commence the general practical reform, which was the grand object of its elevation. It cultivated the best understanding with the representatives of the nation; and having obtained from them the enactment of a law, by which it was solemnly acknowledged that the union of the provinces, - made before each had separately effected its internal economical arrangement, should not be allowed to take place, lest it might again endanger the credit of the country at large; attention was devoted to the construction in Buenos Ayres of an edifice at once respectable and permanent. This idea, which at first sight appears limited, was, nevertheless, exceedingly comprehensive. All who know the influence that her

position, her constituent elements, and her history, give to Buenos Ayres over all the Continent, aware, at the same time, how completely her credit had insinuated itself, will perceive, without trouble, that the efforts made to give her a beneficent existence would operate indirectly in favour of each town, and even without doing violence to each state, much better than if the same work had been undertaken in a direct manner. On the other hand, Buenos Ayres was placed under a great obligation: she had compromised a territory of more than a thousand leagues, and a population of more than six millions of souls, in the cause which we call that of independence; and thus contracted the duty of pointing out the road to liberty. The opportunity, therefore, was thus presented to her, not only to prove practically, that, with judgment and intelligence, that great work might be consummated, but also, that by effecting it in a distinguished manner, it would enable her to regain with advantage the credit of which she had been violently despoiled.

DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT.

I will not fatigue your attention by a minute recapitulation of all that has been effected in what we call the Department of Government; but perhaps you will permit me to give you a

general idea of it. Public instruction has been very much increased: in each district of the country, which in general contains from two to three thousand souls, the public treasury has endowed a school for the first rudiments: in the city it has formed more than twenty, for youth of both sexes; without including in either enumeration a multitude of private schools. A university has been erected, and a college of moral sciences established, as well as others for natural sciences and ecclesiastical studies; where, besides the young men of the city, are educated more than a hundred belonging to all the provinces of the territory, whose education is defrayed by Buenos Ayres by spontaneous compromise. Several scientific societies have been formed, and the public library has been enriched with works, and put under good internal arrangement. The administration of justice has been the department with which the hand of reform has least meddled: nevertheless it has remedied, as far as possible, one of the grossest defects of the ancient legislation; inasmuch as the judges have now been made entirely independent in the exercise of their functions. Moreover, in a gradual manner, and always taking advantage of a fit opportunity, the establishment of a correctional code has been attended to; a system not only unknown in the ancient legislation, but even among ourselves, until

the last three years. As far as my opinion goes, I cannot but consider the appointment, as well in the city as in the country, of a great number of jueces de hecho, or justices of peace, who formerly did not exist, as a great improvement in this department; and the country being subdivided into three departments, these judges reside in the centre of each, attended by a professor of law, who takes cognizance in the first instance. In the city two of this class have been permanently settled. The liberty of the press, which is untrammelled, as in every free country in the world, is another guarantee accorded to individual rights. In the Department of Beneficence, arrangements have been made which have essentially meliorated the state of foundlings; and the two hospitals, one for each sex, which are built in the city, are managed on the same plan as any of the regular establishments of the kind in Europe. Besides this, within these three years, we have organized a Department of Vaccination, placed in correspondence with the Royal Jennerian Society of London, under particular regulations, detailing the service to be done weekly in the city, and, throughout the seasons of the year, in the country. As regards the other branches of the public service, a Department of General Police has been created, with eight subaltern officers in the country; one of Architectural Engineers, and ano