BUENOS AYRES AND THE PROVINCES OF LA PLATA. CHAPTER I. DIVISIONS AND PRESENT STATE OF THE REPUBLIC. Extent, Divisions, and General Government of the Provinces of La Plata. Jurisdiction of the old Viceroyalties:-Necessity of dividing and sub-dividing such vast Governments :-Embarrassments arising out of this necessity. The backwardness in the Political organization of these Provinces, common to all the new Republics of South America; and attributable to the same cause; the Colonial system of the Mother Country. Mistake in comparing the condition of the Creoles with that of the British Colonists of North America. Natural ascendency of Military Power in the new States. Their progress in the last twenty-five years compared with their previous condition. THE United Provinces of La Plata, or, as they are sometimes called, the Argentine Republic, comprise, (with the exception of Paraguay and the Banda Oriental, which have become separate and independent states) the whole of that vast space lying between Brazil and the Cordillera of Chile and Peru, and extending from the 22nd to the 41st degree of south latitude. The most southern settlement of the Buenos B Ayreans as yet is the little town of Del Carmen, upon the river Negro. The native Indians are in undisturbed possession of all beyond, as far as Cape Horn. Generally speaking, the Republic may be said to be bounded on the north by Bolivia; on the west by Chile; on the east by Paraguay, the Banda Oriental, and the Atlantic Ocean; and on the south by the Indians of Patagonia. Altogether, it contains about 726,000 square miles English, with a population of from 600,000 to 700,000 inhabitants. This vast territory is now subdivided into thirteen Provinces, assuming to govern themselves, to a certain degree, independently of each other; though, for all general and national purposes, confederated by conventional agreements. For want of a more defined National Executive, the Provincial Government of Buenos Ayres is temporarily charged with carrying on the business of the Union with foreign Powers, and with the manage ment of all matters appertaining to the Republic in common. The Executive Power of that Government, as constituted in 1821, is vested in the Governor, or Captain General*, as he is styled, aided by a Council of ministers appointed by himself-responsible to * Upon the election in 1835 of the present Governor Don Juan Manual Rosas, he refused, under the particular state of things at the time, to undertake the office, unless invested with extraordinary powers, which were in consequence granted by the Junta without limitation for such time as circumstances might render necessary:he was elected for five years. TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS. 3 the junta or legislative Assembly of the Province by whom he is elected. The junta itself consists of forty-four deputies, one-half of whom are annually renewed by popular election. Geographically, these Provinces may be divided into three principal sections:-1st, the Littorine, or eastern; 2nd, the Central, or northern; 3rd, those to the west of Buenos Ayres, commonly called the provinces of Cuyo. The Littorine Provinces are, Buenos Ayres, and Santa Fe, to the west, and Entre Rios and Corrientes to the east of the River Parana. Those in the Central section, on the high road to Peru, are Cordova, Santiago del Estero, Tucuman, and Salta; to which may be added, Catamarca, and La Rioja. Those lying west of Buenos Ayres, and which formerly constituted the Intendency of Cuyo, are San Luis, Mendoza, and San Juan. All these together now form the confederation of the United Provinces of La Plata. Under the Spanish rule, the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres comprehended further, the provinces of Upper Peru, now called Bolivia; as well as Paraguay, and the Banda Oriental: and immense as this jurisdiction appears for one government, it was but portion separated from that of the old viceroys of Peru, whose nominal authority at one time extended from Guayaquil to Cape Horn, over 55 degrees of latitude, comprising almost every habitable climate under the sun; innumerable nations, speaking various languages, and every production which can minister to the wants of man. To Spain, it was a convenience and saving of expense to divide her American possessions into as few governments as possible; and under her colonial system, without a hope of improving their social condition, their native industry discouraged, and the very fruits of the soil forbidden them, in order to ensure a sale for those of the mother country, it was of little consequence to the generality of the people by what viceroy they were ruled, or at what distance from them he resided. It became, however, a very different matter when that colonial system was overthrown, and succeeded by native governments of their own election. Then, all the many and various distinctions of climate, of language, of habits, and productions, burst into notice; and as they separately put forward their claims to consideration, the difficulty, if not impossibility, became manifest, of adequately providing for them by the newly-constituted authorities, which, although succeeding to all the jurisdiction of the viceroys, repudiated in limine the principles of the system under which such discordant interests had hitherto been controlled and held together. The consequence has been, that most of the new states in their very infancy have been subjected to the embarrassing necessity of re-casting their governments, and dividing and subdividing their extensive territories, as the varying and distinct in |