I know it is against the law, but my lawyer (naming
him) recommended me to take this step." The Chief Justice smiled
acquiescence, thanked him, and the man before night was safe in
prison. With this entire want of principle in many of the leading
men, with the country full of ill-paid turbulent officers, the
people yet hope that a democratic form of government can succeed!
On first entering society in these countries, two or three features
strike one as particularly remarkable. The polite and dignified
manners pervading every rank of life, the excellent taste displayed
by the women in their dresses, and the equality amongst all ranks.
At the Rio Colorado some men who kept the humblest shops used to
dine with General Rosas. A son of a major at Bahia Blanca gained
his livelihood by making paper cigars, and he wished to accompany
me, as guide or servant, to Buenos Ayres, but his father objected
on the score of the danger alone. Many officers in the army can
neither read nor write, yet all meet in society as equals. In Entre
Rios, the Sala consisted of only six representatives. One of them
kept a common shop, and evidently was not degraded by the office.
All this is what would be expected in a new country; nevertheless
the absence of gentlemen by profession appears to an Englishman
something strange.
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