capital of the United States, with the logical results so far a matter of public knowledge, including the joint institution of a representative informative bureau here, the progressing survey of an intercontinental railway route, and the cordial coöperation secured for a Pan-American representation and industrial and historical exhibit at the approaching Columbian Exposition, have stimulated to the extent of proper elation inter-American interests of all laudable character, sufficiently to assure further and increasing harmonious development and civilized advancement to and among the Republics of the New World.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

The Argentine Republic is second in extent, and, at present, the most interesting, from an agricultural point of view of the countries of South America. It has attracted the attention of the world during recent years by its progressive efforts, by the industrial successes it has attained, and recently by public misfortunes, which, it may well be hoped, are only temporarily of a serious character, acting as a check upon speculation rather than as a reversal of much of the progress attained.

GOVERNMENT AND HISTORY.

Constitutionally the Argentine Republic is more like the United States than are any other of the republics, as by the fundamental law adopted May 15, 1853, modified in 1860, it preserves a division under the general government into provinces answering to our States and having independent local governments through their chosen legislatures and provincial officers, and into territories, under the direction of national appointees. The president and vice-president are elected for a term of six years, by an electoral college chosen by the people, the former being the chief executive officer of the nation and the latter simply the presiding officer of the senate and first in succession to the chief office in case of vacancy. The legislative power is in a national congress, consisting of a senate and house of deputies, there being two senators for each of the fourteen provinces and for the federal district, elected by the legislatures for terms of nine years, and divided into three classes, as to times of succession; while members of the house of deputies are chosen directly by the people, for terms of four years, half retiring each year, and are apportioned at the rate of one for each 20,000 inhabitants. The judicial organization is also similar to that of this country, and trial by jury is guaranteed in criminal cases. Each province has its own judicial system,

The estuary of the Rio de la Plata and the region of Montevideo bordering it and opposite to that of Buenos Ayres were first discovered by

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Juan Diaz de Solis in 1516, who ascended the stream with three small vessels, and upon landing was killed by the Indians. The second expedition to that region was conducted by Sebastian Cabot in 1527, but Buenos Ayres was only begun as a settlement on February 2, 1535, by Pedro de Mendoza, eight years after the beginning of the occupation of Coro, in Venezuela. The colony was unsuccessful until reëstablished by De Garay, June 11, 1580, after several other settlements had been made farther up or in the interior, as Asuncion, Mendoza, Córdoba, Santa Fé, etc. The foundation of these colonies, always cities, displaced to the necessary extent portions of indigenous wild tribes, mainly the Guaraní, Payaguá, Timbre, and Araucanian Indians.

The River Plata colonies below Asuncion were gathered under one government, at Buenos Ayres, in 1620, subject to the viceroyalty of Peru, however, and so remained until 1776, when an independent viceroyalty was established, including what now constitute the Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay; but this combination fell apart when independence of Spain was declared, July 9, 1816, each of the before-named political divisions becoming finally independent governments.

However, during the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres the Jesuit settlements along the Paraná River, called misiones, consisting of civilized Guaraní Indians, were independent of viceroyalties and reported only to the home government. It is historically and otherwise interesting to know, relative to these missions, that they were established by order of Philip III in 1609, to protect and civilize the Indians; that they were remarkably successful; that they extended over from 20,000 to 30,000 square miles in the Argentine Republic and Paraguay as now constituted; that they had a civilized and somewhat educated population in 1768, when they were broken up, of 138,000 people, mostly engaged in agriculture and stock-raising, living in villages, in their own neat houses, with outlying lands of their own and of their communities, with churches, schools, colleges, and industrial educational organizations; that there was sufficient community of efforts and of goods to provide for all and leave an annual surplus for foreign trade; that the people elected their own local rulers and enacted their municipal laws; and that during more than a century and a half of existence of what Bonpland, the botanist, who lived many years there, called "the Christian Republic," not a person had merited the punishment for a third offense against the laws, which was a public whipping. The produc tions, etc., of misiones are shown farther on. The Guaraní tongue, now spoken in them and throughout Paraguay, was moulded into grammatical form by the Jesuits.*

On a recent visit to the University of Córdoba, I saw, among the books in the library, a grammar of the Guaraní language, and a heroic poem, running through many cantoes, written in hexameter verse.-Consul BAKER.