Social state of the Limenians under the Spaniards and Patriots.—Spanish colonists.—Style of conversation.—Improvements in female education.—Zamba attendants.—Omnipotence of the ladies at fifteen.—Esprit de corps of the fair sex.—Forgiving temper of public opinion.—Defective administration of justice.—Prerogative called EmpeÑo.—God-fathers and god-mothers.—Saint-day parties.—Flowers and perfumes.—Limenian women excel in attention to the sick.—General character of the white women and dark races.—Boys of European race.—Few men of intellectual habits.—Promenade of Amencaes, as illustrative of national feeling and character.—Pillo and Pillo-fino.—Money a substitute for morality.—Relaxation of morals general, but not universal.
Persons of sufficiently mature age in Lima never fail to acknowledge, and often delight to tell us, that before the great revolution, and during the tranquil period of their own early recollections, their fellow-citizens and countrymen were in general fair and upright in their ordinary dealings; and that good humour, happiness, and gaiety of heart were inseparable from their frequent public meetings and social recreations.
But this sound and amicable spirit, which indeed appears to have diffused itself pretty generally in the time of the Spanish dynasty, we may trace as emanating from the many estimable and courteous qualities of those more enlightened Europeans, by whose superior capacity and direction the then existing order of society was so long and quietly upheld in this and in other sections of the New World. The past state of things was nevertheless faulty in many respects. It involved an uncontrolled indulgence in sensual gratification, though the memory of many a disappointed patriot likes to dwell on it as on the flowery retrospect of his happiest days. But Lima is no longer a garden of roses, or a bower of delight. One day, in speaking of the change to the worse that the revolution had brought about in the social system of his country, a venerable old man remarked, “Formerly there was a heart to feel, and a hand to give; but now they have left us neither friendship nor pity: you find not whom to trust; and men, without regard to right or justice, keep all to themselves with the close unyielding grasp of the ape when she clasps her young to her bosom.”
An unbounded love of superficial display engages the minds of the people so fully as to have superseded, to a great extent, active benevolence, and sterling, honourable dealing between man and man; and we must confess that the yet inexperienced creoles, left to themselves, show, in the management of their own affairs, slender political discretion and no shining public virtue.
But yet, as a whole, the Peruvians, for whose manifold faults very great allowances should be made, have, in an eminent degree, the redeeming qualities of soft, attractive manners, and a mild, prepossessing address. These agreeable characteristics, not so frequently as could be wished associated with a manly openness and frankness of mind, sometimes serve, in the present evil times, as a ready cloak to exclude the ken of those whom they are willing to deceive.
If these secluded people, too long accustomed to servitude and ease during the luxurious dynasty of their European masters, were once induced—which, under good moral management, they easily might be,—to make honesty and industry more prevalent virtues than they are at present among the bulk of the population, then they might realize, more largely than they have yet done, the advantages of that unsettled freedom, which, with feelings of pardonable exultation, they pride themselves in possessing; and, with such an amendment on their moral features, their richly varied country, with all its natural superiorities and improvable resources, might soon be transformed into an earthly elysium. But the germ of true political liberty must be better cultivated than it has yet been among them, and protected by a steady, disinterested, and patriotic government, before the soil can be made to throw out its latent luxuriance, or generous and noble virtues freely unfold themselves in the heads and hearts of a newly independent, uninstructed, and heterogeneous population.
The common race of Spaniards from old Spain, who established themselves and reared families in Peru, appear to have been, as we formerly signified, men of strict commercial integrity, scarcely requiring written obligations or acknowledgements in their pecuniary transactions one with the other; they are reported to have been friendly and charitable, always ready to assist a poor adventurer from the old country, or a needy friend, whenever he presented himself.
The houses of the affluent teemed with idle domestics and laughing loiterers, whose coarse merriment bespoke contentment and plenty; and the beggar, who sat in the back-court and corridor (the walls of which are still beautified with painted flowers and landscapes) to enjoy the cool of the artificial fountain, or who rested himself on the benches of the tesselated porchway, laughing with the merry fellows that were about him, felt not the miseries of pauperism; for, wherever the Limenian mendicant seated himself, there he was happy, and partook cheerfully of the abundant surplus from the rich man’s table, which was liberally bestowed on the poor.
But, generally speaking, delicacy of sentiment or refinement of education did not belong to the Spanish colonists; and though they acquired wealth by their moderate industry, reared costly edifices and churches, endowed convents and monasteries, and paid for numberless masses; though they befriended the poor, and filled their welcome guest’s cup to overflowing in a land of milk and honey; yet, be it spoken with candour, their summum bonum seems to have been something like a good Mussulman’s paradise.
The natives of the country still avow, that though the Spaniard, who used to come to their shores as an adventurer soon to be incorporated into their domestic circle, was seldom a polished or intellectual character, nevertheless he was usually a man of integrity and some industry, or, to use their own words, “brusco, pero recto y trabajador.” Besides, the women, whom we in general allow to be good judges in every rank of life, continue to bear witness that the Spaniard makes a good husband and a kind father of a family,—“el Espanol es buen marido y buen padre de familia.” But, to merit this encomium from the fair sex on the shores of the Pacific, let it be borne in mind that austere virtue and severe self-denial are not always expected or required in the husband.
Those educated foreigners who frequent the rounds and “tertulias” of Limenian good company,—which we take as the best criterion of refinement in that country,—have had occasion to regret, that women of the most elegant manners, ladylike mien, and unimpeached character, are despoiled of no small share of the outward illusion of their charms, and appear to lose much of the moral loveliness of their sex, by an unconscious licence of speech, that cannot fail to appear faulty in the opinion of those to whom long habit has not yet rendered the style familiar.
We have pleasure in bearing our humble evidence in favour of the great pains, and cost, to which mothers now put themselves in educating their daughters; and it is incontrovertible, that the rising generation are about to come on the stage of active life, with many advantages of instruction which were not enjoyed by their parents. But, granting it to be true, that these interesting young ladies may have considerable advantages over their predecessors in the knowledge of French, geography, music, a little drawing, and a chaster fashion of dancing, still, we are apprehensive, that in more humble and useful domestic education not a little is wanting: and this important defect, we conceive, is not to be remedied by expensive teachers, or by the routine of boarding-schools; but, if we mistake not, by good example at home. To improve the domestic education in the female part of the community, it would be necessary to detach young ladies as much as possible from the customary attendance of old favourite “zambas;” who, there is much reason to believe, teach them at an early age to pry into the private weaknesses of their seniors, and excite in their quick, comprehensive minds a degree of attention and curiosity which, when indiscreetly called forth, seldom fail to bias their inclination to vices that may on some occasions be deemed hereditary; and thus open a door to a series of indulgences which, in the long-run, prove the bane of their own ill-sought happiness, as well as the wreck of many a fond parent’s hopes, too blindly placed on a daughter left to the daily tutorship of intriguing domestics.
The ladies when young, and long before they become marriageable, are taught to anticipate their own omnipotence at fifteen, which little girls of seven or eight years of age already reckon to be the approaching era of their perfect felicity; for the Spaniards say “No hay fea de quince,”—All are fair at fifteen. There is also among these gifted women, whose superiority, as a body, over their own countrymen is always admitted, a great “esprit de corps,” so that the greatest sinner among them is never left without a gentle voice to plead her cause, and palliate, when she cannot exculpate, a sister’s errors.
This forgiving system runs through every class and rank, from the highest to the lowest; but it is in the lofty circles that its influence is most worthy of particular notice. No one ventures to throw the first stone at the unfortunate; and there insensibly arises a gradation of vices and virtues, dove-tailing into each other so as to constitute a social whole, wherein the different degrees of moral deviation are all shaded by an overflowing charity. Pleasure and vice are nearly allied, and unhappily he who assumes the clerical habit and tonsure is not, in his own person, always a stranger to the voluptuous enjoyments of those around him; and the example of the man who rules the conscience of the people,—who grants them absolution, and allows them indulgences,[7]—will naturally be imitated: hence the indulgence of public opinion as regards individual and private character in Peru.
The slow and partial administration of justice is loudly complained of by those whose affairs require them to frequent courts of law in the Peruvian capital. The turbulent independence of the bad and disorderly, uncontrolled by any active and faithful police, is every day increasing, and already puts justice at defiance. The impudence, ill-acquired pecuniary influence, and intrigue of the false-hearted and boasting patriot, are daily seen to assume the embroidered insignia of “un benemerito de la patria!”—an honour which only in equity belongs to that rare character—the genuine patriot, who knows how to sacrifice his private convenience to the public good. The judges are often left without pecuniary means consistent with their honourable calling, because their salaries are not duly paid by the government; and if, under these circumstances, the balance of justice be disturbed in its equilibrium, the blame must not be all laid to the charge of those public functionaries who are the appointed ministers of the laws. The truth is, that, for a considerable time back, the sums that entered the national treasury were too scanty to support the pageantry of military array, together with the accumulated expences of a destructive and demoralizing warfare; and the pecuniary embarrassments arising from these circumstances, involved in their consequences some drawbacks in the civil administration of justice. But another popular cause, and that to which we would desire to draw the attention of the reader, for the unequal distribution of justice, is by common consent allowed to be, that in the best, as even now in the worst of times, the fair sex in Lima have enjoyed, from date immemorial, a more than regal prerogative, which the convulsions that effected what is called their political freedom, have in no essential particular obliterated or changed. It is called EmpeÑo.
This tacitly constitutional instrument of clemency, although in the hands of women naturally inclined to mercy, may, when misguided, operate against the vital interests of the community; and by it the true ends of legislative enactments may, from time to time, be frustrated. This prerogative is put in practice especially by certain genteel-looking young women, who are neither married nor single, but who, in the language of the indulgent matrons of the country, are allowed to be, though not married, highly honourable and gifted,—“No es casada, pero muy honrada, muy prendada:” and a lady of this quality seldom loses favour, or a good place in society, so long as she has a calesa or carriage in Lima, and a rancho or bathing-lodge in Chorrillos. Let us now suppose that this lady, attired in her national, or rather Limenian, dress of saya and manto,[8] desires either to plead some advantage or indulgence for another, or a favour more particularly for herself,—and that for this purpose she employs the blandishments and flow of persuasive language at her command. The gentleman, thus softly assailed by so eloquent and attractive a being, unwisely listens until he is entirely at his magician’s bidding. This spell is what is vulgarly meant by the gigantic and overgrown prerogative termed in Peru empeÑo. But we must not forget to mention, that this ascendant power is very commonly promoted by a certain spiritual influence, in which both married and single partake,—namely, the sacred relation between god-fathers and god-mothers, the well-known “compadres y comadres” of that sunny land; and it will be at once perceived that an influence so remarkable in the ladies as this, which enables them, during their good pleasure, to deprive men of free-will, must have wide practical application, and be productive of great good or evil in that country, where it confessedly extends its sway to bench and altar, senate, palace, and camp. No old stager in Lima hears of a political or domestic altercation, or of any serious movement that causes a stir and sensation in the city, but he immediately inquires what woman can be at the bottom of this bullanga or hubbub; and if the affair should happen to concern himself, his friends, or political party, he does not long sit at ease until he finds out who that woman is, or discovers where the spiritual alliance rests, where dwells the comadre that rules the order of the day.[9]
The Peruvian highland girls have an ingenious way of contriving for themselves compadres, without the necessary interference of the priest, merely by sending the gentleman, whom any one of them in particular may desire to honour, a sweet cake made into the form of a doll, which they call “guawa,” the Indian name for baby. This offspring of a good-humoured regard which they desire should become mutual, they nicely dress, and accommodate on a couch made from a selection of the fresh flowers of the season, and forward it with their kindest wishes (con muchisimas expresiones), under their now adopted name of comadre, to the person on whom by this gracious act of partiality they confer the confidential title, expecting by his acceptance a return of the attentions and courtesy of the real compadre. On the coast, again, (in the capital,) on the anniversary of a lady’s birth-day, or saint’s day, celebrated in merry parties encouraged to assemble by the joint allurements of music, dancing, cooling repasts, and all that can render such meetings attractive, the drawing-room may be said to be converted into a flower-garden by the attention of compadres, comadres, and friends, who vie with each other in sending presents of fine flowers, sweet preserves, and other gifts; and, at the annual return of these joyful meetings, the friends of the family, and of the individual who is the object of the compliments of the day, have the best opportunity of expressing their friendship, by adding to the ornaments of a young lady’s toilet, or presenting her with any delicate mark of personal regard.
These meetings, not overlooked in the humblest dwellings, are seen to best advantage in the handsome “quadra,” or tertulia-room of the wealthy, where the large chandeliers are well reflected by spacious mirrors, in which are seen multiplied the groups of happy faces, to the delight of the party, all pleased with one another. Here and there are Guamanga baskets of filigree texture laden with spiced and perfumed fruits, sometimes ornamented with delicate threads of gold and silver, fancifully twined from peg to peg of the spice fixed in the fruit. Among them, too, are usually golden apples,—viz. apples coated with gold leaf,—many sweet fruits imbedded in aroma, and the sweetly-scented cheremolla or cheremoya, and orange blossoms, which are peculiarly welcome to the guests when distributed from the hands of the hostess, or her engaging daughters.
We may here observe, in passing, that handing a flower to a forenoon visitor, who, if a polished gentleman, accompanies his verbal salutation by raising his hand softly to his heart, is only a customary mark of polite attention, quite in character with the complacent manners and natural taste of the Limenian ladies, in this respect favoured by their balmy climate, in which odoriferous fruits and flowers are always within reach: and on leaving their house they almost invariably besprinkle their visitors with perfumes, and thus send them away redolent of hospitality. And while their corridors, in which they frequently swing in their hammocks, or enjoy the siesta, are scented with flower-gardens, and their “patios,” or courts, with roses and jessamine, sweet perfumes, and fragrant herbs are frequently used in their principal bed-chamber, when it is found convenient, for the sake of cheering the sick, to receive friends into this apartment, which is usually very gorgeously furnished, and communicates with the drawing-room or quadra. Our professional avocations have afforded us an intimate opportunity to know, and we feel a peculiar pleasure in proclaiming it, that it is by the bedside of sickness (where men are exceedingly helpless without the aid of the softer sex, at once more patient and serene, more dexterous and endearing in their assistance,) that the LimeÑa, be her rank, birth, or pretensions what they may, is seen to greatest advantage. Here the humblest and most faulty of these comforters shows the native goodness of her disposition, and is seen to rise superior to the drawbacks of her education, manifesting the angelic power of her sex to soothe pain and cheer the broken-hearted, by the exercise of that blessed charity which covereth a multitude of sins.
It is curious to notice that among the white women of Lima there are no menials, though they are subject to many of the privations and humiliations of poverty; but, a poor girl of unmixed Spanish blood, though of lowly birth, feels, however destitute in her circumstances, the impulse of what she deems nobility within her; and at nothing do her prejudices more strongly recoil, than at the idea of becoming the wife of a man of African or slave descent.
Comely countenances,—above all, a bright and beautiful eye,—and pretty figures, with an inimitably graceful walk, constitute the common inheritance of the European race, who, in their own forms, partake of the softness and fineness of the climate in which they were brought into being. These are, in common with their tawny and darker countrywomen, extremely attentive to the public and outward ordinances of their showy religion, which must strike every one with a feeling of solemnity as, at the stroke of a bell at twilight, every human being engages in one common act of public devotion. They retain the common Catholic spirit of pious display, fasting, and penance; the same faith in the efficacy of saintly images and influences; the same reliance on priestly absolution and indulgences; but they do not cherish the cruelty or stern religion of their ancestors, whose ardent zeal planted the cross on the now mouldering ruins of Pachacamac.[10] Though little versed in book-information, they are usually gifted with natural acuteness and intelligence; are seldom quite ignorant of the ways of the world, even when educated in convents; are hardly ever so overcome by their tender feelings, or so blind to their worldly interests, as to fall into the folly of a genuine love-marriage; and they are never at a loss for a sagacious observation or pertinent reply. They are indulgent to human passion and weakness; are agreeable, sometimes fascinating companions; and never fail to leave the buen mozo, (the good-looking young man,) if not delighted with them, at least highly pleased with himself. Their conversation is sprightly and unembarrassed; and though particularly indulged and caressed from childhood, accustomed to flattery and fond of admiration, they are as free from obtrusive levity and affectation of manner, as from blushing timidity or cold reserve; their filial love is the admiration of foreigners; and, when blessed with good husbands, they are faithful and affectionate wives.
Nothing in Lima can strike the attention of a stranger, who understands their language, more than the propriety and fluency with which serving-people express their thoughts, and this they commonly do with an agreeable seasoning of the ease and manner of the higher classes; a fact, no doubt, attributable to much native ability on their own part, and to their having been brought up on a footing of great familiarity with their superiors. This recommendatory trait in the humblest ranks of the community is, we regret, fast giving way to the intrusive manners of the unrestrained and rising aristocracy of a mongrel brood,—a dusky and bronzed brotherhood, whose very complexion indicates an incapacity to blush as apparent, at first sight, as among the white race used to be the long-honoured badge of the proud Spanish lineage,—the “sangre azul!” blue blood!—so called, by the inferior races, in consideration of the hue of the veins rising to view under the delicate tissue of a pure white skin.
Wit, not unknown among the white women, is a general attribute of the mestizo and zambo septs, as well male as female. These people of colour are too much addicted to sarcasm, and too fond of the ludicrous and fantastical. When in a bilious or choleric mood, they are outrageously passionate; but then, with chicha-piÑa (fermented juice of the pine-apple), and nieve (ice or iced-water), they soon drown or freeze their fury, and restore to themselves equanimity and mirth. Instances of death from impetuous gusts of passion are, we believe, rare among them; though we have had occasion to hear of some such, and we have witnessed severe nervous ailments that arose from the turbulent emotion of their savage anger. Such mixed castes are remarkable for a great deal of what is by themselves called “broma,”—a facetious kind of bantering, with noisy fun and sensual dalliance, which is most displayed at their “jarranas,” or merry meetings: they like the theatre, and they are passionately fond of bull-fights, cock-fights, religious processions, and that sort of song and music which inflame the passions and deprave the heart,—their feasts too often degenerate into debauchery, and their merriment into obscenity.
Boys of pure Spanish parentage or descent, in Lima, are usually animated and intelligent, like their sisters; but, as their bodily powers approach to maturity, their attention is engrossed with frivolous pleasures, which seem to enervate the mental faculties, and stint and vitiate their future expansion. It is, therefore, not unusual for hopeful boys to become childish and fickle, silly and fatuous men. The latter imbecility of mind we observe with striking frequency in the families of the suppressed nobility.
Those very few well-tempered spirits that have outgrown every obstacle to their full mental developement, have that inborn thirst after knowledge which even knowledge itself cannot quench; for, the more they learn, the more they aspire to know; and these men, with little external incitement to forward or nurture their literary tastes and pursuits, are like those plants on arid land, which only require a few fleeting showers to quicken their energies, develope their form, and unfold their beauty. Such choice persons are the delight of their friends, and worthy of that better state of society for which they daily sigh, as they see the best laws and institutions of their country trampled upon by military despots, whose nod they must obey, while they say in their hearts, “Vetitum est sceleri nihil!”
On the 24th of June, (Dia de San Juan,) all Lima annually assemble along the windings of the “Great Alamada,” and between orangeries now prettily laden with fruit, to the romantic mountain recess of “Amencaes,” only about one mile from town, and beautifully adapted for pleasure-grounds, if only supplied with water, which it might have at some expense. This spot commands a fine view of the capital, with its towering spires; of wide fields, innumerable orchards, the Rimac, and the fine lagoon at its mouth; the island of San Lorenzo, and the shipping at Callao; and it has, in its back-ground, a set-off in the acclivities newly clothed with vivid vegetation, among numerous crags and many a ridge and chasm. Here, on the day of San Juan,—a day of festivity and joy,—men, women, and children, of all ranks, all ages, and all colours and occupations, meet. Mirth is the object of one and all. Their horses, their asses, and even their own persons, are adorned in their best manner; and the rational as well as the irrational members of the ever-moving crowd are bedecked with the flower of Amencaes taken from the favourite clefts and nooks of these hills. In this place there are tents and sheds, that supply seats and refreshment for those who love the thoughtless and bawling mirth of the “jarrana.” There is at this exhibition a dunning confusion of musical discord kept up by drumming, piping, shouting, harping, and guitaring, singing, laughing, and dancing; but no fighting. Here too we may see the popular “paseo,” or promenade, of the “chuchumecas,” (women of immoral character,) who mingle freely and good-humouredly with the crowd, to the infinite amusement of the multitude. The national taste is on this, as on other occasions of festivity, eminently displayed by the loud and simultaneous laugh, or “carcajada,” of cheering voluptuaries when the samaqueca—a favourite dance—is exhibited in a free and masterly style.
The periodical rides and picnics of the Limenians to Las Huacas, Surco, and Lurin, are now dwindling away into neglect, as there is neither money nor public tranquillity for such happy scenes of customary gaiety. Carnival, with them, has lost its spirit; the Noche Buena, or Christmas-eve, is deprived of much of its revelry; and all that in their customs was most alluring and glittering is rapidly withering and dying away.
We may now, not unfrequently, observe more disposition to indulge in the gloomy and silent stillness of the “duelo,” or formal condolence for the dead, than in the hilarity of the golden times of these merry-making people, who were for generations most happy in the unconsciousness of defects, and in the conviction that no people on earth were superior to themselves in knowledge and civilization.
In all parts of the world there are criminally selfish and unprincipled men; and in Peru there may be found a set of rogues, called “Pillos,” rendered more numerous and troublesome from the circumstances of the times. Of these the capital presents two kinds, which has led to the distinction of “pillo” and “pillo-fino.” The first is a very common and plausible sort of rogue; but the latter is, as the name implies, a more refined cheat, not unfrequently enticed from distant parts by the fame of the numerous attractions of Lima, the paralysis of the laws, and consequent facility of escaping chastisement. The clink of hard dollars and doubloons, shoveled into “talegas,” or money-bags, and again thrown open at the gambling-table, are such sounds as are sure to allure the pillo-fine to that promiscuous society of Limenian gamblers, where the precious coin usually finds its way into the hands of the crafty. Whatever be the land of this animal’s nativity, he is but a vampire,—a human blood-sucker; but the simple pillo is a very different character, always plausible and pliable, an every-day and common-place member of society, who sponges on his neighbour, and whom all Englishmen courted for their generosity are sure to encounter. The ultimatum of this person’s milky adulation and very smiling policy is to procure a loan of money; and when he asks “plata prestada,” or money on loan, of any one, he assures that person, that applying to him is the greatest proof he can offer of his own friendly confidence and regard for the individual; but, while he is lavish of compliment, he takes care not to express his secret purpose, namely, never to reimburse whatever in this way he may hope to clutch.
It is a trite saying with the Spaniard,—“Es bueno conocer el amigo sin perderlo,” that is, It is well to know a professed friend, but not to lose him; and this will be found, like most Spanish adages, to convey in actual life a lesson of practical wisdom. The common pillo, of whom we take notice, never thinks the less of you for giving him a polite refusal; and, by so doing, you act in the spirit of the above saying, and preserve both your friend and your money; for, when civilly refused, he in good nature leaves you, and proceeds forthwith in search of some less wary dupe, and thinks to himself as he departs from you, “Ya este sabe,”—This one is up to our tricks.
Though Peru be a land of gold and silver, yet nowhere are the precious metals in greater requisition than in Lima, where the scarcity of circulating capital is shown by the revolting dealings of the common usurer, who extorts from the victims of his cupidity two or three per cent. a month on the advances he makes; and the current and regular rate of interest in that country is one per cent. a month, or twelve per cent. a year.
The “plata,” or money, covers more delinquencies than charity itself; hence we hear such expressions as these: “Nada es mala que gana la plata,” viz. Nothing is bad that wins the money. “Bien, le costo su plata!”—Very well, (what is it to us?) it cost him his money! “Porque no tener su gusto cuando le cuesta la plata?”—Why not have his pleasure when it costs him the money?—as if money, forsooth, could annihilate the moral turpitude of sinful enjoyment.
We cannot give the reader a better idea of the popular ethics of Peru in the present day, than in the words of a friend long resident in the country, who said that Peru had the advantage over every other country he had seen,—that in it “no one need ever be put out of countenance for anything he can say or do.” By so broad a statement as that conveyed in the expression now cited, we would only desire to represent the bad state of moral feeling prevalent among the bulk of a people not long since let loose to follow their own unrestrained wishes; without thereby meaning to deny the fact, that, in Lima more particularly, we often find that good natural dispositions and obliging manners do in no small degree supply, in the ordinary intercourse of life, the place of higher principle. And yet more: we would honourably except from this general description many individual examples of eminent virtue to be met in Peruvian society; striking instances of disinterested friendship and kindness (of which the writer himself has more than once been the favoured object); and the most generous, amiable, and praiseworthy bearing, which we have seen displayed by them in their domestic and social relations.
If we consider all things in the circumstances of the Peruvians, their story from first to last must awaken an interest in the mind of every inquirer into their past and present state, rather than dispose him to censure them indiscriminately for their errors. We may indeed wonder not to find fewer good qualities among them; and, on the other hand, not to see the fiercer passions that utterly brutalize human nature, and agitate every corner of society, more called into action among a medley of ignorant and discordant castes, passing without adequate preparation from one extreme of government to another, and from one civil broil into another of greater confusion and misrule.
But, as we have already had occasion to mention, there is among the entire mass of the people a natural aptness to please by a happy address; and no one can witness the external graces of the more enlightened and better classes, who are daily engaged in their customary rounds of social and courteous attentions, without desiring that these qualities, at least, should survive the overthrow of whatever is pernicious to a healthy state of society.
