surnames. The organization of society, in accordance with the new ideas with which it was impregnated, began in 1820; and the movement continued until Rivadavia was placed at the head of the government. Hitherto Rodriguez and Las Heras had been laying the usual foundations of free governments. Amnesty laws, individual security, respect for property, the responsibility of civil authority, equilibrium of powers, public education, everything, in fine, was in peaceful course of establishment when Rivadavia came from Europe, brought Europe as it were, but Europe was yet undervalued. Buenos Ayres—and that means, of course, the Argentine Republic—was to realize what republican France could not realize, what the English aristocracy did not even wish for, what despotic Europe wanted still less. This was not an illusion of Rivadavia's; it was the general thought of the city, its spirit, and its tendency.
Parties were divided, not by ideas essentially opposed to each other, but by the greater or less extent of their aims. And how else could it have been with a people which in only fourteen years had given England a lesson, overrun half the continent, equipped ten armies, fought a hundred pitched battles, been everywhere victorious, taken part in all events, set at nought all traditions, tested all theories, ventured upon everything and succeeded in everything; which was still vigorous, growing rich, progressing in civilization? What was to ensue, when the basis of government, the political creeds received from Europe, were vitiated by errors, absurd and deceptive theories, and unsound principles? for the native politicians who were as yet without any
