ALVEAR ELECTED DIRECTOR.

229

he has a right to exact an impartial picture of his character and actions, not daubed with the rude brush of revolutionary passions, passing party, or personal enmity, he yet cannot expect, and we are sure does not desire, to stand ensconced behind his good qualities alone, as a bulwark, without some breach being made, some scaling attempted, of the weaker points of his character.

These remarks, though specially applicable, in the present case, to Geneal Alvear, we desire to be considered as the norte, the fundamental principles, upon which we shall proceed in treating of all the South American great men; and so much being premised, proceed we now to historical facts a little in detail.*

On the 10th of January, 1815, Posadas, reluctantly, but with apparent good will, resigned the supreme directorship into the hands of the conqueror of Monte Video. He was elected with all pomp, ceremony, and legality. The senior writer of these letters was at a balcony opposite to the cathedral, when the imposing procession, after hearing Te Deum, issued from the venerable pile. Alvear attracted all eyes; and though he appeared a little pale and trembling, under his accumulated

* See Appendix.

230

ALVEAR'S STATE.

honours, yet he walked upright in the midst of the cortège, and seemed to feel that he was the greatest personage there. In the afternoon Mr. J. P. R. dined at the fort, with about a hundred others; and so far in the evening had the young director recovered from his morning's trepidation, that he gaily mingled in the dance at the palace, to which every respectable inhabitant of Buenos Ayres was invited. He showed, already, that he felt himself at home. His manners were easy, affable, and natural; and the buoyant conviction of what he now was, the first man in the state,-shed its influence on all around.

Pleasant are the smiles and condescension of princes; there is a bewitching radiance and enchantment in them, of which the value is only appreciated when they are withdrawn.

One of Alvear's first measures was to divide the army into three sections,-one under the command of himself, another under that of Rondeau, and the third under that of Estanislao Soler.

Herrera, the old Paraguay friend of J. P. R., and unsuccessful ambassador to Francia, clever, astute, full of calculation and sagacity, was secretary of state; and a famous state did he and his

ALVEAR IS A LITTLE SHAKEN.

231

master set up. Before you could see Herrera, you must needs see an understrapper; and before you could see Alvear, you must needs pass through the hands of Señor Herrera. Then his Excellency, pacing about in the large state-room of the palace, received you with a very slight bow, talked en diplomatique, said he would take time to consider, and you received your congé, as you had been admitted to your audience, with most gentlemanlike froideur. Nothing but time, or old friendship, or objects favourable to the director's personal views, could thaw his dignity. He instituted a fashion altogether new among the South Americans—even in the time of the viceroys-that of never appearing in public but with a sort of royal escort of mounted grenadiers, and he abstained from going to private parties. All this was distasteful to the republican but haughty Porteños; and Alvear, having no party in the provinces, no feelings in common with the Gauchos, who pronounced him a fop, as he them barbarians, soon began to feel that the directorial chair, so far from being a sinecure, was shaking him to pieces.

He was fretted to death, but too proud to give in; and as he rode through the streets with

his dashing escort, it was evident that he was a man ill at ease. Feeling that his tenure of quasi regal state was far from secure, he became jealous of all those who belonged not to his own party. Arrests and banishments were frequent, though only in one instance, we believe, were any of his enemies led to execution. The men of the Director in the provinces followed in the footsteps of their chief; the army, as already stated, was divided into three divisions, of which that in Peru was entrusted to Rondeau, that of the Banda Oriental to Soler, and that of Buenos Ayres and the adjoining towns and provinces was under the command of Alvear himself. Fierce and highsounding decrees were fulminated against treason and conspiracy; and as the arrests took place mostly at midnight, a general fear and gloom pervaded the community.

Convinced, at length, that nothing but sheer military proponderance could uphold his tottering power, the Director, on the 3rd of April, 1815, marched his whole army out of Buenos Ayres to an encampment at the Olivos, distant about six miles from the city. He there kept recruiting and drilling his force, while the militia did garrison

ARTIGAS SUPREME PROTECTOR.

233

duty in it, General Soler being governor-intendente.

One of the most extraordinary coalitions on record, among the South Americans, whether we consider the unanimity or extent of it, now took place. In all the interior provinces, from the base of the Andes to Entre Rios, from Cape Horn to Peru, there had, ever since Alvear's election, been hollow and portentous murmurs-indicative, like distant thunder, of a terrible coming storm. At length it burst upon the devoted head of the Director, and crushed his power to atoms.

Artigas had now the ascendant in the Banda Oriental, and of course all the towns there were against the Director. Our old friend, Candioti, was at the time governor of Santa Fé, and invited his crony, Don Pèpe (that is, Artigas) to come over with his troops and rid them of the hated Porteños. Artigas came, the Buenos Ayreans in Santa Fé fled, and the news spreading like wildfire over the length and breadth of the land, every town and province pronounced, by acclamation, Artigas supreme and most excellent protector of the provinces of the River Plate. Three divisions of Alvear's own army declared against him, the largest