CHAPTER I.

DIVISIONS AND PRESENT STATE OF THE REPUBLIC.

Extent, Divisions, and General Government of the Provinces of La Plata. Jurisdiction of the old Viceroyalties:--Necessity of dividing and subdividing such vast Governments:--Embarrassments arising out of this necessity. The backwardness in the Political organization of these Provinces, common to all the new Republics of South America; and attributable to the same cause; the Colonial system of the Mother Country. Mistake in comparing the condition of the Creoles with that of the British Colonists of North America. Natural ascendency of Military Power in the new States. Their progress in the last twenty-five years compared with their previous condition Page 1