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LETTER XXXVIII.

THE AUTHORS to GENERAL MILLER.

Don Carlos de Alvear-Public Men are Public Property-Alvear elected Supreme Director-His State-Is a little shaken-The Coalition-Artigas Supreme Protector-Fate of Alvear's followers-His Promotions-The Battle of Sipé Sipé.

London, 1842.

DON CARLOS DE ALVEAR was, we are happy to add, is, (for he is still in the land of the living,) a man of good family, of soldier-like appearance, and deportment,-shrewd, brave, generous, and in his manners most like a gentleman. There was a tinge of aristocracy, both in his appearance and in his feelings, which, diminishing with his years, and sobered down by experience, are now not so observable.

When, flushed with the conquest of Monte Video and the Banda Oriental, not more than twentyfive years of age, with a splendid uniform, and a still more splendid wife,—the admiration of one sex, the envy of the other,-Alvear came to Buenos Ayres, big with the project of being elected "Supreme Director" of the State,-his bearing and carriage went rather beyond the patience and tole

228 PUBLIC MEN ARE PUBLIC PROPERTY.

ration of his countrymen. For one friend, he probably made ten enemies. The weak point of his character was want of originality of mind, and firmness of purpose. He got surrounded by Doctores, went to leeward in the hands of cunning statesmen, could seldom hold his wind (as mariners say) against the insetting tide of adulation, and was so kind, that he could seldom refuse to the captain who approached him with humility and deference the brevet rank of major, to the major that of lieutenant-colonel, and to the lieutenant-colonel that of colonel. From those who were his flatterers, as well as fancied friends, to whom he looked for military support, he withheld nothing.

Respecting General Alvear, as we both do,-long intimate with him, as we both have been,—a friend of ours, as we believe he now is, though we may something extenuate, we shall certainly set down nought in malice; not one word that we should be ashamed to read to General Alvear himself, in his quiet retreat from military and political jangle; nor which his own candour, liberality, and good sense would refuse to admit as true.

At the same time, General Alvear, like all public men, is now a sort of public property; and while

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 In the afternoon Mr. J. P. R. personage there. 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.

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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.

master set up. Before

you

231

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 and as he rode through the streets with

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