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372 defects of the one then in operation, as well as to close the door against the shameless frauds, and to punish the violence prevalent at the elections of Buenos Ayres, by furnishing definitions of these illegal actions. Buenos Ayres would have spared itself many days of disgrace and disturbance by the prompt passage of this law, which was agreed to by the Senate, but owing to its very perfection, was indefinitely postponed in the House of Representatives, an evidence of oversight in not making the legal use of rights the basis of liberty, which that body had afterwards reason to deplore.

In every form this far-seeing patriot had warred against the nomadic life of the cattle-grower, which was an insurmountable barrier to the improvement of the rural districts. After two years' discussion he succeeded in getting permission from the government to survey and lay out in small farms, in the North American mode, an extensive tract which was in possession of squatters, and these farms he sold cheaply, in part to the squatters themselves, and in part to emigrants from other lands. He personally superintended laying out the squares with broad streets, and planting them with trees, which grow as if by magic on the rich pampa lands whose native growth is only rich grass, that feeds countless herds of cattle without any labor to the owners. This survey was made in Chivilcoi in 1858, and last year, a railroad was completed to it from Buenos Ayres. On the occasion of opening the station, many persons accompanied the Governor to witness the ceremony, and all were amazed beyond expression to see the spectacle. It was a Chicago in the desert, as Colonel Sarmiento has expressed it. For