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376 the life-right of a perpetual seat in the railroad trains, while thousands are enriching themselves with the fruits of his enterprise.

One disgraceful feature of the recent mutilated Confederation was the perpetuation in the provinces of the rule of irresponsible and irremovable chieftains. Benavides, for sixteen years a supporter of Rosas, went on as a supporter of Urquiza, after the fight of Caseros. To suppress insurrections among the people, Urquiza had to interfere by force in 1852, not to secure to San Juan "a republican form of government" in accordance with the Federal constitution, but violently to impose upon it the rule of its old master. In 1857 he made an unsuccessful attempt to reestablish him again; and he interfered in 1858 to punish the community for the death of Benavides, who had been taken prisoner, and had lost his life in an affray occasioned by an attempt to rescue him. Instead of avoiding direct conflict with this obstinate resistance, the national government, which Urquiza actually controlled, sent a governor to San Juan, who had been previously known only by his violent conduct and his vices, to serve as a sort of executioner. The result which might have been expected, soon followed in a terrible outbreak, during which the band of outsiders sent to torment the people perished at their hands. Colonel Sarmiento, then Minister of State at Buenos Ayres, was informed of the first symptoms of this outbreak by a message sent him by his friend, the irreproachable and venerable Dr. Aberastain, and he availed himself of the information to urge with