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186 wanting only one to establish the actual majority required: Arze could count only thirty-four votes: as neither of them had the majority established by the Congress, the election fell upon that body, and the result was that the oligarchical preference was given to Arze, who was elected by seventeen votes against six.

The two candidates were both known to possess the highest degree of patriotic feeling, and they have both suffered extreme hardships and privations in the cause of their country. Valle is, by profession, a civilian, is passionately addicted to literature, and is a great patron of science: Arze is a soldier, having been one of the chief promoters of the Independence, as far back as the year 1811. He was the chief of San Salvador when that province so strenuously resisted the tyranny of Iturbide, and prevented, by force of arms, the violent union which the then emperor desired to effect between the two kingdoms of Mexico and Guatemala. He is of a mild,