vernment, or
as an imposition, a despotism whose excesses do more harm than the
violence of the criminals. Communication between people is paralyzed,
for they fear to be maltreated for trifling causes. More importance
is attached to the formality of the law than to the basal principle
of it,--the first symptom of incapacity in government. The heads of
the organization consider it their first duty to make people salute
them, either of their own will or by force, even in the darkness of
night. In this, their inferior officers imitate them and maltreat
and fleece the poor countrymen. There is no such thing as sacredness
of the fireside. There is no security for the individual. What have
the people accomplished by overcoming their wrath and by waiting for
justice at the hands of others? Ah! senor, if you call that preserving
the order----"

"I agree with you that there are evils," replied Ibarra. "But we
have to accept those evils for the good which accompanies them. This
institution may be imperfect, but believe me, by the terror which it
inspires, it prevents the number of criminals from increasing."

"You might better say that by that terror it increases the number
of criminals," said Elias, correcting him. "Before this body was
created, almost all the evildoers, with the exception of a very few,
were criminals because of their hunger. They pillaged and robbed in
order to live. That famine once passed over and hunger once satisfied,
the roads were again free from criminals. It was sufficient to have
the poor but valiant cuaderilleros chase them, with their imperfect
arms--that body of men so often calumniated by those who have written
upon our country, those men who have three legal rights, to do their
duty, to fight and to die. And for all that, a jest as recompense. Now
there are tulisanes who will be tulisanes all their lives. A crime
inhumanly punished, resistance against the excesses of the power
which inflicts such punishment, and fear that other atrocities may
be inflicted--these make them forever members of that society who
are bound by oath to kill and die [21]. The terrorism of the Guardia
Civil impressed upon them closes forever the doors to repentance. And
as a tulisan fights and defends himself in the mountains better than
a soldier, whom he scorns, the result is that we are incapable of
abating the evil which we have created. Call to mind what the prudent
Governor General de la Torre did. The amnesty whic