ch, Capucuy, is not over five
miles long.

Villavicencio tells the world that his country has a total population of
1,308,042. But Dr. Jameson believes it does not exceed 700,000. The
government is based on the Constitution of 1845, amended in 1853. The
president is chosen by a plurality of votes, holds his office for four
years, and has a salary of $12,000. He can not be re-elected,[30] nor
can he exercise his functions more than twenty-five miles from the
capital. But the law is often set aside by those in power. During the
administration of Garcia Moreno, prominent citizens were shot or
banished by his order, without trial by jury. To every plea for mercy
the stern president replied, that as he could not save the country
according to the Constitution, he should govern it according to his own
views of public necessity.

[Footnote 30: Since this was written, Garcia Moreno has been re-elected
to the presidency and the Constitution revised.]

Congress assembles on the 15th of September every other year, and
consists of eighteen senators and thirty representatives. The chambers
are small, and literally barren of ornament. The members sit in two rows
facing each other, have no desks, and give an affirmative vote by a
silent bow. Politics has less to do with principles and parties than
with personalities. Often it has a financial aspect; and the natural
expression on learning of a revolution is, "Somebody is out of money."
The party in feathers its nest as fast as possible; there is scarcely a
public officer who is not open to bribery. The party out plots a
premature resurrection to power by the ladders of corruption, slander,
and revolution.[31] Revolution has so rapidly followed revolution that
history has ceased to count them; and it may be said of them what Milton
wrote of the wars of the Saxon Heptarchy, "that they are not more worthy
of being recorded than the skirmishes of crows and kites." The Grand
Plaza, the heart where all the great arteries of circulation meet and
diverge, is where the high tides of Quito affairs ebb and flow.

[Footnote 31: Government has more than once paid its debts by
repudiation. Congress lately voted to pay only seven per cent. of the
claims against the state which are dated prior to a certain year. Among
the sufferers is the venerable Dr. Jameson, a distinguished foreigner,
who has served this country faithfully for forty years, first as
assayer, then as director of the mint, and alwa