To sum up: At the head of the Government is a President chosen for seven years. He is supported by four or five Secretaries of State, who, when the chief is strong, are but his head clerks. A legislative body exists, consisting of a Senate of thirty paid members, generally very tractable; of a Chamber of Representatives of sixty members, also paid, who, under a chief who has the power of life and death, give him but little trouble. His main reliance, however, as also his main danger, is the army. General Salomon pays particular attention to that institution; has it strongly recruited, and, as long as its chiefs are satisfied, may defy the isolated revolutionary attempts of his enemies. The army is generally composed of blacks, and they look on a black President as their rightful head. They obey a coloured chief, but it is not willingly, and murmur at his punishments, whilst a black general might have a man beaten to death without exciting any dissatisfaction among his comrades. CHAPTER VII. RELIGION, EDUCATION, AND JUSTICE. RELIGION. During the long Presidency of General Geffrard, the concordat with Rome was carried out in some of its most essential points. Until then the Roman Catholic clergy in Hayti were a byword and a reproach to every one who respected religion. There were few priests who were not the expelled of other countries, and even adventurers had assumed the clerical garb to obtain an easy and lucrative living. There was one priest in the south, who was considered a _bon enfant_ and inclined to luxurious cheer, who turned his attention to money-making, and every week he sallied forth from the town of Les Cayes to forage in the country districts. So that he was paid his fees, it was immaterial to him what he was called upon to bless; he would indifferently sprinkle holy water on a new house or a freshly built temple dedicated to the Vaudoux worship. The simple inhabitants would bring out their stone implements, imported in former days from Africa and used in their fetish rites, and the priest would bless them; then he would return to town in a jovial mood and chuckle over his gains. In comparatively a few years that man remitted to Europe through an English house the sum of twelve thousand pounds sterling. Another, whom I knew personally, lived in a town not far from the capital, and his amours somewhat scandalised the Archbishop. He tried in vain to have him removed from his parish. The priest was popular, had influence in Government circles, and defied his superior. He might have defied him to the end had he not mixed in politics; but having embraced the losing side, he was ultimately banished.[15]