All this, however, does not help us to answer the momentous questions with which this chapter opens.--If Peru is not a Republic, and there have not been more than two revolutions in the whole of its wild and chequered history, what is it? Peru is a Republic in name, 'governed' or rather farmed by groups or families of despots, who frequently quarrel among themselves, cut each other's throats, and alternately embrace and kiss each other, in a manner that is sickening to any one who is not a moral eunuch[14]. Only those who are rich enough to escape to Chile are saved from the above gentle process. General Prado is one of these favoured Peruvians. Had not Don Manuel Pardo, the late President, fled from Lima during the revolting days of the Gutierrez terror, he too would have gone the way of all flesh and Peruvian political farmers. The people of Peru, those who are to be distinguished from the families who farm them, are hard-working, industrious, sober, ignorant, excitable and superstitious. They are fond of serving their masters, they like to be called 'children' by the great Colonels, the great sugar-boilers, and all who ride on horses and live, even though it be at other people's expense, in great houses. The Peruvian dictionary already quoted from, though it does not contain the word Republic, does contain the history of Peru. Let us turn to the article 'Liberty.' 'LA LIBERTAD,' says our brave soldier author, 'does not consist, civilly or socially speaking, in each one doing what he likes. By thus understanding liberty some governments have fallen, and some people have lost what they had gained. 'Liberty consists in each one having the power to do, at all events, that which the law has not forbidden, in not damaging another in his rights, or property, or in his moral and material well-being. 'That society is not free while any of its members are unable to express their thoughts without hinderance. 'That society is not free when one or more of its industries are prohibited under the pretext of monopoly or privilege. 'It is not free when it cares not, or is unable to arraign a lying magistrate. 'That society is not free which does not possess political morality. This consists in-- 'I. Keeping the treaties and covenants made with other nations. 'II. In submitting to the law without its ever supposing itself entitled to falsify it by cunning arts, or paltry subterfuge. 'III. In holding up to scorn whatever crime affects the national honour. 'IV. In not corrupting its institutions for personal considerations. A people will find it very difficult to maintain its freedom, which is without sufficient spirit to provide itself with good institutions, and afterwards ready to put so much faith in them, that it will become a religious duty rigorously to support them. 'By what right does Spanish-America call itself republican, if it has not renounced the custom of a despotic monarchical absolutism?