The fatal mistake of several of the old Spanish colonies was in establishing a federal system of government, in imitation of the United States. This was the case in Mexico, Central America, New Granada, and the Argentine Confederation. No system can possibly be more entirely unsuited to a thinly-peopled mountainous region, without roads, and unprovided with a sufficient number of capable educated men in the distant provinces to undertake the local government. Power necessarily falls into the hands of any cunning adventurer, every little state becomes a focus for revolution, and an endless succession of civil wars are the result. Such, in fact, has been the fate of those republics where federation has been established. Pernicious as centralization always is when carried too far in old and densely-peopled countries, it is an absolute necessity in young states, with a small population thinly scattered over a vast extent of country. The distant inaccessible districts do not possess the materials for self-government within themselves, and necessarily depend for their prosperity and advancement on the capital. Peru has only once been subjected to the federal experiment, and she has not suffered so much from internal dissensions as the unfortunate countries above mentioned. She holds a central position amongst the South American republics, not so cruelly torn by anarchy as Mexico on the one hand, and not enjoying so good and settled a government as Chile on the other. Her people too are perhaps inferior in capacity and mental endowments to the Chilians and the natives of New Granada, but infinitely superior to those of Central America and Mexico. She may, therefore, be taken as an average example of these half Spanish, half Indian states; and as such I will proceed to give some account of her people, her government, and her material resources.