Thus the total cost of connecting the present railway system with that of the Pacific seaboard will be about £3,000,000. The section from Mercedes to Mendoza passes over level pampas. That of the Andes is described as follows: 1. The steepest incline on the Argentine side is 1 in 40 (say 21 per cent.) for a stretch of six miles. 2. The steepest incline on the Chilian side is 1 in 25 (say 4 per cent.) for a stretch of seven miles. 3. The tunnel at the summit will be 3 miles long. This railway will open for settlement the vast extent of cultivable lands of the provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, and San Luis, with a present population of 175,000, and insure the development of the mineral resources of those provinces. When it is completed, travelers from Chili can obtain passage to Europe and back for less than is now paid for a single fare from Valparaiso to England (£45), with a corresponding economy of time. An Argentine engineer, Señor Huergo, had revived the project of a port for the city of Buenos Ayres at the Boca, and such progress had been achieved in the work that early in July two sea-going vessels, drawing each more than twelve feet, entered the new port at low water. Señor Huergo asserts that with £200,000 a port can be provided for Buenos Ayres to rival that of the Clyde. His plans and estimates had been approved by the Government, and an adequate appropriation would probably be placed at his disposal for the completion of that much-needed improvement. In view of increasing European immigration, and to insure greater security to colonists against the incursions of the hostile Indians, the law of 1867, establishing the Indian frontier on the Rio Negro, the enforcement of which had been hindered by the Paraguayan war, was revived on the recommendation of General Roca, the Minister of War. The preliminary military operations were successful, and the savage Indians driven from the territory chosen for settlement, though the uncalledfor violence exhibited by the national troops on the occasion was such as to merit sharp censure on the part of the Buenos Ayres press. The provincial Legislature of Buenos Ayres had granted to Colonel Plaza Montero 1,200 square miles of public lands on the Rio Negro frontier, whereon to establish an extensive model farm for the raising of horses for exportation to Europe. A colony is also to be established in the Territory, the four sides of which are to be apportioned off in free farm lots to colonists. President Avellaneda sent the following message on the subject to Congress on August 14, 1878, and the Minister of Finance has since called for an appropriation of $2,000,000 to carry the law of 1867 into effect, and provide for the defense of the new frontier: The Executive considers the time has arrived to carry out the law of August, 1867, for making the Rio Negro our southern Indian frontier. The old system of scattered outposts and forts in the Pampas, protected by ditches, is found insufficient to keep back the Indians. We must now make our basis upon the deep and navigable Rio Negro, from the Andes to the Atlantic seaboard. Had we spent half as much on such a basis as we have done on scattered inland frontiers, the result would be different. In the last century, when Father Faulkner's book on the unprotected state of this country startled the King of Spain, the Cabinet of Madrid sent Biedma and Villarino to explore the Rio Negro and the coast of Patagonia. Accordingly, in March, 1774, the Marquis of Loreto proposed to establish the frontier on the Rio Negro. The idea was taken up by F. Azara in 1796, and at various times revived and forgotten, until finally adopted by Congress in 1867, but again postponed on account of the Paraguayan war. glance at the southern portion of the map of the republic shows that the Rio Negro is the natural southern boundary of the settled part of our territory, although our jurisdiction extends to Cape Horn. A At present our Indian frontier extends 469 leagues, or 1,550 miles, in length: Patagones to Fort San Martin.... Total.. Leagues. 809 100 469 From San Martin is the eastern point of the Mendoza frontier. The two lines above mentioned are garrisoned by 6.616 men, with 70 commanders and 372 subaltern officers. The annual support of this force costs $2,861,199, exclusive of extras for ditches, forts, or earthworks. But as these men are only four to a mile, we might double the number and still be unable to prevent Indian forays. Meantime, if we adopt the Rio Negro, we can defend it with 1,500 or at most 2,000 men, by forming four sections or head centers, viz.: 1. From Patagones to Choelechoel; 2. From Choelechoel to Chichinal; 3. From Chichinal to Limay Neuquen confluence; 4. From Limay Neuquen to foot of the Andes. The desert lying between the Rio Negro and the Colorado, as well as the deep stream of the Negro, will form a double barrier against the Indians of Patagonia. On the first section, Patagones to Choelechoel, no troops will be required, as the Indians are tame and friendly on the southern bank of the Negro hereabouts, say a stretch of 40 leagues, leaving a distance of only 70 leagues to be garrisoned, from Choelechoel to the Andes. Colonel Guerrico's surveys (1872) show that the Negro has a depth of from 16 to 32 feet all the way between Choelechoel and the meeting of the waters at Limay Neuquen; in fact, that the Rio Negro is navigable from Patagones up to the foot of the Andes at Lake Nahuel Huapi, for vessels of 10 feet in dry seasons, and of 15 feet draught in wet seasons. Supposing, therefore, a force of 2,000 men for this new frontier line, the cost would be barely one third of what our present frontier costs: Not only shall we save over $1,500,000 yearly, but we shall also by this measure annex 15,000 square leagues, say 150,000 square miles, of valuable territory. Moreover, the navigation of the Rio Negro will enable us to establish agricultural and industrial colonies in the fertile valley of Limay Neuquen, famous for its rich deposits of copper and coal. The present Indian population is about 20,000 souls, of the Araucanian tribe, who are semi-civilized and will soon fall into the habits of our gauchos; they can muster at present about 2,000 lances, and live by plunder. As for the Ranqueles, they are barely able to count 600 fighting men, so many of their people having accepted land grants and settled down peaceably on the frontiers of Córdoba and San Luis. General Roca has ridden over most of the country, and found everywhere fine pasturages and plenty of good water. Cacique Namuncura has now only 100 warriors left, at Marco Grande. Pinzen, the lion of the Pampas, has about the same number at Malalico, 10 leagues outside of Colonel Alsina's frontier. All these can make little opposition to our occupation of the Rio Negro, the richness of which country was described in England by the Jesuit Father Faulkner more than a hundred years ago. Those Indians who will not accept land grants must be driven over the Rio Negro to Patagonia. Those who submit will receive kind treatment and protection.. AVELLANEDA. GEN. ROCA. The republic has not been entirely free from disturbances in its distant provinces. On the 14th of April an insurrection broke out at Santa Fé, the capital of the province of that name. The barracks were attacked by the insurgents armed with revolvers and poniards, but they were easily repulsed by the national troops, who have been lately provided with Remington rifles, which gives them such superiority over revolutionists that hereafter peace will be more easily maintained in the provinces. Other insurrections in the provinces of Salta and Corrientes were also put down without much loss of life or property. The Argentine Commissioner-General in Europe reports that emigration to the Argentine Republic is approximating that of the most prosperous years preceding the financial crisis from which the country is now recovering, and that he has succeeded in obtaining a reduction of 40 per cent. from the ordinary fare, and a saving of six months' interest on the amount paid by the Commissioner of Immigration at Buenos Ayres to the steamship companies. Near Oblaria 170 square miles of good agricultural land have been set apart for Mennonite colonies; and the current of immigration is diffused through the various provinces, with due regard to the extension of railways and internal navigation. The agricultural districts have enjoyed a season of unexampled prosperity, and the policy of retrenchment inaugurated by the Minister of Finance, Dr. De la Plaza, has imparted more confidence to foreign bondholders and to financial and commercial circles in the republic. Mr. Vaillant, in statistics compiled for the Paris Exposition, gives the number of cattle and sheep in several countries, and shows that, 1 compared with population, the Argentine Re- plenipotentiary, which provided for foreign public possesses the largest number: Wine, sugar, aguardiente, and flour, hitherto imported, are produced in yearly increasing quantities, and it is confidently expected that they will soon become articles of export. The wheat crop of the current year is the largest ever harvested, and in excess of the requirements of the country. The Government have issued the following: Immigrants, on arrival, are landed at the expense of Government, and boarded and lodged free for five days, assisted to pass the custom-house, afforded every information to enable them to find employment, and finally sent free to wherever they elect to settle. All this is done by national Government employees, who speak all languages, the immigrant being free to take or reject any advice given to him; so that all intending immigrants can come to the Argentine Republic with perfect confidence, although they may have no relatives here, as they will meet in all quarters of the republic public employees specially bound to watch over them till they learn the customs of the country. The wages during the harvest, which lasts four months, are from 30 to 45 hard dollars (£6 to £8) per month, with board and lodging (the hard dollar is worth five francs in French money). arbitration, and apprehensions were felt that, notwithstanding the obvious anxiety of Argentine statesmen to avoid a rupture of friendly relations, this unexpected action and rubsequent hostile measures of the Chilian Government might culminate in a deplorable war between the neighboring republics. The Argentine Government have entered an energetic protest against the seizure, by a Chilian manof-war, of the American bark Devonshire, to which they had granted a permit to load guano at the Isla de Leona; and it was thought that the United States would not tolerate this act of doubtful jurisdiction affecting the commerce and property of its citizens. ARKANSAS. The Democratic State Convention assembled at Little Rock on July 4th, to nominate candidates for State officers. The Convention was organized by the appointment of T. B. Hanley as chairman. The nominations were as follows: for Governor, William R. Miller; for Secretary of State, Jacob Frolich; for Auditor, John Crawford; for Treasurer, Thomas J. Churchill; for Attorney-General, W. F. Henderson; for Land Commissioner, D. W. Lever; for Justice of Supreme Court, John R. Eakin; for Superintendent of Public Instruction, J. L. Denton; for Chancellor, D. W. Carroll. The following platform was adopted: gated Convention assembled, adhering to the prinWe, the Democratic party of Arkansas in deleciples of the party, in loyalty to and love of the rights of the States and local self-government, do General Government, but equally devoted to the make these our declarations of party principles: 1. We are in favor of making United States Treasury notes a full legal tender for all dues where the terms of the original debt or contract are not exceivable for all duties and interest on the public debt. pressly to the contrary, and that they shall be re 2. That national-bank notes should be retired, their further issue prohibited, and United States Treasury notes substituted therefor. legal tender is only vested in the National Govern3. The power to issue paper money and coin as a ment; and this power should be exercised from time labor, and the general wants of the people of a growto time so as to accommodate the necessities of trade, ing country. The best time for farmers, agricultural laborers, indeed, for all immigrants, to arrive here, is from October to January. Farmers with a capital of from £80 to £120 may come at any season of the year. No country in the world offers greater advantages to the farmer and stock-breeder. The climate is temperate and healthy; land is cheap and fertile, and cau be worked all the year round, as snow is unknown. There are immense tracts of pasture land, and boundless forests; every kind of stock can be had at lower prices than in any other country; there are numerous trunk railway lines, deep rivers, almost daily communication with Europe, institutions similar to those of the United States, and even more liberal for foreigners, who can acquire land in fee without sacrificing their nationality. There is no difficulty or delay in obtaining land at 28. 6d. per acre, payable in ten years without interest, and each family may purchase from 65 to 1,000 acres. The first hundred families in each settlement will receive 250 acres gratis. Each of the fourteen provinces of the republic has passed special laws for the donation or sale of chacra (small farm) lots near the towns, which can be purchased at equally moderate prices, and are given gratis in some proverty in the State is inviolable, and that United States inces. In the colonies (settlements) already established, families of agricultural laborers who work hard can easily obtain land and advances from the proprietors, who have more land than they can cul tivate. Price of Stock.-Horned cattle for breeding, £1 10s. per head. Sheep, 38. 6d. per head. Mares, 11s. per head. The long-pending question of boundaries between the Argentine Republic and Chili remains undecided. The Chilian Congress refused to ratify a treaty signed by the Chilian 4. We are opposed to any plan of funding the debt of the country by which an unjust contraction of the currency below the necessities of the whole people can be established, and which has not for its object the funding of the debt at home. bearing part of the public debt for any purpose. 6. We believe the right of the State to tax prop bonds should bear the burden of government equally 8. We favor the equalization of the value of the greenback, silver, and gold dollar for all purposes, so that a national dollar shall be a dollar among all our people and in every department of our Government. 9. We demand the unqualified and unconditional repeal of the odious resumption act. 10. We demand by Congress such legislation as shall prevent the interposition of the Federal courts, by mandamus or otherwise, between the courts of the States and the counties and cities of the States. Such interference, being hostile to the theory of our Government, leads to centralization, and also deprives the State of a free and rightful exercise of its sovereignty. 11. We favor money aid on the part of the General Government, on full security, for the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad. 12. We favor an appropriation by the General Government to aid in the constructions of levees upon the Mississippi and its tributaries. 13. We are opposed to any tariff except for purposes of revenue alone, believing that the same tends to build up particular industries at the expense of all others. 14. We are opposed to any settlement of our State debt which would involve a compromise of any portion of that which is just, in order to pay anything upon that which is unjust or fraudulent. 15. We are in favor of the next Legislature submitting to the people a proposed constitutional amendment for ever prohibiting the levying of any tax or the appropriation of any money to pay the levee bonds, railroad-aid bonds, the unjust and illegal part of the Holford bonds, or any other frauduTent claim against the State. 16. We demand of the Attorney-General that he investigate our State scrip, and ascertain if any of it now outstanding has been issued contrary to law, and, if so, that he institute proceedings to have the same declared void by the proper judicial tribunals of the country. 17. We are in favor of such a radical revision of the criminal laws of the State as will reduce the expense of their enforcement. 18. We demand such legislation as will carry into effect the spirit, object, and intent of section 3, Article XVII. of the Constitution of the State, in regard to discrimination by railroads in the rates of freight upon transportation of persons and property within the State. 19. We favor a wholesome system of public schools, to the end that every facility may be afforded for education consistent with the ability of the people. 20. We favor and invite immigration to our State from any and all quarters, provided that it is of the honest and industrious class. We want capital, musole, and brain: capital to be invested in our lands and used in the developing of our mineral resources; muscle to fell our vast forests and till our fertile fields; and brains to direct, energize, and utilize both capital and labor. We further declare that we know no North, no South, no East, and no West in the matter of immigration, provided it comes to build up our State and advance its material prosperity. 21. That it is the sense of this Convention that the colored population of the State of Arkansas are identified in interest with the great Democratic party of the State, and, fully recognizing the importance of a more harmonious feeling between them, embrace this opportunity of inviting them-the colored people of the State-to an active cooperation with us in furthering our common interests. We fully endorse the action of a majority of the House of Representatives in the investigation of the frauds by which men not elected to office were instituted in the offices of President and Vice-President of the United States; and we insist that the crimes be exposed and the criminals punished, to the end that such crimes may never be attempted hereafter. No other party nominations were made. The State election is held biennially on the first Monday in September, and the Legislature assembles on the Tuesday after the second Mon The election for day in January following. members of Congress in November resulted in the choice of four Democrats. The previ ous State election resulted in the success of the entire Democratic ticket. No reports have been made of the condition of the institutions of the State since January, 1877. On July 7th an important decision was rendered by the Supreme Court of the State on the constitutionality of three millions of bonds, known as "Levee bonds." Chief Justice English delivered the opinion of the Court, declaring the bonds unconstitutional and void. It seems that the Court rested upon the simple objection that the act of proriding for the issue of these bonds was not enacted in accordance with the provisions and requirements of the Constitution of 1868, and was therefore null and void. The Constitution of 1868 provided that on the final passage of every act a vote of the members should be taken by yeas and nays. In respect to this lacked an essential ingredient required by the act, the vote was not so taken, and therefore Constitution as a fundamental condition to its completion. It was only in its legal and technical aspects that the question of the legality and they decided it according to the provisions of these bonds was presented to the Court, of the Constitution of 1868, under which the act was supposed to have been enacted. Judge Harrison delivered a cumulative opinion to the effect that the bonds were also illegal and void, because the act under which they were issued authorized a loan of State credit, which was forbidden by the Constitution; but the majority stood upon the grounds first above mentioned. This decision was severely criticised outside the limits of the State, where many of the bonds were held. It was charged that the decision was based on a mere technicality. To this it was replied that the courts of Arkansas could not be any more exempt from technicalities than those of other States. The constitutionality of the act was put in question immediately after its supposed passage. It was further charged that the decision was a great outrage on the rights of innocent purchasers. To this it was replied that the Legislature that enacted or attempted to enact this law was not regarded by the people who are now called upon to pay these bonds as the legitimate government of Arkansas. It was a Legislature foisted into power under the despotic and fraudulent system of reconstruction that virtually took all political power out of the hands of the property-owners and tax-payers, and placed it in the hands of adventurers who had no other interest in the country but to rob it. This levee-bond law was generally understood at the time to be a put-up job and steal, and so denounced by the Democratic and Conservative press of the State. They were not sold in the market, and held as investments by all classes of people. The bonds were squandered in the most reckless and inexcusable manner for useless or unlawful works, and paid out at the rate of about ten to one for what the same work could have been done by private contract. These contractors then took the bonds to New York and other cities and sold them for a song to capitalists who were buying at greatly reduced rates Southern securities, knowingly and deliberately taking the chances of a desperate speculation. To say that the purchasers of these bonds were innocent purchasers is a travesty on that term. They knew that all Southern securities, issued under the carpet-bag governments, were risky; and especially did they know that these levee bonds were extraordinarily risky. They knew it from the fact that the press of Arkansas from the very start had denounced them as a fraud and a swindle; and they knew it from the extraordinary low price at which they were offered. At all events, all these facts were sufficient to put a prudent man on his guard, and they should not have invested their money in them at all, or certainly not without first closely inquiring into their legality. It was charged more seriously that the people of the State, in repudiating these levee bonds, were acting dishonestly and in bad faith. It was urged that the bonds were issued with all the proper formalities of law, and sold in the open market to bona fide purchasers. The funds received were not stolen or squandered by carpet-baggers, but honestly applied to works of great public utility to the State. There was no trickery of any sort pretended, and there is no pretense that such is the fact. The State got the money from the purchasers, and spent it for public purposes. To these assertions on the part of the bondholders it was replied on the part of the State thus: These bonds were never sold by the State in open market or any other way. The State never realized one cent of money out of them, and never handled a dollar in connection with them. They were issued out directly to contractors, by a Commissioner of Public Works appointed for that purpose, who made such contracts as he saw fit with his own pets and favorites, and paid therefor in bonds the price agreed on. The contracts let out by the Commissioner (who was a carpet-bagger) were of the most bogus character, the works generally being of no practical utility, and paid for at the most enormous rates. It is supposed that the Commissioner made a percentage on every contract; and the fact that nobody would take a contract except at the most extravagant rates is proof that the contractors themselves regarded the legality of the bonds as of exceedingly doubtful character. Again, railroad companies, that under another law were receiving a State bonus of $15,000 per mile for building their roads, would make a contract for building levees, and those they built, or the old ones they utilized, were nothing more nor less than the embankments necessary for their road-beds, for which they received enormous sums. All manner of contracts were let out without any regard to their necessity or utility, and at the most enormous and extravagant rates. The truth is, that the issuance of these bonds was a perfect carnival of peculation, speculation, and fraud. The entire work done for the whole three million dollars' worth of bonds is to-day perhaps not worth one thousand dollars. Now, if any of these bonds ever got into the hands of innocent purchasers, it was only through the contractors, who were particeps criminis to the fraud of their issuance, and not through any direct agency of the State. The fact that these bonds never sold on the market for time before the decision of the Supreme Court were more than twenty cents on the dollar, and for a long held on the market as being worth only about five cents on the dollar, is conclusive proof that there was a settled conviction in the public mind that they were illegal and worthless. There never was a more fraudulent and unjust debt contracted by a government in the name of any people than these levee bonds. They were a fraud and a swindle in their inception-one of the most contemptible swindles in the wide range of villainies that characterized the corrupt rule of carpet-baggers; issued without the sanction or the authority of the people, whose hands were at the time tied; disposed of without anything like an adequate consideration, and for works of no practical or permanent utility; a shame and disgrace to the party that controlled the government of the State; and for which the tax-payers of Arkansas are no more responsible in law, justice, or equity than the people of Illinois or New York. We should never pay one cent of these worthless, bogus obligations; and we don't intend to do it, regardless of what our enemies may say or think on the subject. The case of Hot Springs, as it is called, excited unusual interest, and became of serious The town of importance to its inhabitants. Hot Springs is located in the southwestern part of Arkansas, about fifty miles from Little Rock. It is located in a wild and picturesque country, nestling in a series of short and narrow valleys inclosed by lofty and irregular hills, constituting a branch of the great Özark Mountains that divide the waters of the Ouachita and Saline Rivers. It lies mainly in a narrow valley, familiarly known as "the Valley," running north and south between two short and precipitous mountains, from the sides of one of which, and on an average height of about eighty feet from the little creek that ripples at its base, flow the famous hot springs that give to the town its name and celebrity. In this narrow valley, through which runs only one and the main street of the town, called Valley Street, are located the principal hotels, bath-houses, stores, shops, and offices. At the lower end of the Valley, the two mountains inclosing it abruptly break off to the east and west, exposing a comparatively level country, broken only by gentle and undulating hills, over which the town spreads out to a considerable extent. this part are located the residences of the merchants who do business in the Valley, besides many hotels and boarding-houses, shops, mills, the gas-works, and railroad depot. The resident population of the town is about 4,000, with a transient population, consisting princicipally of invalids who come for the benefit of their health, ranging from one to three thousand. It is estimated that as many as 20,000 people annually visit the Springs in pursuit of pleasure or for the benefit of their health; and the number is yearly increasing. This town was built up on what was supposed to be pri In |