GOVERNMENT-HOUSE, POST-OFFICE, POLICIA.

THE National Government-House, in Plaza 25 de Mayo, is an unsightly and irregular edifice; it was twice partially burnt in 1867, when many valuable documents were lost. The President's saloons, upstairs, are fine and airy, with a good view of the port: here the Foreign Ministers are received when presenting their credentials. The various Departments of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Instruction, and War, have their offices in the same building: office hours from 11 A.M. to 4 P.M. The offices of the Tesoreria and Contaduria are on the ground floor.

The Stamp Office is in the new Custom-house, open from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M., for the sale of National stamped paper. Thirty days are allowed by law for stamping notes or documents of any kind. After that period any unstamped paper brought before any court must pay a fine ten times the amount of the proper stamp. Old stamps, not used, may be exchanged.

The Provincial Stamp Office is in the Government-house, Calle Moreno, and here all documents, except for the Custom-house or Federal Courts, must be stamped.

The Post-Office, 115 Calle Bolivar, is lodged in very small and inconvenient premises. Mr. Posadas has greatly reformed this branch of the public service, but there is still great room for improvement, if the revenue would admit. The principal hall for despatch of business is well arranged and has a bust of Rivadavia. Mr. Hansen and others of the officials speak

English. Office hours in summer, from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M., and in the evening from 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. in winter from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. On Sundays and holidays, from 9A.M. to noon; but when the mails from Europe arrive the office is kept open indefinitely. Over 4,000,000 papers and letters pass through the office in the year. There are branch-offices at the Captain of the Port's and the various railway stations. Letters are delivered through town twice a day. The mails are despatched every day to the principal towns in the province of Buenos Ayres, yiz.-1. By the Western Railway to Flores, San Martin, Moron, Merlo, Moreno, Matanzas, Lujan, Mercedes, Chivilcoy, Las Heras, and Chacabuco: there are diligences plying from these various stations, which take mails to the following towns: Pilar, Capilla del Señor, San Antonio, Arrecifes, Lobos, Saladillo, 25 de Mayo, Giles, Fortin de Areco, Salto, Rojas, Pergamino, Junin, Navarro, Bragado, and Nueve de Julio. 2. By the Northern Railway to Belgrano, San Isidro, San Fernando, Tigre, and Conchas: the steamboats from the Tigre take mails three times a week to Zarate, Baradero, San Pedro, San Nicolas, Rosario, Santa Fé, Paraná, and Gualeguay. 3. By the Southern Railway to Barracas, Lomas de Zamorra, San Vicente, Chascomus, and intermediate stations, from which the diligences radiate to Ranchos, Cañuelas, Monte, Las Flores, Tapalquen, Dolores, Pila, Vecino, Monsalvo, Ajó, Tordillo, Mar-Chiquita, Loberia, Tandil, Juarez, and Azul. 4. By the Boca railway, to the Boca and Barracas. 5. The diligence goes twice a week to Quilmes, Ensenada, and Magdalena. 6. To Bahia Blanca and Patagones by steamer once a month. 7. To Cordoba, Tucuman, Salta and the northern provinces three times a week, via Rosario. 8. To San Luis, Mendoza, and San Juan, once a week, via Rosario. 9. To Chile, Peru, and the other Spanish republics, once a week, via Rosario and Mendoza. 10. To Corrientes and Paraguay by steamer twice a week. 11. To Santa Fé twice a week. 12. To Salto, Paysandú, Concepcion and other ports of the Uruguay twice a week. 13. To Montevideo every evening. 14. To Europe by the French packet and the English packets every month, as also by the Liverpool, London, and Marseilles lines of steamers. 15. To Brazil via Montevideo by the Brazilian, English, and French mail-steamers, eight times a month. All letters must be prepaid, except those directed to the President, Governors, or Ministers of State, and any letters found unstamped, in

the Buzon, will be detained and published, as well as those without a direction. Letters may be certified or registered, for greater security. The post-office will take no letters outside the mail-bags: ship-captains or passengers having letters must deliver them on arrival to the Captain of the Port. Army-letters are carried free. Letters uncalled for are

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published eyery three months, and burned at the end of the year in presence of the proper authorities, after first taking out any documents. that may be of value. It is prohibited to send money or articles of value, through the post, even in registered letters: such articles must be forwarded through steamboats or other agencies; samples of goods through the Custom-house. Special couriers for private parties pay ten cents per league, besides the usual postage. The law of 1863 fixes the posting charges in the upper provinces at one real (6d.) per league for each horse. The post-house keepers must always provide travellers with horses, and give them hospitality at conventional terms. Parties carrying unstamped letters are fined $50 or imprisoned for six months. Robbing the mail is punishable with four years penal service. The tariff for all letters is five cents (or $11 Buenos Ayres currency) for letters not exceeding 1oz.; ten cents for oz., and so on. Registering a letter costs twenty-five cents extra. Books, pictures, music, &c. pay five cents per . Newspapers for นี. all parts go free. This does not include the charges made in foreign countries, viz., England or France, for letters or papers carried by the mail-steamers. Street delivery in town is charged five cents extra. Boxes are set apart in the Correo for the chief mercantile houses, to the number of 800, at a charge of $200 mic. per annum. The stamps newly made by the New York bank-note company are very neat, and as followsRivadavia's head, pink, five cents; General Belgrano's, green, ten cents; General San Martin's, blue, fifteen cents. The Postmaster-General, Señor Posadas, has authority over all the postmasters in the fourteen Argentine Provinces; they are 160 in number. On the right of the «patio» are hung around the wall alphabetical lists of letters not yet called for, with the proper number attached. Strangers must either produce a document of their identity, or seek assistance at the Standard office, close by, at 74 Calle Belgrano. The house at present occupied by the Correo was built by Don Martin Rodriguez de Vega, who bequeathed it for benefit of the Ejercicios asylum. It is proposed now to purchase the Bolsa and convert it into a post-office. The first Correo established in Buenos Ayres was by Don Domingo Basabilvaso, in 1748.

The Police Department is in Plaza Victoria; the Chief of Police has two secretaries, a treasurer, 28 clerks, two physicians, a jailer, a watchmaker, 21 commissaries, 17 sergeants, 129 vigilantes, and 240 serenos. The city is divided into 14 Sections, each of which is under the care of a commissary, who arrests offenders, and levies fines for breach of municipal regulations. When he arrests anyone he must send in a report of same within twenty-four hours he cannot enter a house without a written order, or in cases of

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flagranti delicto. The policemen wear swords, and always go on horseback: they do not go on beats as in Europe, but can only be found at the Comisaria of the section. Minor offences are punishable by fine, or detention for an equivalent number of hours. The Correctional Judge tries ordinary police cases, but there is appeal to the superior tribunals. In cases of any serious crime the offender is removed from the prison of the Policia to that of the Cabildo. The serenos, or night-watchmen, are natives of Galicia: they sing the hours from 11 P.M. to 5 A.M., and carry a pistol, a cutlass, and a lantern. Serenos were first got up by voluntary subscription in 1834, and shortly afterwards established by law: there are 60 mounted and 180 on foot, under the direction of an Adjutant-major and seven. Adjutants. The annual cost of the serenos is about $1,300,000. The police service is miserably defective, but happily the inhabitants are in general orderly and well-conducted. It is intended by Government to send to England or the United States for police-officers, so as to organize a proper force for the city. There is a fire-engine attached to the Policia, but it has never proved of any use.

PROVINCIAL DEPARTMENTS, LIBRARY, LEGISLATURE.

The Provincial Government-house was built by Rosas, and occupies half a <<cuadra>> between Calles Bolivar, Moreno, and Peru. The entrance is in Calle Moreno, and around a spacious court-yard are the various public offices. The Governor of Buenos Ayres has his apartments on the right; an aide-de-camp receives visitors in the ante-chamber. The Minister of Government, the Inspector of Arms, and other officials, have offices on the left. The Finance Department is in the second «patio.» Parties wishing to inspect the Contribucion Directa books for the city or province can do so free of charge: they form a complete register of the various properties, their owners, and valuation. The tax for «patentes,» or licenses, for the various trades and professions, is payable at an office in this building, with separate entrance in Calle Moreno.

The State Library is in Calle Moreno, opposite the Government-house, occupying seven saloons in the upper story. There are 18,740 volumes, and 101 manuscripts, most of which belonged to the Jesuits, and are valuable for their antiquity; there is also a number of foreign works in all languages, some on general science, others on South America. The chief librarian is Don José Marmol, the poet. It is a pity that there is no catalogue. The assistant librarians will procure any book that is required, and also supply pen and ink to take notes, if necessary. The library is

open to the public, free, on all week days, from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. No smoking or conversation allowed. The average attendance of visitors does not exceed a dozen daily. The library was established by Moreno in 1810, but suffered afterwards to fall into decay. In 1822 there were 20,000 volumes, and in 1854 only 15,000. Since the latter date it has been much increased, and the publishers of all new works in the country have to present a copy. There is a complete collection of all newspapers published here and in Montevideo.

The Chambers of the Legislature of Buenos Ayres have their principal entrance in Calle Peru, with a side entrance for the public in Calle Moreno, next the State Library. The Chamber is small but elegant, in the shape of an amphitheatre, dimly lighted from the roof. The President and Secretaries of the Chamber sit on a raised bench, under which are the reporters. The galleries for the public give accommodation to 400 persons. The Senators and Deputies meet here alternately, and the Provincial Ministers attend when summoned. The ante-chambers are small and old-fashioned: here the members take måte. There is a suite of rooms occupied by clerks and officials. The Legislature is composed of twenty-four Senators and fifty Deputies, elected by the various partidos or electoral districts of the Province of Buenos Ayres. The Hall of Session was built in 1822, by Don Prospero Catelin, and repaired in 1864. It occupies the court-yard of the old Jesuit building, standing on the exact spot formerly occupied by the dungeon in which the followers of the famous cacique Tupac Amaru were confined after their attempted revolution in 1780.

TOPOGRAPHIC OFFICE, ARCHIVES, COMMISSARIAT.

The Topographic Department is in the premises formerly devoted to the Tribunal of Commerce, to which access is gained by a steep staircase from Calle Peru. This office was founded by Rivadavia in 1824, and is managed by Don Saturnino Salas and an efficient staff of civil engineers, comprising Messrs. German Kuhr, Pedro Benoit, Antonio Malaver, and Ignacio Casagemas. This department published in 1866 an admirable map-six feet by four and a-half-of the Province of Buenos Ayres, showing minutely every estancia and all the natural features of the various partidos. It also published in 1867 a similar map of the city and suburbs. The business of the office is to keep a correct register of the sub-divisions of property, to examine and approve all surveys of land, to give licenses for building houses in town, and to make whatever charts, maps, or plans may be required by the authorities. It also serves as an academy for surveyors,