A country of great natural riches and of wonderful opportunities for mankind, a dearth of population, an unusual lack of facilities of communication, and, finally, an urgent need of ready cash in the midst of material plenty—all these circumstances must necessarily tend to unrest in a land populated by inhabitants whose temperament contains an unusual measure of imagination and theoretical creative power. With the removal of these factors, the political situation tends to become tranquil, as has been proved in the case of the more progressive Republics.

It may safely be said that the South American temperament is, in itself, no more revolutionary than any other. When the material circumstances of one of these States have been brought to resemble those which prevail in a European country, the conditions of politics necessarily grow to resemble each other as well. Thus the difficulty with which the more advanced Republics are confronted is no longer one connected with rapid and disorderly changes of Government and Presidents. The States in question are now too wealthy in themselves and too loaded with serious responsibilities for the possibility of such casual recurrences. The strife, in consequence, tends rather to centre itself, as in Europe, to a contest between capital and labour, and, as elsewhere in the world, strikes have taken the place of more sanguinary battles.

All this, of course, applies with greater force to some of the South American countries than to others. The vitality and power of the Continent in general is now, at all events, beginning to assert itself to the full, and in the minds of a certain number of its educated and intelligent inhabitants South America is destined in the future, however distant this may be, to become the rallying-ground of the Latin races.

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