1839.] GOVERNMENT. 89 



certainly due to him, as his successor, Bnlnes has but carried 

 out the principles of political economy introduced under his 

 auspices. 



Chili is what may be called a central republic. The Ex- 

 ecutive power is vested in a President, who receives an annual 

 salary of twelve thousand dollars ; he is assisted in the dis- 

 charge of his duties by four ministers, who constitute his 

 cabinet. There is also an executive council of eight mem- 

 bers. The legislature consists of a Senate and a House of 

 Deputies; the former containing nineteen members, and the 

 latter eighty-two. The senators are chosen for the term of 

 five years, in ten provinces ; and the deputies for three years, 

 in thirty-five departments. The administration of justice is 

 not yet free from the old Spanish forms, but it is expeditious, 

 and, in the main, impartial and equitable ; the judges hold 

 their offices for life. The army, in time of peace, numbers 

 about three thousand men. 



Within the past ten years, Chili has steadily pursued a 

 career which promises at no distant day to produce a high 

 state of national prosperity. The indications of a sound and 

 healthful progress are everywhere visible. Flourishing towns 

 and villages, rich farms and plantations, occupy the places of 

 the miserable huts and haciendas of former times. Schools, 

 colleges, and other public institutions, have been established, 

 and the young people are now generally instructed in the 

 rudiments of knowledge. The national religion is the Roman 

 Catholic, but an exceedingly tolerant spirit prevails even 

 among the clergy. Protestant denominations are allowed 

 to worship after their own mode, but not to erect churches. 



The republic of Chili is bounded on the north by the desert 

 of Atacama, which separates it from Bolivia and Peru ; on 

 the south by Patagonia ; on the east by the Great Cordillera 

 of the Andes ; and on the west by the Pacific. The islands 

 of Mocha and Juan-Fernandez, and the archipelago of 

 Chiloe, also belong to Chili. Within the limits above men- 

 tioned, however, the province of Araucania is embraced, 

 which, perhaps, may be a subject of dispute, as the warlike 



