POLITICAL TKOlIILEg. 495 



miffed by the mon- impartial of tin- ministerial party to be a very fair ex parte statement, which 

 it doubtless in. SnUe^uently arrests went on in the two provinces, until a sufficient number 

 of deputies were secured to give the government a preponderance in the Chambers; and 

 the prisoners were banished and prohil.ited, under heavy penalties, from returning to Chile 

 wit hin a given time. Thus, at the end of forty days the President found himself strong enough to 

 (invoke Congress, at the assembling of which martial law ceased by provision of the Constitution. 



And after so much talk ; such stringent, and in some cases cruel, measures by government; 

 sneli harangues and processions; so many intimations of bloody deeds, and of the conquerors' 

 distribution of the coveted offices by Egualistas on paper what came of it? In the hope and 

 under the promise of sharing better things, artisans were inveigled from honest employments to 

 idleness and criminal covetousness, by men too pusillanimous to assume responsibility, when only 

 personal risk would avail men who were cowardly beyond contempt, and who deserted them at 

 the first crisis. This was infinitely better for the country and humanity, provided the result 

 did not so far encourage despotism as to induce another blow at the advance of knowledge and 

 liberty an event which in a country like Chile, laboring under the incubus which every exclusive 

 church would throw over the intellect, is more greatly to be dreaded than in one where 

 liberty of conscience is an acknowledged right. But "the snake was scotched, not killed," as 

 the following occurrence, six months later, will show: 



April 20, 1851. I had injured my right eye by over-work ; and finding the weather did 

 not promise well for observations, and that it would be advisable to avoid tasking it during 

 another week, even should the nights prove favorable, a seat was accepted in the birlocho of a 

 friend, and. I went to Valparaiso to receive a son expected to arrive in the monthly steamer 

 from Panama. 



From the effects of the earthquake nearly three weeks before, the appearance of the villages 

 and ranches along the road was still deplorable. Many of the inhabitants continued to occupy 

 the temporary shelters thrown up after the great shock, though the injuries to dwellings had 

 already been partially remedied, and most of the crevices in the earth were obliterated. There 

 remained only broken walls and one or two rents to show how severe the convulsion had been. 

 We reached the port on the evening of the 19th, and I was welcomed by my intelligent and 

 hospitable friend . 



On returning to the parlor from dinner next day, we learned that a traveller had just got in 

 from the capital, bringing tidings that the whole military force was in revolt against the gov- 

 ernment, and that, as every street leading out of the city was guarded, he had found great dif- 

 ficulty in making his escape. Of course, such intelligence startled us not a little. One fellow- 

 guest, who had arrived by the steamer, had long been a resident of Santiago, and his family 

 and property were there. The merchants at the port were almost equally interested ; for if 

 the mob obtained the ascendancy, the coffers of their agents at Santiago, and their warehouses at 

 Valparaiso, would be the first to be rifled. Being one of the most largely concerned parties, 

 our host could not be satisfied until he had conversed with the traveller and had visited the 

 Intendente to learn whether official intelligence had been received from Santiago. But no more 

 satisfactory information had arrived ; nor was it until midnight that an express came to the 

 Intendente, notifying him that the government had triumphed, and order had been restored 

 again. Nearly at the same time an order arrived from the leader of the insurgents to the com- 

 mandant of artillery, directing him to recognise no other authority than his own ; and such 

 had been the influence of the insurgent party along the road, that the express-rider to the In- 

 tendente had been detained several hours. 



Experience having taught how dangerous is power in the hands of such a mob as can be 

 congregated by the lower classes of Spanish-Americans, even this intelligence afforded great 



relief, and every one slept the sounder for it. Few felt more grateful than Mr. and 



myself: he, because wife, children, property, and home, had been in jeopardy ; I, because the 

 unenviable reputation we enjoyed gave reason to fear that the instruments and observatories 



