504 POLITICAL TROUBLES. 



teries only offer inducements to those who can bring something to the general stock, and church 

 preferment requires as much influence as to rise in any other profession. 



Destitute of manufactories to require engines and machinery ; without ports where ships can 

 be built to any extent ; possessing neither navigable rivers needing steamboats, nor railroads, 

 whose fiery steeds might startle them into energy ; their products exchanged for goods wrought 

 by foreign hands from foreign materials, and taken away in foreign ships ; and their only com- 

 merce a few vessels (almost unworthy of the dignified epithet) trading in their own waters, 

 where shall those find subsistence who annually arrive at the age of manhood ? The counting- 

 rooms of merchants, most of whom, or at least a very large number of the most extensive of 

 whom, are foreigners, afford places to some, and a few others fill vacancies that occur in the several 

 offices of government ; but there are large numbers who are unable to find such employment as 

 their pride of blood will permit them to undertake. They regard manual labor of any kind as a 

 disgrace, and their pride forbids it ; indolence is encouraged, and poverty is a necessary conse- 

 quence. If the first could be controlled, the others would disappear. " Idleness is the root of 

 all evil," was a favorite aphorism set me to copy by a pedagogue of my earlier years ; and the 

 impression of its truth has continued through life. Here, I fear it will not be found among 

 the excerpts for youths. Weeks, months, and years pass on ; the young man has wearied out 

 his own patience and that of his friends ; and as he broods over the partiality with which 

 nature's goods have been apportioned, he learns to violate the tenth article of the decalogue. 

 Why should he not have office instead of A B, who has not half his talent? In short, the outs 

 want to get in ; there lies the whole secret. Patriotism, oppression, public wrongs, malevolent 

 rulers, violation of the Constitution, are all in themselves very good pretexts ; but was there 

 ever an instance when the successful party did not proceed in the very same, or perhaps even 

 more arbitrary paths than those whom they had ousted ? 



In the individual case under consideration I have not been able to trace out different motives 

 of action ; in fact, the association of soldiers and civilians seems almost to proclaim that there 

 was none. Had there been a desire by the nation to remove an obnoxious President, the day for 

 the election of a new one was just two months distant, and the people who had borne with the 

 incumbent for nine years and ten months without complaining could surely have waited so 

 brief a time. If his ministers were objectionable, the Chambers were to assemble within forty 

 days, and it would be easy to arraign them. But there were no such avowals. True, Urriola 

 went through the form of demanding a removal of the ministers : but that is the stereotyped 

 pretext for commencing insurrection ; and had his demands been submitted to, we may be sure 

 the Egualistas would never have consented to look for successors beyond their own club. 



Less than two years before, a beardless youth, at best of mediocre talents, returned from Paris 

 after having had the misfortune to witness some of the scenes of February, 1848 ; his pockets 

 empty, but his head abundantly crammed with ideas of " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," popu- 

 lar clubs, sections, and barricades. Having nothing to do and no income, of course all these 

 notions were to be disseminated for the benefit of his oppressed countrymen: " Something may 

 turn up," as Mr. Micawber says. With a tongue as smooth as his face, rotos and artisans were 

 soon made to believe that the rich were their natural enemies, who hoarded wealth that all had a 

 like right to ; and his doctrines, finding willing listeners among a class ignorant, improvident, 

 and impoverished, in a little while gave origin to the "Sociedad de la Igualdad." Others, men 

 of birth and rank, disaffected from similar reasons, or because riches did not flow to them as 

 rapidly as their necessities or covetous hearts craved, or as they thought to obtain by pillage 

 in office, saw in the society the means of gaining popularity and elevating themselves. 

 They also, to the number of more than twenty, from the most respectable families in Chile, 

 were known as leaders and orators in the club. The good will of their companions with 

 straw-hats and tattered ponchos was forthwith obtained ; for the nightly discourses that sapped 

 their loyalty were abundantly seasoned with lessons in reading and writing, to say nothing of 

 occasional distributions of small sums of money. Every one was taught to believe he should 



