POLITICAL TROUBLES. 505 



have a place after the mint ami the coffers of the rich had been equally divided ; and the 

 oiiiployraent would give them good wages with little work. These ideas were actually imparted 

 to some. To li<>\v many it cannot be said, tlmn^rli it is well known that likt? instructions were 

 not contim-d t.> Santiago, the members of the Aconcagua association having received equally 

 lil>crul views of equality and fnitnuity. They Imd made such progress by November, 1850, 

 that they were ju-'>lalily ulmost ready to strike tin- first blow, when their ammunition was 

 stopped on its way to San Fdip. . and tin- clubs broken up, at least so far as prohibition to 

 their public assembling could go. Then the leaders found that a military man was requisite to 

 conduct the mass. They needed the necessary instruction; or perhaps their nerves were too 

 drlic.ute to bear the smell of gunpowder, and themselves no doubt better fitted to occupy posi- 

 tions of state. 



When the periods expired for which the chiefs were banished in November, they returned to 

 the capital one by one, devoting themselves to re-inspiring their former partisans, and to raising 

 money for a new outbreak. With this Colonel Urriola and the larger part of his regiment were 

 bought, he having received $15,000 to take the command, and his men proportionately liberal 

 amounts. He was also assured, at the same time, that the Chacabuco regiment and 

 from three to five thousand others would join him in the plaza; and consequently his 

 troops were marched there in every confidence that it would prove a bloodless display. 

 But it is doubted by those who best knew his character whether in success he would have 

 placed his friends in the power they coveted. They rather believe he would have made 

 himself Dictator without any ceremony whatever, although he had proclaimed for General 

 Cruz. Reports were rife, too, that the colonel of another regiment received purchase-money, 

 and then remained faithful to government a course not ordinarily permitting one to retain 

 position in the social circle ; but as it did not so affect him, the rumor may not have been true. 

 That the affair was lamentably conducted on both sides is quite apparent. The government 

 claims (officially) to have been cognizant of the contemplated insurrection for several days in 

 advance; and some of those assembled at Urriola' s parlors on the preceding Saturday evening, 

 when speaking of the coming Easter morning, sacrilegiously said, "There will be a resurrec- 

 tion to-morrow as important to Chile as was that of the Saviour." Thus both parties became 

 criminally responsible for the sacrifice of human life the ministry for not having arrested the 

 leaders and put a stop to the revolt on the spot, and Urriola for not at once taking pos- 

 session of the points which must have insured him a bloodless victory. Either might have 

 triumphed without the loss of a man. Neither proved the conquerors; and consequently 

 the country was left to feel the evil effects of a minority government with military and 

 official strength to perpetuate men and measures, or men at least distasteful to the mass or 

 Santiaguinos, who form a majority of the educated natives. Far better would it have been for 

 the peace and stability of its domestic policy had one or other party obtained unmistakable 

 ascendancy. Then Chile would have been spared the scenes detailed in PART I, Chapter XIII. 

 64 



