en i LI. 



143 



CHILI, a republic in South America, The 

 Chilian people declared their independence on 

 Srpt. is, isio, hut independence was not estab- 

 li>heil until April .">, luiH. Their Constitution 

 was adopted in 18;i;{. The legislative power is 

 ve.-ted in 11 Cmi^ivss consisting of a Chamber 

 of Deputies and a Senate. The former is com- 

 posed of 94 members in the proportion of one to 

 r\i-ry 30,000 inhabitants, elected for three years, 

 by direct vote of the departments. The Senate 

 consists of 82 members in the proportion of 1 to 

 I'M-ry :! Deputies, elected for six years by direct 

 vote of the provinces, one half of "that body go- 

 ing out every three years. Electors must be 

 twenty-one years of age, and be able to read and 

 \\rile. The executive is vested in a President, 

 elected by indirect vote for the term of five years, 

 and not re-eligible while in office. Heisas'sisted 

 by a Council of State, in which he nominates 5 

 members, while 6 are chosen by Congress, and 

 by :i Cabinet of ministers, which in the begin- 

 ning of 1893 consisted of the following mem- 

 bers : Minister of the Interior, R. Barros Luco ; 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Worship, and Colo- 

 nization, I. Errazuriz; Minister of Justice and In- 

 struction, M. del Campo ; Minister of War and 

 Marine, Gen. L. Arteaga: Minister of Industry 

 and Public Works, W. D. Larrain. The Min- 

 istry of Finance was vacant. 



The Army and Navy. According to a law 

 passed on Jan. 2, 1892, the regular army is limit- 

 ed to 6,000 men, who are organized into 3 regi- 

 ments of artillery, 3 regiments of cavalry, 8 regi- 

 ments of infantry, and a corps of engineers. The 

 army is commanded by 104 field and 855 inferior 

 officers. The National Guard in 1892 numbered 

 51,090 men, of whom 42,120 belonged to the in- 

 fantry and 8,970 to the artillery. 



The navy consisted in 1892 of 3 ironclads, 3 

 deck-protected cruisers, 2 torpedo catchers, 3 

 corvettes, 2 gunboats, 10 first-class and 2 second- 

 class torpedo boats, 2 dispatch vessels, 2 trans- 

 ports, 3 small gunboats, and 4 sailing vessels. 

 The " Capitan Pratt," built in France at the cost 

 of $3,000,000, was completed in 1892. She is a 

 steel ironclad of 7,000 tons, having a length of 

 327 feet, with 60 feet of beam and a draught of 

 20 feet, and is propelled by engines of 12,000 

 horse power which give a speed of 17 knots. 

 The armament consists of 12 Canet guns, 20 

 Hotchkiss guns, and 5 Gatling mitrailleuses, the 

 guns being worked by electricity. The navy 

 was manned by 130 officers, 126 engineers, 215 

 einployees, and 1.285 sailors. 



Finances. The budget for 1893 estimates 

 the revenue at 65,020,000 pesos (1 peso=91 

 cents), of which 25,000,000 pesos are derived 

 from export duties, 22,000,000 pesos from import 

 duties, 14.000.000 pesos from railroads, 1,150,000 

 pesos from the agricultural tax, 800,000 pesos 

 from stamps, 800,000 pesos from posts and tele- 

 graphs, 270,000 pesos from storage and wharf- 

 age, and 1,000,000 pesos from various other 

 sources. The expenditure is estimated at 50,- 

 302,000 pesos, of which 13,174,204 pesos are for 

 public works, 12,534,585 pesos for financial ad- 

 ministration, 7,154,263 pesos for public instruc- 

 tion and justice, 6,480,308 pesos for the army, 

 5,627,786 pesos for the navy, 4,285,251 pesos for 

 the interior, and 1,045,600 pesos for foreign af- 

 fairs, worship, and colonization. An extraordi- 



nary revenue of 10,589,000 pesos is estimated to 

 accrue from the sales of lands and silver bullion. 



The public debt on Jan. 1, 1892, amounted to 

 110,162,620 pesos, including an external debt of 

 46,655,489 pesos, an internal debt of 21,124,108 

 pesos, and 42,383,023 pesos of paper currency. 

 In October, 1892, a loan of $8,750,000 was raised 

 in London and Paris, paying 5 per cent, interest, 

 for extinguishing the floating debt. 



Commerce. The imports in 1890 amounted 

 to 67,889,079 pesos, and the exports to 68,391,- 

 881 pesos. Of the total exports, 46,035,857 pesos 

 went to Great Britain, 8,540,075 pesos to the 

 United States, 6,356,470 pesos to Germany, 2,324,- 

 455 pesos to France, 2,164,725 pesos to Peru, 

 79,548 pesos to Brazil, 43,252 pesos to Italy, and 

 85,808 pesos to the Argentine Republic. The 

 principal exports were : Niter, to the amount of 

 36,950,339 pesos ; copper in bars, 7,618,840 pesos ; 

 silver, 4,335,218 pesos; wheat, 1,581,449 peso?. 

 The principal imports and their values in 1889 

 were : Textiles, 10,887,636 pesos ; sugar, 6,766,- 

 985 pesos ; cattle, 5,083,715 pesos ; coal, 2,992,- 

 905 pesos ; iron goods, . 2,895.630 pesos ; sacks, 

 1,415,246 pesos ; timber, 870,194 pesos ; tea, 817,- 

 940 pesos ; wine. 793,425 pesos. 



Communications. In 1892 there were 1,735 

 miles of railroads open for traffic, of which 686 

 miles belonged to the state. The Transandine 

 Railroad is nearing completion; only the section 

 of 42 miles between Santa Rosa and Mendoza 

 is left to be built ; 18 miles of the Chilian sec- 

 tion, and 88 miles of the Argentine section are 

 finished and open for traffic. 



The post-oflice in 1890 forwarded 18,509,709 

 letters and postal cards, 32,446 samples, and 24,- 

 808,877 pieces of printed matter and journals. 



The length of state telegraph lines in 1891 

 was 12.390 kilometres. In 1890 there were 619,- 

 429 messages transmitted over the wires. 



Political Troubles. Chili has been gov- 

 erned since the overthrow of Balmaceda by a 

 coalition of the various elements that joined in 

 the revolution, and a safe policy of peaceful re- 

 cuperation and material development has been 

 pursued which gave general satisfaction, espe- 

 cially to the Conservatives. A tendency to re- 

 store the influence of the latter in legislation 

 finally roused the dormant jealousy of the Lib- 

 erals, especially when the reaction in favor of 

 clerical education which pervades many Catho- 

 lic countries began to gain headway in Chili. 

 The Congress in February, 1893. passed a bill to 

 grant full amnesty to the Balmacedists, except 

 the officers who took part in wrecking the 

 " Blanco Encalada," and those who were con- 

 cerned in the massacre at Los Canos. A measure 

 passed in November. 1892, for the redemption of 

 treasury notes in specie and the resumption of 

 gold coinage could not be carried out, and Con- 

 gress was called upon to modify the project for 

 paying off the paper currency in silver coin. In 

 order to avert a banking crisis and satisfy the 

 claims of the bankers of Valparaiso and Santi- 

 ago, the Government agreed in March to pay 

 into the banks $9,000,000 in treasury notes, the 

 amount of the forced loans exacted by the Bal- 

 maceda Government. In the beginning of April 

 a conspiracy against the Government was dis- 

 covered. An attack was made on the Govern- 

 ment buildings by a mob, and a quantity of con- 



