postscript. 359 



ception, and Manoel Antonio Gonzalez for Coquimbo, together 

 with the new Director, and the secretary Alamos, as a senate, autho- 

 rised to pass an act of union, and to bring together the conventions 

 of the three divisions of the state. On the 1st of April, Freire ac- 

 cepted the office of Director, the Senate entered on its functions, 

 and the Convention appears to have proceeded to business. 



The revolution has been thus far conducted with unusual moderation 

 and temper ; a circumstance creditable to the leaders on both sides, 

 and which will, it is to be hoped, continue to actuate the farther 

 proceedings of the new government. I do not know better how to 

 end this short notice of the changes that have happened since my 

 departure from Chile, than by the following memorial, addressed to 

 the new Convention, and signed by the members of the junta of 

 government which had exercised the supreme authority from the 

 time of the abdication of the Director-general O'Higgins, to the meet- 

 ing of the Congress, or rather till the new Senate was chosen : — 



" Gentlemen Deputies, 

 " The meeting of the representatives of the people in this august 

 " assembly is the moment desired by the country, in order to apply 

 " the necessary remedies to the terrible evils that afflict her ; and 

 " never was any administration in circumstances to desire reform 

 " with such ardour as the junta of government at the present crisis. 

 " You are about, Gentlemen, to regenerate the nation which misfor- 

 " tunes, not easy to foresee, threatened to annihilate. Six years of 

 " a government crowned with success in all its enterprises, respected 

 " abroad, and at least feared at home, had given to the past directory 

 " the power of doing good. To the fervour of military feeling, and 

 " to the exaltation of the passions that accompany the first moments 

 " of all revolutions, the calm of peace had succeeded. The people 

 " had learned that its rights did not consist in the use of an unlimited 

 " power, which, injudiciously exercised, would only plunge it into 

 " anarchy ; and that its solid happiness consisted in good order, and 

 " in establishing guardian institutions, which, under the empire of 



