POSTSCRIPT. 3g3 



" the nation. The junta does not consider these provinces, any more 

 " than Santiago, as sovereign and independent states. It looks on 

 "them as a fraction of the nation, whose magnates and representa- 

 " tives, occupying the command in order to preserve order during the 

 " dissolution of the former government, are now treating of the 

 " means to re-establish the union of the republic. 



" Meantime the province of Santiago, as far as the Cachapoal, ac- 

 " knowledges, tranquilly and willingly, the authority of the junta of 

 " government. Tiie districts of Colchagua and Maule obliged, ac- 

 " cording to the representations of their cabildos, by the force of 

 " circumstances, had united with the province of Conception. Ex- 

 " horted by the junta to re-unite themselves to the province of which 

 " they had always formed a part, Colchagua returned to her ancient 

 " position ; while Maule, in consequence of an order from the as- 

 " sembly of Conception forbidding the measure, adheres to that 

 " province. On this head General Freire seconded the wishes of the 

 "junta, declaring to these districts his acquiescence in their re-union 

 " with Santiago. Curico has always proclaimed its constant attach- 

 " ment to the government of the province, which has now suffered 

 " no other loss than the dismemberment of the territory of Maule. 



" The example of provinces separated from the indivisibility of the 

 " state, of districts divided from the provinces, of municipal govern- 

 " ments elected under a variety of forms, has been fatal to internal 

 " quiet, much more to our external relations ; and will be incom- 

 " parably more so in the course of time, as factious ideas spread 

 " and become familiar. Nothing is more certain, than that nations 

 " are often so mistaken in their ideas of freedom as to embrace in 

 " her stead a monster, the certain forerunner of slavery. Various 

 " towns have shown symptoms of that disorder, the last degree at 

 " which public misfortune can arrive. In Casablanca a meeting of 

 " the people took up arms against the lieutenant-governor. In Quil- 

 " lota some discontented persons offered to Chile, for the time, the 

 " lamentable spectacle of the blood of the children of the soil shed 

 " in her streets in a civil dispute. In other places the junta has suc- 



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