364 JOURNAL. 



" ceeded in checking intestine dissensions by means of gentleness and 

 " prudence. 



" The outworks of good oi'der once saved, the government neces- 

 " sarily felt its weakness ; for without obedience, and the effective 

 " co-operation of the subjects, it is impossible to make use of the 

 " only means it has of managing the body politic. The towns 

 " threaten with separation or confederation as it suits them. Private 

 " citizens fancy that they exercise the supremacy that resides in the 

 " people every time that they meet, and attempt a revolt. The public 

 " functionaries, vacating and fluctuating between doubts and fears of 

 " sudden change, do not act with the vigour requisite to prevent the 

 " ruin of the community. The subaltern no longer obeys his superior, 

 " whose authority he considers as temporary, and therefore easy to 

 " escape. In such circumstances, without freedom and without 

 " power, what could the administration do ? The nation was de 

 "facto divided into three separate sovereign states, who each go- 

 " verned itself, without either agreeing or consulting with the others : 

 " all affairs of general interest, all that belonged to the body of the 

 " republic, was abandoned, to the disgrace and ruin of the country. 

 " Peru, Gentlemen, is the most piteous and most interesting object 

 " which can come before our eyes. The liberating army, composed 

 " of the conquerors of Chacabuco and Maypu ; that army whose 

 " transport to give liberty to the empire of the Incas had cost Chile 

 " such enormous sacrifices, has been beaten by General Canterac. 

 " Peru must once again crouch under the yoke of irritated and 

 " wicked Spain, if Chile, to whom our unhappy brethren now 

 " stretch forth their supplicating hands, do not administer a prompt 

 " and efficacious succour. Not only the general interest which en- 

 " gages us to support the cause of independence, not only humanity 

 " and the faith of treaties, but our own proper salvation, impels us 

 " to the assistance, to the defence of America, in that last theatre of 

 " war. Defending Peru, we defend Chile and the whole continent on 

 " her ground. Who ever doubted that the most noble, most useful, 

 " and most necessary pledge that the country has at any time con- 



