POSTSCRIPT. 3g5 



" secrated to liberty, was that defence ? The junta decreed it, after 

 " having consulted the general authorities of the state : but the want 

 " of a supreme central government formed an obstacle to the enter- 

 " prise, that is to say, to the salvation of our existence. 



" It is impossible to conceive a situation more deplorable than that 

 " of the public exchequer. More than a million of urgent immediate 

 " debt ; more than 40,000 dollars in advance for absolute necessaries 

 " at the moment ; and a monthly list four times greater than the 

 " actual receipts of the treasury ; — offer a picture of almost desperate 

 " wretchedness. The minister of this department will lay the parti- 

 " culars before the Assembly. To establish a new system of finance, 

 " to reform abuses, to reduce the expenses to a just proportion with 

 " the receipts, are steps which require the concentration of the 

 " government. 



" A ruinous loan, which must fetter the nation and its resources 

 " for many years, calls for the attention of government, either to re- 

 " move from us, if possible, the weight of this insupportable burthen, 

 " or to render its consequences less fatal. Every day augments the 

 " debt, and our responsibility becomes the heavier. Consider, Gen- 

 " tlemen, how urgent a motive this is to accelerate the concentration 

 " of the government. 



" The national squadron, that squadron to which we indubitably 

 " owe the destruction of tyranny, is now laid up in our ports ; where 

 " the ships are either gone to ruin, or, by continual waste, are ap- 

 " proaching it. Meanwhile its officers, who have so often covered 

 " themselves with glory in the Pacific, are on half-pay; or, being mostly 

 " foreigners, are leaving us daily, a loss irreparable in the hour of 

 " danger. A central government, making a proper use of the resources 

 " of the country, might restore it to the brilliant footing of 1820. 

 " Now a single province, inadequate to such an expense, must be the 

 " sad spectatress of the annihilation of the main force of a nation 

 *' whose foe is beyond seas. 



" Among the enterprises which the Director particularly had de- 

 " termined on, was the occupation of Chiloe. This archipelago is 



