ADMINISTRATION OF CHILI. 



475 



183. — Peovinces of Chili. 

 Scale 1 : 37,000,000. 



republic, " one and indivisible," with legislative, executive, and judicial powers. 

 The suffrage is limited to married men at least twenty-one years old, or celibates 

 twenty-five years old, capable of reading and writing, owning some landed 

 property, or exercising a lucrative trade or profession. Thus the lower orders are 

 practically excluded, and in 1876 the electors numbered less than 50,000 in a total 

 population of 2,140,000. 



Congress comprises two chambers with legislative functions. The members of 

 the Lower House are directly elected in the propor- 

 tion of one for every 30,000 inhabitants, and are 

 returned by the departments, whereas the Senate, 

 three times less numerous, represents the provinces. 

 The Lower House, which comprised 97 members in 

 1890, is completely renewed by the general elec- 

 tions held every three years, while half only of the 

 senators retire. 



The President is elected for five years, by a body 

 of delegates appointed for the purpose. He enjoys 

 royal prerogatives, and appoints all the six minis- 

 ters, as well as five of the eleven members of the 

 Council of State, the other six being elected by 

 Congress. He also nominates the magistrates for 

 life and most of the higher officials ; the civil 

 administration of the departments and provinces 

 depends directly on him ; he commands the army, 

 may suspend all personal guarantees in time of war, 

 and even enjoys the right of presenting the names 

 of persons to be nominated to the episcopacy by the 

 Pope, and lastly, may prevent the publication of 

 Papal bulls in the republic. 



The judicial power comprises a supreme court of 

 seven members, six courts of appeal, and secondary 

 judges in the chief towns of the various depart- 

 ments and districts. 



An article in the Constitution declares that 

 " the religion of Chili is the Catholic, Apostolic and 

 Homan, with exclusion of all other cults from the 

 right of public worship." The private observance 

 of these non-Roman rites was, however, expressly 

 permitted by a special law passed in 1865. The 



influence of the Ptoman Church has greatly diminished since the frightful calamity 

 of 1868, when over 2,000 women were burnt in the fire that broke out in the 

 Jesuits' church during a public service. The clergy have been deprived of 

 various privileges : they are excluded from the council of state ; they no longer 

 enjoy private jurisdiction, but are subject, like all other ciiizens, to the common 



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