VALPARAISO. 319 
will not forget honour, while its present chief is even nominally its 
admiral. 
Wednesday, 27th. — Several slight shocks to-day : a very severe one 
at ten o’clock a.m., and again at six p.m. My pleasant friend 
Mr. B. called to-day: he has announced his intended marriage with 
alady of Chile, and the circumstances connected with it form rather 
an interesting point in the history of the progress of toleration in 
the country. In other marriages of the kind, the foreigners have 
generally changed their nominal religion for the sake of their brides, 
but my friend has more of the feelings of Richardson’s days; and 
though I do not mean to say that he is full-dressed in bag and wig, 
like Sir Charles Grandison, at six o’clock in the morning, or to com- 
pare the lady with the incomparable Clementina, his conduct in the 
matter has been firm and right for himself, and wise for the country 
he has now adopted. In this conduct he has been supported by the 
Director, against all superstitious and party opposition. Neither 
wishing his intended wife to change her faith, nor willing to change 
his own, he applied to the Bishop for a licence and dispensation to 
marry; this the prelate positively refused, unless Mr. B. would enter 
into the bosom of the church. The government now interfered, re- 
presenting to the Bishop that the present state of the world demanded 
less bigotry, and the advantage of the country required the greatest 
degree of liberality towards strangers. Still His Grace was inexorable ; 
when he received notice, that until he were more tractable, certain 
tithes and emoluments which in the late commotions the church had 
lost should not be restored. And now, after granting his dispensation 
thus reluctantly, all he has gained is the framing a concordat by the 
goverhment, which will curtail his revenues, and diminish his power. 
He is a bigoted ambitious man, holding, to appearance, with the pre- 
sent government by various ties, the most efficient of which is cer- 
tainly the partnership of -\rcas, who has married his niece, with 
‘Rodriguez, but having stronger connections with all those who oppose 
O’Higgins, whether as partisans of the unfortunate Carreras, or 
ay 
