364 JOURNAL. 
* ceeded in checking intestine dissensions by means of gentleness and 
“ prudence. 
‘“¢ The outworks of good order 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- 
