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secrated to liberty, was that defence? The junta decreed it, after 
“‘ having consulted the general authorities of the state: but the want 
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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 
foreignérs, 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 
