222 POLITICAL HISTORY OF CHILI. 
when it was opposed on the ground that it would only endanger the 
peace of the country to place arms in the hands of the people, he 
answered. " No ! depend upon it the only way to secure permanent 
order, is to create a power in the people which may be enlisted on 
their side, and if this should declare against the government, it would 
be evidence enough that it ought no longer to rule, for such a power 
should consist of the best portion of the population of the country. 
The first object must be to counteract military influence ; for it too 
frequently happens amongst us, that when we make a colonel, and 
give him a regiment, his aspirations soon extend to supreme com- 
mand." 
His counsel was listened to : a militia system was organized ; the 
army was reduced ; numerous generals and other officers were struck 
off the list; the number of civil officers in the various departments 
was diminished, salaries cut down, and the most rigid economy 
observed in every branch of the government. Setting an example of 
unwearied industry in the discharge of his duties, he exacted from 
those under him a strict performance of theirs. He corrected abuses 
which had the countenance of time for their practice ; he aroused his 
countrymen from their iudolence; corruption ceased, persons were 
selected to fill office from their fitness, and not as formerly, from 
family influence. His militia system worked admirably ; it produced 
a feeling of order among a population notoriously irregular in their 
private habits and domestic economy ; it became a national guard 
exercising a certain kind of police over the whole land. Indeed all 
his energies were called into play, to improve and advance his coun- 
try; roads were planned to open communications to the coast from 
sections abounding in agricultural wealth, but remote from the sea- 
board. He set about raising the public credit by husbanding the 
revenue, so as to enable it, after consolidating domestic and foreign 
debt, to appropriate a certain amount, first towards the periodical 
payments on account of interest, and then to effect an arrangement 
with the English bond-holders. For the latter purpose, an agent was 
named to proceed to England. To accomplish such radical chances 
great perseverance and firmness were requisite, and these qualities 
eminently characterized Portales. It is surprising how well he 
adapted his march to the actual state of the country, and its preju- 
dices of education. He supported the clergy to obtain their instru- 
mentality as a moral power to strengthen the government, knowing 
that otherwise they would, as they frequently had, become its most 
