216 POLITICAL HISTORY OF CHILI. 



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 command." 



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 indolence ; 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 country ; roads were planned to open 

 communications to the coast, from sections abounding in agricultural 

 wealth, but remote from the seaboard. 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 changes great perseverance and firm- 

 ness 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 prejudices of education. He supported 

 the clergy, to obtain their instrumentality as a moral power to 

 strengthen the government, knowing that otherwise they would, as 

 they frequently had, become its most formidable opponents. All this 

 created much discontent among many speculative politicians, who 

 fancied they could establish a refined system of government over 

 an uneducated and prejudiced mass of men like the Chilians ; a popu- 

 lation that had but a few years emerged from a political state little 

 diferent from that of Europe in the middle ages, whose predilections 

 were deeply rooted, whose habits only change by an increasing inter- 

 course with nations more enlightened than themselves, and who 

 gradually and almost imperceptibly yield to such an influence. 



This government came into power after military rule had been in 

 possession of authority almost ever since the nation became indepen- 



