PUBLIC FEELING IN CHILI. 187 



ministration of affairs in Chili : occasional bad 

 faith, and occasional oppression ; and sometimes 

 very inconvenient disturbances, and partial poli- 

 tical changes ; but these are of no moment in so 

 vast a question. The barrier which has so long 

 dammed up the tide of human rights and free ac- 

 tion, has been at length removed ; and the stream 

 is assuredly not to be stopped by any thing from 

 without : and what is internal that might produce 

 mischief, is rabidly improving as men advance in 

 intelligence and acquire a deeper interest in good 

 order. An invasion, indeed, might cause much 

 misery and confusion, and tend for a time to keep 

 back the moral and political improvement of the 

 country ; but the reaction would be inevitable, 

 and ere long the outraged country would spring 

 forwards to life and liberty with tenfold vigour. 



By means of foreign intercourse, and by the 

 experience and knowledge of themselves acquired 

 by acting for the first time as freemen, they will 

 come to know their own strength : by learning al- 

 so to respect themselves, which they could hard- 

 ly have done before, they will be ready to respect 

 a government formed of themselves ; and, instead 



