Ex-President Balmaceda has passed sentence on himself, and on Saturday
last he executed himself with a revolver. It appears that after his defeat he fled from Santiago, hoping to reach one of his steamers at a point along the coast. The steamer, however, failed him, and, returning to the capital, he took refuge in the Argentine Legation, Senor Uriburu, the Argentine Minister, being his old friend. Senor Uriburu advised him to surrender, and the Junta, which governs Chili, offered him protection and a fair trial. The ex-President, however, did not believe in fair trials, and was afraid of the populace, which he felt sure would tear him limb from limb. He therefore shot himself. In the letters he left behind, he reasserts the purity of his motives and the constitutional character of his action ; but he does not deny the cruelties alleged against him, only declaring that his followers acted without his instructions. That is the regular excuse of the true " tyrants," to which class Balmaceda certainly belonged. The people of Santiago, who had obeyed him implicitly, broke into excesses of delight at hearing of his death, and the city was as fully illuminated because he had committed suicide as it would have been had he been victorious.
