The news of the week from Chili is unfavourable to
the President, who has sent his family away into the Argentine Republic. His troops have been defeated near Iquique, and -the port, under a sharp bombardment from the insurgent fleet, has surrendered. During the bombardment, "incendiaries" began pillaging and firing the town, and so great was the loss of life—two hundred women and children, for instance, being killed—that the British acting Admiral interfered, and either persuaded or compelled the factions to agree to an armistice. The President has declared the majority in Congress rebels, and has summoned a new Congress—a totally illegal pro- ceeding—but there can be no redress unless he is driven from Santiago. It is difficult to understand upon what force President Balmaceda relies, but he must have, part of the population behind him, and he is evidently prepared to go all lengths. The insurgents now call themselves Parlia- mentarians, but they are not Ziberals in the modern sense, their idea of a representative body being one in which a few combined families have a decided ascendency. Nobody as yet tells us the precise charges against President Balmaceda, though vague accusations of corruption begin to appear. The Chilians fight so well—as they showed in Peru—that unless the insurrection ends speedily, the suffering of Chili will be very great.
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