On the twenty-third of July, 1822, the National Congress of Chile met at Santiago; it was opened by the Supreme Director, Don Bernardo O'Higgins, who made a tender of his directoral authority to the representatives of the republic, and concluded his harangue with—"Compatriots! my command is at an end—defects are inseparable from humanity—the most difficult circumstances have surrounded me on every side—perhaps my want of knowledge and experience may have led me to commit errors against my children, (allow this tender expression to my feelings)—I can never forget the honours I have received, and I hope that my days will be prolonged by my gratitude, until I see Chile as happy and as prosperous as the most flourishing countries of the earth."

Immediately after the director had retired, the convention waited upon him, and reinstated him in the supreme executive authority, with the following compliment: "The representatives of Chile most sincerely thank your excellency for the wisdom with which you have managed the affairs of the nation; when a constitution is formed that shall specify the time of the fatigues of the magistrates, the representatives may admit of your resignation, and then your excellency will enjoy your retirement in glory, and future generations will sing hymns of love and gratitude to your name."

The first meeting of the preparatory convention was on the twenty-ninth, at ten o'clock in the morning.

On the twenty-first of September, 1822, the news arrived in Chile, that Don Bernardo Monteagudo had been deposed from the ministry, and exiled from Peru.

The following are extracts from the papers published in Lima:

"Lima had scarcely obtained a glimpse of a flattering futurity, when a cunning, froward, and saucy individual, a traitor to the confidence of the government that had elevated him to the ministry, began to stifle our patriotism and its defenders. This insolent minister rewarded all praise-worthy services with the most gross invectives, and the most scandalous persecutions. His intriguing ambition filled our gazettes with a multitude of decrees in opposition to the plans which he himself had prescribed. His decrees were written that they might be read, not that they might be obeyed.

"Unfortunately for us, the genius of the revolution, San Martin, had to absent himself twice from our capital, to meet the Washington of Colombia. This perfidious oppressor availed himself of his absence to manifest the whole perversity of his soul. Until that period his persecutions were underhand, but they now became barefaced. All Spaniards were considered rich, they, their families and property, consequently became the prey of his insatiable avarice; and at the same time, those patriots who had contributed most to the success of the liberating army were persecuted to the utmost extremity. He formed a long list of proscriptions of men who were to be exiled for ever from their native country, and whose only crimes were their patriotic virtues, for the extinction of which he had formed a nest of the vilest spies, who unceasingly watched the steps of every man of honour. Great God! what an epoch of misery!

"Every honourable citizen found in Don Bernardo Monteagudo (this is the name of the monster of whom we speak) an enemy who at any price would have sacrificed him. How many victims has he not sacrificed in his one year's ministry! More than eight hundred honourable families have been by him reduced to extreme indigence, and the whole city to a state of misery.

"Among the patriots at Lima, nothing was thought of but where they might find an asylum in a foreign land. Without agriculture, commerce, industry, personal security, property, and laws, what is society but a mansion of the most afflicting torments!

"The religion of our forefathers suffered an equal persecution in its ministers and its temples; these were deprived of their riches, not for the service of our country, but for the reward of espionage, and to deceive us with useless trickeries. The satellites of this bandit were equally despotic with himself, and committed, under his protection, the most horrid crimes. This is not a proper place in which to insert the baseness with which he abused the delicacy and debility of females. Fathers of families **** every man was intimidated; every feeling man wept because all were the victims of the caprice of this insolent despot, who made an ostentation of atheism and ferocity.

"It is impossible to recapitulate his actions; volumes would be necessary to shew to the world the arbitrary crimes of this factious individual. It would appear, that for the commission of so many offences he must have had some cause that impelled him, for they could not possibly be the effects of ignorance. It was impossible to believe that by insulting and ruining every one; plundering our property; despising the ingenuity and talents of the Peruvians; and endeavouring to introduce anarchy, he could be long tolerated in this capital.

"His ambition was unlimited, having constituted himself the arbiter of the government. He had the assurance to dictate orders and decrees in opposition to those of the provincial statute, subscribing to them the name of the supreme authority; thus bringing it into contempt. Such conduct, when the enemy's army was within twenty leagues of Lima, and our government scarcely established, proves that his views were directed to undermine the state. Was the reducing of Peru to the most degrading slavery, that of obeying his capricious will, the means to make us happy or even himself?

"Foreigners also began to suffer all kinds of vexations and pilferings, with his carta de morada (letter of residence), without considering that the felicity of the country depended on its increase of industrious inhabitants. Owing to this, none have established themselves in Lima, it being worthy of observation, that not even one person has purchased a house or any immoveable property. And is not this a proof of general disgust and a want of confidence?

"In fine, such repeated acts of despotism irritated the people of Lima to that degree, that an explosion became inevitable. In eight days after the Protector left the capital, his insults to the patriots were incalculable. He caballed in the most barefaced manner to place in the coming congress his own creatures. He hurried off those whom he had sentenced to exile, because they were the favourites of the people; and in the exercise of his fury Lima took the alarm."

On the twenty-fifth of July the people of Lima assembled in the plasa, and insisted on a cavildo abierto, a public meeting of the corporation; this was immediately complied with, and the general voice of the people was, "let the minister Monteagudo be deposed, let him be tried, let him experience the severity of the law." At seven o'clock in the evening of the same day, a note was addressed by the corporation to the Supreme Delegate, requesting that the minister might be deposed; the council of state met, and convinced of the necessity of separating Monteagudo from the ministry, immediately informed him of the state of affairs, when to save appearances he made a tender of his appointment, which was accepted, and the supreme delegate in answer to the note of the corporation, assured them, that the ex-minister should be called upon to answer before a committee of the council of state for his past administration, according to the provisional statutes.

This note was answered on the twenty-sixth by the municipality requesting that the ex-minister should be placed under an arrest, until called upon for his defence, which request was immediately put into execution. The people of Lima being aware of the ascendancy which Monteagudo held over the delegate, Torre Tagle, and fearing that some crafty subterfuge might be practised to replace him in authority, met again on the twenty-ninth, when the corporation, to pacify the popular commotion, requested of the government, that the ex-minister should be embarked privately, and exiled for ever from the state; this was acceded to, and on the thirtieth, the anniversary of his arrival in Lima, Monteagudo was sent down to Callao, under an escort, and at six o'clock in the evening he left the port. This ambitious individual was assassinated at Lima on the night of the twenty-eighth of January, 1825, having returned under the protection of Bolivar, and the expectation of being replaced in the ministry.

While these affairs were transacting in Lima, the Protector, San Martin, was at Guayaquil, where he had proceeded for the purpose of soliciting troops from Bolivar, for the prosecution of his campaigns in Peru. It is impossible to ascertain what took place in the private conference between those two chiefs, but the result was not at all favourable to San Martin, for he returned in dudgeon to Callao, when to his surprise and mortification, he was informed, that his arch-minister had been exiled for ever during his absence. Before his excellency ventured on shore, he had an interview with the principal officers of the army; who assured him that the troops were faithful to him, and under this certainty he presented himself at the palace in Lima, where in the most unbecoming language, he reprobated the whole of the proceeding, threatened his councillors of state, the corporation and the city itself, and declared, that he should immediately recall Monteagudo and reinstate him in the ministry. Notwithstanding the deference and respect which he had been accustomed to receive from every one who acknowledged his authority, he was wounded at observing, that the Limenians were not intimidated at his promised vengeance, and leaving the palace he betook himself to his country house near to Callao.

In the beginning of October, the arbitrary conduct of Rodrigues, the minister of war and finance in Chile, began to excite the public indignation, and petitions from every part of the state were forwarded to the supreme director, O'Higgins, praying his removal from the ministry. Crimes the most injurious to the prosperity of the state; his sordid venality, monopoly of commercial transactions, and even illegal appropriations of the public funds, were brought against him, in the most tangible shape; and yet all this was not sufficient, even with the knowledge of what had transpired in Peru, to force him to resign, or to induce O'Higgins to dismiss him. At the time that all Chile was in this state of suspense, and many alarming threats were issued from different quarters, an event not in the least expected took place, which for a while lulled the rising storm—this was no less than the sudden arrival at Valparaiso of his excellency General San Martin, the Protector of the liberties of Peru.

This great man had continued to reside at his country mansion, until the twentieth of September, when the sovereign congress met, from which he received on the same day the following official communication:

"Most Excellent Sir,—The sovereign congress considering that the first duty of a free people is to acknowledge their gratitude to the authors of their political existence and their felicity, convinced that the country of the Sun owes this incomparable benefit to the efforts of your excellency, have decreed to you a vote of thanks to be presented to you by a deputation of the house.

"The Peruvian nation flatters itself that its gratitude is equal to the efficacious efforts which your excellency has made, destroying, like the thunder-bolt on the celebrated mountain that witnessed the last days of Lautaro, the iron power of Spain in the country of the Incas.

"The congress manifests, in this communication, the sincerity of their votes, which shall be expressed in the first act of their sessions, and which cannot be obliterated by the hand of time; holding General San Martin as the first soldier of their liberty.

"By the order of the congress we communicate this to your excellency, for your intelligence and satisfaction. God preserve your excellency for many years.—Lima, September 20, 1822. Xavier de Luna Pizarro, president—José Sanchez Carrion, deputy secretary—Francisco Xavier Mariategui, deputy secretary.—To his Excellency Senor D. José de San Martin."

The answer: "Sire,—Terminating my public life, after I have consigned to the august congress of Peru the supreme command of the state, nothing could be more flattering to my heart than the solemnity of the confidence of your sovereignty in appointing me generalissimo of the troops of the nation; an appointment which I have just received from a deputation of your sovereign body. I have had the honour of expressing my most profound gratitude at the time of its announcement to me, when I had the satisfaction of accepting only the title, because it was the mark of your approbation of the services which I have rendered to this country. I am resolved not to betray my own feelings and the great interests of the nation; permit me therefore, to say, that long and painful experience has induced me to say, that the distinguished rank to which your sovereignty has deigned to elevate me, so far from being useful to the nation, should I fill it, would only oppose your just designs by alarming the jealousy of those who desire a positive liberty; it would divide the opinions of the people, and decrease the confidence which you alone ought to inspire in the absolute independence of your decisions. My presence, Sire, in Peru, considering that power which I have left, and the force which I should possess, is inconsistent with the morale of the sovereign body, and with my own opinion; because no forbearance on my part would defend me from the shafts of malediction and calumny. Sire, I have fulfilled the sacred promise that I made to Peru; I have seen her representatives assembled; the force of the enemy does not menace the independence of a people determined to be free, and who possess the means of being so. A numerous army under the direction of chiefs inured to war is ready to march in a few days, to terminate the contest for ever. Nothing remains but to offer to your sovereignty the expression of my most sincere gratitude, and the firm assurance, that if at any time the liberty of the Peruvians should be threatened, I will dispute the honour of accompanying them as a citizen to defend their freedom on the field of battle.

"May God preserve your sovereignty for many years.—Free Town, September 20th, 1822. (Signed) José de San Martin."

"To the Sovereign Congress of Peru."

The following, being the last proclamation by San Martin, was issued on the same day, and may be considered as his farewell address to Peru:

"I have witnessed the declaration of the independence of the states of Chile and Peru. I hold in my possession the standard which Pizarro brought to enslave the empire of the Incas, and I have ceased to be a public man—thus I am more than rewarded for ten years spent in revolution and warfare. My promises to the countries in which I warred are fulfilled; to make them independent, and leave to their will the election of their governments.

"The presence of a fortunate soldier, however disinterested he may be, is dangerous to newly-constituted states. I am also disgusted with hearing that I wish to make myself a sovereign. Nevertheless, I shall always be ready to make the last sacrifice for the liberty of the country, but in the class of a private individual, and no other.

"With respect to my public conduct, my compatriots (as is generally the case) will be divided in their opinions—their children will pronounce the true verdict.

"Peruvians! I leave your national representation established; if you repose implicit confidence in it you will triumph, if not, anarchy will swallow you up.

"May success preside over your destinies, and may they be crowned with felicity and peace. Free Town, September, 20th, 1822. (Signed) San Martin."

Had San Martin been sincere, even in his last assurances, or had he been conscious that his services would have been of public utility; if, as a citizen, his modesty would not allow him to take upon himself the chief command of the force of the country, he certainly ought not to have abandoned Peru, when he was well aware that the army of the enemy was almost under the very walls of the capital; for he himself confesses, that a numerous army would march in a few days to terminate the war for ever: this march, however, would never have been necessary, had he followed the Spanish army when it evacuated Lima, if he had brought the army under Canterac to an action, or if he had headed his troops at Ica. The children of his compatriots will "pronounce the true verdict," not, I regret to say, an honourable one to San Martin; indeed thousands of them have already shed their blood on those plains which they might have cultivated in peace and security under the protection of their own constituted authorities and laws. It is impossible that a consciousness of not having fulfilled those promises which were calculated to do good, and would have established the absolute independence of rational liberty, and the prosperity of the Peruvians, it is impossible but that the memory of those breaches of good faith must ever cling to the heart of this deceiving mortal.

San Martin remained a few days in Valparaiso, until an escort arrived from Santiago to conduct him to that city; he resided there until December, or the beginning of January, when, observing the threatening aspect of affairs in Chile, owing to the fixed determination of O'Higgins not to discard his favourite minister Rodrigues, he crossed the Cordillera to his old favourite residence at Mendosa.

General Freire, who had the command of the Chilean troops, stationed on the frontiers of Araucania, consisting of about three thousand men, came to the determination to march on the capital. In this he was supported by the inhabitants of the province of Coquimbo, the only object of the whole being to displace Rodrigues, and to bring him to justice. This they eventually did, obliging O'Higgins at the same time to abdicate his supreme authority on the twenty-second of January, 1823.

During this epoch of convulsions, Lord Cochrane was residing on his estate at Quintero, where he received the following communication from Peru:

"The sovereign constituent congress of Peru, contemplating how much the liberty of Peru owes to the Right Honourable Lord Cochrane, by whose talents, valour and constancy the Pacific has been freed from our most inveterate enemies, and the standard of liberty has been displayed on the coasts of Peru, resolves that the junta of government, in the name of the Peruvian nation, do present to Lord Cochrane, Admiral of the squadron of Chile, expressions of our most sincere gratitude for his achievements in favour of this country, once tyrannized over by powerful enemies, now the arbiter of its own fate."

"The junta of government obeying this, will command its fulfilment and order it be printed, published and circulated.—Given in the Hall of Congress, Lima, the 27th of September, 1822. (Signed) Xavier de Luna Pizarro, president—Jose Sanches Carrion, deputy secretary—Francisco Xavier Marreategui, deputy secretary."

"In obedience we order the execution of the foregoing decree. (Signed) Jose de la Mar, Felipe Antonio Alvarado, El Conde de Vista Florida, by order of his Excellency Francisco Valdivieso."

Here his lordship received from the government of Chile a copy of the libel presented to them by the plenipotentiaries of the Protector of Peru, which he answered with "victorious reasonings," although the supremacy assured his lordship, that the charges had never been believed; perhaps for the best of all possible reasons, that they could scarcely be understood.

In December an express arrived from the Brazilian charge des affaires in Buenos Ayres, bringing to his lordship a communication from the imperial government at Rio de Janeiro, containing a request, that as the common enemy to South American independence in the Pacific had, owing to his important services and indefatigable exertions ceased to exist, he would deign to accept the command of the imperial navy of the Brazils, for the purpose of securing to that country the felicity which he had been the means of establishing on the opposite side of the Continent.

Lord Cochrane would probably have preferred a life of quiet in his adopted country, Chile, to that of entering into an engagement which might produce a repetition of those difficulties and vexations which he had already experienced; but, owing to the existing circumstances in Chile, this was impossible. Lord Cochrane was bound by his allegiance to the existing government, not to become a party in any faction and his own honour would not allow him to join General Freire, by whom he was solicited, although he was convinced that the authority of O'Higgins must succumb; he therefore determined to proceed to Rio de Janeiro, and to act there as affairs might present themselves.

On the nineteenth of January, 1823, his lordship embarked for the Brazils; but before quitting Chile he drew up the two following addresses:

"Chileans, my Compatriots,—The common enemy of America has fallen in Chile. Your tri-coloured flag waves on the Pacific, secured by your sacrifices. Some internal commotions agitate Chile: it is not my business to investigate their causes, to accelerate or to retard their effects: I can only wish that the result may be most favourable for all parties.

"Chileans,—You have expelled from your country the enemies of your independence, do not sully the glorious act by encouraging discord, promoting anarchy, that greatest of all evils. Consult the dignity to which your heroism has raised you, and if you must take any steps to secure your national liberty, judge for yourselves, act with prudence, and be guided by reason and justice.

"It is now four years since the sacred cause of your independence called me to Chile; I assisted you to gain it; I have seen it accomplished; it only now remains for you to preserve it.

"I leave you for a time, in order not to involve myself in matters foreign to my duty, and for reasons concerning which I now remain silent, that I may not encourage party spirit.

"Chileans,—You know that independence is purchased at the point of the bayonet. Know also that liberty is founded on good faith, and is supported by the laws of honour, and that those who infringe them are your only enemies, among whom you will never find Cochrane."

"To the British merchants residing in Chile. Quintero, January 4th, 1823:

"Gentlemen,—I cannot quit this country without expressing to you the heartfelt satisfaction which I experience on account of the extension which has been given to your commerce, by laying open to all the trade of those vast provinces to which Spain formerly asserted an exclusive right. The squadron which maintained the monopoly has disappeared from the face of the ocean, and the flags of independent South America wave every where triumphant, protecting that intercourse between nations which is the source of their riches, happiness, and power.

"If, for the furtherance of this great object, some restraints were imposed, they were no other than those which are practised by all civilized states; and though they may have affected the interests of a few who were desirous to avail themselves of accidental circumstances presented during the contest, it is a gratification to know that such interests were only postponed for the general good. Should there be any, however, who conceive themselves aggrieved by my conduct, I have to request that they will make known their complaints, with their names affixed, through the medium of the public press, in order that I may have an opportunity of a particular reply.

"I trust you will do me the justice to believe, that I have not determined to withdraw myself from these seas while any thing remains within my means to accomplish for your benefit and security.

"I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your faithful obedient servant, Cochrane."

THE END.

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LIVERPOOL.