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 ERA OF CONSTITUTION MAKING 253 avert the gathering storm. Because of this timely con- sideration, the government was in the main successful in the April elections of the following year, 1870. A vastly superior class of men took seats as deputies, thirty of whom were of the opposition. On the 13th of May, 1868, the first steamer sailed from Valparaiso bound for Europe by way of the Straits, on the line which the government had subsidized with $60,000 a year and the promise of an increase subse- quently to ^100,000 a year. This line put Chile in di- rect communication with Europe. In 1856, a treaty had been entered into with the Ar- gentine Republic, doing away with all duties on the overland trade between the republics. This Chile now abolished, in accordance with a notice she had pre- viously given the Argentine government in 1867. The Chilean press generally censured this abolition of the treaty, as prejudicial to the commercial interests of both republics. In May, i86g, an agricultural exhibition was held in Santiago, at which all the South American states had exhibits. This exhibition did much to introduce labor- saving machinery and blooded stock into Chile, and stimulated new ideas in agricultural methods. The fair was in every way a success, and gives as much of an indication of the progressive and enterprising spirit of the Chileans at this time, as the active railroad build- ing which went on through all the latter years of Pres- ident Perez' administration. During the first term of Perez' administration, the southern railroads had been pushed as far as San Fer- nando. Afterward this line was carried farther to Curi- co. A line was begun between Chilian and Talcahuano and another from San Felipe to Llai-Llai. A telegraph line was also completed to the frontier.