Page:A history of Chile.djvu/286

 262 A H-ISTOKY OF CHILE At the close of President Errazuriz' administration the population of Chile was 2,068,447. In 1865, it was 1,819,223, an increase of 249,228 in ten years. There were at this time, 1875, 26,528 foreigners resident in the country. Railway building had gone on actively and there were now six hundred and nineteen miles in operation, three hundred and ninety-three miles of which belonged to the state, with one hundred and ninety-three miles more in process of construction. Curico, Talca, Chilian, Angol and Talcahuano, were now united with the capital by rail. There were 1,650 miles of telegraph, and on February 3rd, 1875, the first dispatches direct from Liverpool and London were re- ceived at Valparaiso by way of Buenos Ayres. These figures give a general idea of the material advancement of the country and indicate how thoroughly alive were the people to modern enterprises. The continued agitation of matters religious, the passing of the new penal code by which the clergy were made amenable to the civil courts, electoral, educational and other questions, had separated President Errazuriz and the moderate liberals from the clericals and con- servatives. The building of railroads and active push- ing forward of public works had created recurring de- ficits in the annual budgets, and the affairs of state were in a very unsatisfactory condition at the close of the administration. The condition of the revenues, it may be said, was in part due to commercial stagna- tion ; a financial crisis was feared, and in truth was at hand. President Errizuriz was an able and conscientious executive, but he was placed in the trying position of undertaking to deal with the old and the new, of try- ing to reconcile and harmonize interests which could not be harmonized.