Page:A history of Chile.djvu/388

 350 A HIS TORY OF CHILE had purchased the Tarapaci fields, their wealth was fast passing away into foreign hands. And so on all sides the opposition of interests began and grew. It was each faction for its own interest, and a unity of political purpose among them in favor of their interests. Looking at the situation dispassion- ately, one is constrained to think that President Bal- maceda was not without patriotism. But if he was not a Lopez, he was at least dictatorial in spirit, and the age of dictators has passed, even in South America. If all the inhuman acts attributed to Balmaceda were not sanctioned or committed by him, yet some are a lasting stain on his name ; as, for instance, the causing of the opposition youths to be shot at Las Caiias just after the disembarkation of the revolutionary army at Quintero in the final denouement of the struggle. These youths may have been dynamiters, prepared to blow up bridges and cut railway and telegraph lines between Santiago and the south to prevent the southern troops from coming north, but the shooting of them while asleep, particularly the sending of ten of them back to the hacienda to be shot, was barbarous beyond all the necessities of modern warfare. But then we should not forget that this treatment of the young revolutionists, if historically correct, was no worse than the outrage committed by oppositionists after the last battle ; no worse than the shooting down of a boatload of refugees trying to escape the fury of the mob.* iSgi, says, "The country was overrun with spies, private correspondence was not respected, freedom of speech was forbidden, the press was ahnost suppressed, and no one suspected of being unfavorable to the government was in safety. Im- prisonment, floggings, tortures, and in=;pections of houses at all hours of the day or night, were of frequent occurrence." There was a sort of reign of terror in Chile, and some allowance must be made for the prevailing turbulence. Santia- go and Valparaiso were filled with spies and plotters. There appear to have been inhuman acts perpetrated on both sides. ^ The oppositionists disc'aimed the barbarities practiced in the bomb-throwin?s; perhaps President Balmaceda might have disclaimed personal knowledge of many atrocities on his side.
 * No doubt it was somewhat as a writer in Blackwood's magazine for January,