Page:A history of Chile.djvu/461

 CHILE OF TO-DAY 415 igation Company, which has sirce been maintained by English capital. In 1847, two additional vessels were added to the line, and in i860, weekly trips were made 'between Valparaiso and Callao. In 1853 and 1858, the southern Chilean ports, Valdivia and Puerto Montt, were brought into communication with Valparaiso, the government agreeing to pay the company an annual subsidy of $40,000 for that service. ^ The company has enjoyed large subsidies from both the English and the Chilean governments, and was long enabled to buy off all attempted rivals and maintain its profitable monop- oly. Happily for Chile there are now two lines. The annual arrivals and clearances of vessels from Chilean ports is nearly ten millions of tons each. Pro- bably three-tenths of the number and tonnage are Brit- ish bottoms, four-tenths Chilean and three-tenths of other nationalities. Education has been for some years a matter of gov- ernment concern, as well as of political strife in Chile. It is free and at the cost of the state. The common people are still slow in availing themselves of the ad- vantages of Senor Balmaceda's schoolhouses, but every year marks advances. In the cities many adults are attending the night schools, and on the whole, new int-erest is being awakened in the practical benefits of education. Education has long been the political watch- word of the liberal party. The capital is the great educational center. The National University at Santiago has a yearly attendance of from ten to fifteen hundred students. This and the National Institute provide collegiate and professional courses. The latter numbers as many students as the university. There is the School of Medicine, which gives a very thorough and practical course. Law, mathematics, medicine and the fine arts are all taught.