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388 been accredited by his government, to take part in its deliberations, and give it the benefit of his knowledge. He assisted in drawing up the treaties of alliance agreed to by the accredited plenipotentiaries, and did much to couch the alliance in such terms as would least impair the sovereignty of each State.

The Chilian press has preserved the memory of several remarkable predictions of Colonel Sarmiento in respect to the consequences of political conditions whose significance his sagacity enabled him to penetrate with remarkable insight, as the events proved.

In September, 1847, he assured Señor Carbello, the Chilian Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington, of the close approach of the French Revolution which took place in February, 1848, at which latter time he had returned from his travels, and was again in Chili, whence he wrote, in March, before any tidings could have reached Chili, inquiring for the details of an event that he was confident had happened. His prediction of the present condition of the United States, published last winter in "The Commonwealth," deserved to stand side by side with those prophecies which Mr. Sumner collected in his striking article in "The Atlantic." At that time he traversed the United States from end to end, saw its growing prosperity with a fresh eye,—fresh from the apathy of South America and Spain; fresh from the complicated conditions of the most advanced countries of Europe, where he had detected the clogs in the machinery of despotic and indeed of all monarchical or personal governments. He also detected the flaws in our country, and saw where liberty was travestied by the continued existence of