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ERA OF CONSTITUTION MAKING 241 illumination should be henceforth permitted. It also led to the formation of an effective fire brigade. In the year 1863, President Perez opened the rail- way between Valparaiso and the capital, a road which had cost ^12,000,000. A railway was also put in oper- ation at Coquimbo, and a telegraph to Panama was projected. Montt had let the contract for the comple- tion of the Santiago- Valparaiso line to Henry Meiggs, an American, and he had finished the work in two years. The Chilean legislature took an active interest in the dispute between Spain and Peru, and there was considerable discussion at this time of the advisability of aiding Peru. Congress went so far as to prohibit Spanish war vessels from coaling in Chilean ports, and in view of the possibility of trouble with Spain, in- creased the estimates for the ensuing year by $2,000,000, the greater part of which was intended for the navy. The government adopted active measures to aid col- onization and appointed a commission, which met on the 25th of December, and formulated plans for induc- ing foreign immigration. A German colony at Puer- to Montt had become so flourishing that they now had a town of over 15,000 population; beside this a num- ber of other settlements of foreigners had sprung up in the south. About this time, March 7th, 1864, the engineer, Du- rois made his famous report in favor of the practica- bility of constructing a railway over the Andes by way of the Uspallata pass. He estimated that it could be built in four years and at a cost of $8,000,000. The Uspallata pass is thirteen thousand feet above the sea, yet this railroad has been built over it. In the month of July, 1865, an exciting debate was begun in the Chilean congress respecting the amend- ment of the fifth article of the constitution, which read 16