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330 A HISTORY OF CHILE no organized resistance. Balmaceda was elected and duly installed on September i8th, 1886. His cabinet contained as minister of the interior, Don Jos6 F. Ver- gara; foreign affairs, Don Francisco Freire ; Varas, Ed- wards and Aturez filled the other departments. In the following year a new cabinet was formed, the old min- isters resigning on account of the president's lavish expenditures in pushing public works. On this ques- tion four ministries resigned during the next four years. Under Balmaceda numerous reforms were proposed ; one project was to prohibit senators and deputies from having interests in public contracts, another, that neither the president nor any minister should give an office to a near relation unless he was qualified in ever}' respect to hold it, and still another, that the president should be elected by congress, not by popular vote. All these questions caused exciting debates. This was a time when there was much talk of pro- gress, of advancement in public interests. In the year following Balmaceda's election the senate voted a sub- sidy to complete the gap of one hundred and forty miles of railroad connecting the Chilean system with that of the Argentine Republic by way of the Uspallata pass. The Arauco company in London was granted the right of completing a grant made by Chile in 1884, for the building of a railroad from Concepcion to Rios de Curanclahue and for the undertaking of certain pub- lic works in the province of Arauco and other parts of Chile. In the summer of 1887, a telephone line was constructed between Valparaiso and Santiago, and Co- quimbo was lighted with electric lights. The state devoted ^3,000,000 a year to free public instruction; 1,500 primary schools were established with over one hundred thousand pupils. During the year 1887, the government paid out 3650,000 to hospitals, lazarettos,