The predominance of both, now united there for mutual support, must disappear before the increasing knowledge of the people ; the impious league of church and state, for interested purposes, cannot long exist with genuine liberty, as to question the tenets of the one will be to draw down the vengeance of the other, — will be to stigmatize constitutional resistance as infidelity, and religious reformation as political disobedience.
In June, 1829, General Pinto was re-elected presi- dent of the republic for five years, but unfortunately he declined the office, and this unexpected refusal not only compromised his best friends, but was the main cause of all the bloodshed which followed. In the subsequent crisis General Freire's conduct was incon- sistent and vacillating ; and General Prieto, under the guise of obtaining the recal and return to power of the exiled Director O'Higgins, whose aid-de-camp he had formerly been, having marched his troops from Conception towards the capital, a coalition of the disaffected there was formed to support him, and through his means to seize on the reins of govern- ment. The mob, ever fond of change, was induced by large bribes and the hope of plunder to act under this coalition, which, if at first weak in numbers, was very formidable in resources. General Freire attempted to assume the command of the garrison of Santiago, but the field officers of the different corps refused to obey his orders, and resolved to acknow- ledge only the existing authorities. Thus foiled, he introduced himself into the barracks of No. 8, during the absence of the colonel, and ordering the battalion under arms, he endeavoured in an insidious harangue to gain over the soldiers to his own purposes, well
�� �
