ribed as Protestants.
Notwithstanding the opposition of some political elements to the
Church, the Chileans themselves may all be classed as Roman Catholics.
The ecclesiastical organization includes one archbishop, who resides
at Santiago, three bishops residing at La Serena, Concepcion and
Ancud, and two vicars residing in Antofagasta and Tarapaca. These
benefices are filled by appointments from lists of three prepared by
the council of state and sent to Rome by the president, and in the
case of an archbishop or bishop the appointment must also receive the
approval of the Senate. The Chilean clergy are drawn very largely from
the higher classes, and their social standing is much better than in
many South American states. The Church also possesses much property of
its own, and is therefore able to maintain itself on a comparatively
small subsidy from the public treasury, which was 985,910 pesos
(L73,943) in 1902. The Church maintains seminaries in all cathedral
towns, and these also receive a subsidy from the government.

_Finance._--For a long time Chile was considered one of the poorest
states of Spanish America, but the acquisition of the rich
mineral-producing provinces of the north, together with the
development of new silver and copper mines in Atacama and Coquimbo,
largely increased her revenues and enabled her to develop other
important resources. During the decade 1831-1840 the annual revenues
averaged about 2,100,000 pesos (of 48d.), which in the decade
1861-1870 had increased to an average of only 8,200,000 pesos--and
this during a period of considerable agricultural activity on account
of wheat exports to California and Australia. After 1870 the revenues
increased more rapidly owing to the development of new mining
industries, the receipts in 1879 amounting to 15,300,000 pesos, and in
1882 to 28,900,000 pesos. The revenues from the captured Peruvian
nitrate fields then became an important part of the national income,
which ten years later (1902) reached an aggregate of 138,507,178 pesos
(of i8d.), of which 105,072,832 pesos were in gold. In 1906 the
receipts from all sources were estimated at 149,100,000 pesos, of
which 62,200,000 pesos gold were credited to the tax on nitrate,
39,800,000 pesos gold to import duties, and 23,500,000 pesos currency
to railway receipts. During these years of fiscal prosperity the
country suffered much from