Egaña Fabres, Mariano (1793–1846)

Mariano Egaña Fabres (b. 1 March 1793; d. 24 June 1846), Chilean lawyer, diplomat, and intellectual. The son of Juan Egaña, from whom he inherited his strong intellectual streak, Mariano Egaña qualified as a lawyer in 1811, and held office briefly in the patriot governments of 1813–1814. Like his father, he was confined to Juan Fernández (an island prison for exiled political prisoners) during the Spanish reconquest (1814–1817). In 1824 he was sent as Chilean envoy to London. His credentials were not accepted because Britain had not yet recognized Chile's independence, so Egaña settled in Paris. He returned to Chile in 1829. It was as a result of his initiative that Andrés Bello (1781–1865), a prominent Venezuelan intellectual, was offered government employment in Chile.

In the new Conservative regime of 1830, in which he was a key figure, Egaña served as minister of finance (1830), of the interior (1830), and of justice (1837–1841), as well as senator (1831–1846). He was a leading influence on the drafting of the Constitution of 1833, though his more reactionary proposals (such as indefinite re-eligibility of presidents and hereditary senators) were excluded. Egaña's death (he collapsed and died in the street) had a great impact on Santiago. His book collection, the best in Chile, was bought by the state for the National Library.

See alsoChile, Constitutions; Santiago, Chile.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Simon Collier, Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, 1808–1833 (1967).

Mariano Egaña, Documentos de la misión de Mariano Egaña en Londres, 1824–1829 (1984).

Additional Bibliography

Collier, Simon. Chile: The Making of a Republic, 1830–1865: Politics and Ideas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Ivulic Gómez, Jorge. Importancia del Partido Conservador en la evolución política chilena. [Chile]: Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Area de Ciencia Política, 1998.

                                           Simon Collier