On the 2d of December, 1885, General Cáceres occupied Lima and was installed as constitutional president of the republic on August 10, 1886, seven years after the declaration of war by Chile. He was the unanimous choice of the nation and was elected amid the acclamations of the people, without regard to political parties, his election signifying the final restoration of peace. President Cáceres devoted his chief attention to reorganizing the various departments of the administration. The consolidation of the public debt was effected, the foreign debt contracted by the loans of 1869, 1870, and 1872 being cancelled by a contract with the corporation which represented the bondholders. By this contract, Peru ceded, in payment of its debt, the usufruct, for sixty-six years, of all the state railways and the guano in Peru, not, however, in excess of three million tons, and furthermore obligated itself to pay eighty thousand pounds a year for thirty-three years in consideration of the construction of one hundred and sixty kilometres of railway in addition to the mileage already built. When General Cáceres retired from the presidency in 1890 he was succeeded by Colonel Remigio Morales Bermudez, who died just before the expiration of his term in 1894. The second vice-president, General Borgoño, assumed the presidency, disregarding the right of the first vice-president, Dr. Alejandrino del Solar. The disturbances threatened by this irregular proceeding culminated when General Cáceres assumed command of the government for the second time, though his attitude brought about the coalition of the Civil and Constitutional parties, formerly antagonistic but henceforth proving a powerful combination for political peace and progress. General Cáceres resigned from the presidency in March, 1895, and a governmental committee took charge of the administration, presided over by Don Manuel Candamo, its first act being to convoke Congress for a general election. [Illustration: SCENE ON BOARD A PERUVIAN WARSHIP.]