The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-01 00:00:00

AMERICAN LITERATURE.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
M. Washburn, ex-Minister United States at Ascun-
cion, and the Paraguayan Conspiracy. Paris :
Itnpritnerie de Dubuisson et Cie., 5, Rue Coq-
Heron, 5.
We express no opinion upon this extraordinary
pamphlet, except that it is written in a calm, dig-
nified tone, and while bringing the most serious
charge against the United States Minister to Para-
guay, it does so the more effectively in using no
adjectives nor any terms of abuse. The documents
on which the charge is founded are given ; but we
have not the space to discuss them. All we can do
is to give what we think a fair summary of the
anonymous author, at the same time carefully
guarding against attaching any more value to
these statements, simply because they are so well
told. The preface declares that the grand
object of Brazil in the war is to obtain
the ascendancy in the countries of the Plata, and
the control of the unequalled water communication,
and to secure this end it has for ages striven to
establish the seat of Government at Montevideo,
which commands the entrance of the great river
Plata. Paraguay had to struggle to counteract
this scheme, and to preserve its independence
against the machinations of the Slave Empire. If
the first Paraguayan operations in Corrientes and
Rio Grande were not fortunate it was because
Brazil had known how to corrupt the Paraguayan
commander of this portion of the force before
Ilumait 1. Brazil has never ceased to tempt the
commanders at Curupaity and Humaita, whom she
felt herself unable to conquer. Later Brazil formed
a great conspiracy in the interior of Paraguay,
and maintained uninterrupted communication
with the canspbrators, promising them every sup-
port ; and if the little Republic has not fallen un-
der these intrigues, it is due to the vigour, firm-
ness; and resolution of Marshal Lopez, due also to
the patriotism and heroism of the people and army,
ho refused to associate themselves with the con-
spirators, and loaded them with maledictions. Mr.
Washburn, the United States Minister at Ascun-
cion, was the principal agent of this conspiracy ;
and the part he has taken is the more astonishing
when, in allying himself with Brazil, he was be-
traying the interests of his country. This, the
writer feels sure, will be the opinion
at Washing-
ton, and it is to the history of his conspiracy he
devotes these pages.
Towards the end of last August news arrived of
Paraguay, from Brazilian sources, that the Allies
had picked up in the river Paraguay a bottle con-
taining a letter to the effect that a conspiracy
against the Government of Lopez having been
traced and discovered, Dr. Carrer..s, M. Rodrigues,
M. Leite Pereira, and M. Bermes had been shot,
and that the two brothers of Marshal Lopez, Ve-
nancio and Benigno, as well as Gens. Barrios and
Bedoza, had been imprisoned. The exact words of
thispaner were notpublished either at BuenOs Ayres,
Brazil, nor in Europe, and this reticence aroused
suspicion of the non-existence of a document so
mysteriously found. The steam packer, a fortnight
after, carried to Europe the tidings of the san-
guinary repression of the conspiracy by Lopez ; that
500 conspirators had been shot, and that these exe-
cutions had been effected with every refinement of
cruelty. Brazil by these inventions obtained the
sympathy and support of some newspapers in Eu-
rope, who did not hesitate to style Lopez a cruel
despot, comparing him to Gengis Khan, Tamer-
lane, Nero, and Tiberius. Those acquainted with
Brazilian intrigue,, exclaimed, " Falsehoods! all
such reports!" and waited quietly for the truth to
be disclosed. The truth soon arrived that these exe-
cutions only existed in the calumnies of the Brazi-
lian Marshal Caxias ; it was certain that a conspi-
racy was really carried on in Paraguay, fomented
by Brazil, and that, to the surprize of Europe, the
principal mover in the plot—he who was the channel
of communication between the Allied generals and the
Paraguayan conspirators—was Mr. Washburn,
United States Minister at 'Ascuncion, who had
always been considered a sympathizer with the Para-
guayan cause, and who had signed at the beginning
of the war several not,:s, in which he affirmed that
right and justice were on the side of Paraguay. It
was also known then that not one of the conspira-
tors had been executed.

The conspiracy was formed about two years ago.
Although many diplomatic papers give the indica-
tions, it is difficult to fix the precise moment when
it began operations. The first time that official
documents show ,as the conspirators the plot was
already formed. Mr. Washburn was at Paso Pucu,
head-quarters of Lopez, whether he had gone under
pretext of finding Marshal Caxias, to offer him his
mediation in the name of the Government of the
United States. Lopez believed him to be his
friend, and confided in his loyalty ; he did
not wish it to be said that he had refused
any terms that were honourable and sincere to
put a stop to this unhappy war. Mr. Wash-
burn then went to the quarters of the enemy,
but before his departure he had a conference with
Benign Lopez, one of the chiefs of the plot, a
younger brother of Lopez. They discussed the
strength of the conspiracy, its chances of success,
and agreed that the revolutionary movement pro-
jected couldnot triumph if the Allies did not advance
in support by means of a strong column directed
rapidly on Ascuncion. Benigno Lopez drew on
paper the whole plan of Humaita, and a way over
the marshes, before thought impracticable, by which
Humaita could be taken. Mr. Washburn com-
municated this plan to Marechal Caxias. It is said
that the American Legation was the rendezvous of
the conspirators. Mr. Masterman, formerly a
doctor of the Paraguayan army, of English origin,
and Mr. Bliss, placed themselves at the service of
the American Legation, the latter a native of New
York, an adventurer who had been searching the
countries of La Plata, in vain for gold. Mr. Wash-
burn refused to leave Ascunciou in order that
he might remain in closer communication with
and afford an asylum to the conspirators, then
threatened by Marred M. Benitds, who in his note
to Mr. Washburn, explained the impossibility of
Paraguay longer permitting a foreign legation to
reside in a place of war exposed at any moment to
attack, if the legation continued to be a place of
refuge for conspirators; and he requested Mr. Wash-
burn to give up every one that did not form part
of his accredited staff. The calm and dignified
note of M. Benites, at the same time conciliatory
and firm, caused salons embarrassment to Mr.
Washburn. He believed, however, that the
Paraguayan Government would not dare to enter the
residence to arrest the refugees, and therefore deter-
mined to resist to the end. It was afterwards
proved on examination that Mr. Washburn was
the most active agent of the conspiracy; that he
had maintained regular correspondence with the
Brazilian generals—that he acted as a go-between
among the Generals of the enemy, and t:le conspi-
rators against Paraguay, that under his diplomatic

cover they exchanged the opinions circulated
between them ; that he had transmitted to the
enemy's camp the letters of M. Carreras, of M.
Leite Pereira, of M. Berges himself, and had re-
ceived answers direct ; that by his advice and in-
fluence he had induced the brothers of Lopez to
join the plot ; and, in short, he had received large
amounts of money from the Brazilians, and from
Benigno Lopez. After discussing how gravely,
Mr. Washburn bad failed in his duties, he was in-
formed that if the gunboat Wasp did not come to
carry him away he would be obliged to go over-
land. The arrival of the gunboat spared him this
journey, but, instead of maintaining silence, he
courted light, he invited examination, he made a
calumnious public appeal addressed to Mr. Stuart,
British Minister to Buenos Ayres. In this Mr.
Washburn complains that Paraguay had violated
in his person the sacred character of an ambassador
respected by all nations. First, by denying his
right to grant asylum to persons who sought re-
fuge at the embassy against unjust and un-
founded charges ; and requiring them to le-
main prisoners. Second, by outrageously re-
fusing in Bliss and Masterman the position
of attaches to the Legation, and in arresting them
in the street while accompanying him to his place
of embarkation. Third, Mr. Washburn not only
denies all personal participation in the conspiracy,
but the existence of a conspiracy, which be declares
to be the invention Of the Government of Lopez ;
and as the testimony of the accused is overwhelm-
ing, he pretends that it must have been obtained
by torture.

In contradiction to the above there is a letter
dated October 22, from General Webb, to the edi-
tor of the Anglo-Brazilian Times. He shows that
Mr. Washburn, in 1864, had to take energetic steps
to protect the Brazilian Nlinister against Pre-
sident Lopez. Next, that the character of the offi-
cial correspondence arose from the dangerous posi-
tion in which Mr. Washburn and his family were
placed by Lopez;• third, that the Minister had
nothing to do with the publication of -that corres-
pondence. He allows there may have been impru-
dence in Mr. Washburn's remarks regarding the
slowness of Caxiai. Finally, he defends the Mini-
ster from the censure of having abandoned mem-
bers of his legation ; that censure being founded on
erroneous information, and uses the Standard's
words in concluding his letter :--"If Mr. Wash-
burn has erred, he has erred on the right side; and
his Government and his country will fully endorse
his conduct against all the calumnies and slanders
now heaped upon him by evidence not worth the
paper upon which it is written."