The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-12-29
Brazil and La Plata war-signs OF Im-
perial Defeat.

seeks peace with Lopez. Such are the two
items of news from the Plata valley which
indicate crisis in the war-indicate great
changes for Brazil and new complications be-
tween her and her southwestern republican
neighbors At length there is a reaction, and
the question with Brazil now Is how to pre-
serve the empire from disintegration. The
affair having reached this point it is,
perhaps, well to glance again at the
causes of the war. When Paraguay saw
all national energy disappear from Uruguay,
and saw, too, that the men who called them
selves Argentine statesmen were indulging the
poetical dream of restoring the old Buenos
Ayrean viceroyalty, which included Bolivia
and Paraguay, its people naturally became
alarmed for their national safety. East of
them was Brazil, territory hated through an
Unborn hatred which has been nourished
through generations. This was caused by the
barbarous raids made upon the old Jesuit
missions by the Paulistas or Mamelucos, who
from South Brazil carried their piratical man.
stealing expeditions almost into the heart of
Paraguay, desolated its fairest territory,
plundered its wealth and sowed the seeds of
an intense opposition to everything Brazilian.
No wonder, then, that when Paraguay saw her
old enemy closing the mouth of the Plata
saw Uruguay tossed in civil strife like a play
thing in the hands of the imperial treasury
saw Argentine statesmen false to every
governing principle which animates the
republicanism of this Continent; saw them,
in fact, linked in most unnatural
and suicidal alliance with the empire-we say
it is not astonishing that Lopez, as the repre-
sentative of the Paraguayan people, should
make protest-August 80, 1865-against
imperial encroachments in Uruguay, and
pations were continued. Brazil, however,
laughed at the pigmy threat, and before Para
quay could put an army in motion had formed
that secret treaty with the Argentine Republic
which is even greater blot upon the civiliza-
ton of this century than was the late alliance
against Mexico. This treaty Uruguay was
also forced to sign. 1t bound the allies to
perpetual war against Paraguay until Lopez
was banished. 1t cut of, without treaty, one
third Of the Paraguayan territory, provided for
an allied police system, through which, for Eve
years after the conquest, the country was to
be governed by the conquerors for the best
good of the people. 1t forced them to
pay all the expenses of war which was
generously s'waged for their ben eft,"
as the treaty very ironically stated.
1t disarmed the nation to a man, that
there might be no internal movement to dis
tgrb their liberties. Finally, in protocol
which feads more like compact between
three piratical associations than like treaty
between three separate nationalities of this
would-be civilized poriod-it provided that
all ''6otin", booty, captured from the Para
guayans ''shall belong to the party making the
capture"
We may call that little pivot of South Ameri-
can liberties despotism, and may anathema-
tie Lopez as q bloody tyrant; but we should
despair Of the human species If Paraguay
failed in spirit to defend itself against an
alliance which Is UNANIMOUSLY Haunted to the
world as crusade OF civilization against bar
barism.
But the allies overreached themselves
their very treaty became the fortalice of
Lopez. Paraguay-man, woman, child-ral-
lied, and-if we do not misjudge those vir-
tues of the human race found even in the
savage-will rally to the last drop of blood
to defend ITSELF Their defensive military
position Is the finest in South America,
if we except, perhaps, that Of Bolivia. We
inability Of the allies to carry out the objects
of their alliance. As yet they have not
driven Lopez from the river bank, and they
have been three years hard at work at the
problem. The empire has run up its national
debt to nearly six hundred millions of dollars
gold Both Brazil and the Argentine Republic
have been drained of "volunteers," who,
chained or tied in pairs, have been driven to the
work Of unearthing the Paraguayan tyrant."
To-day half Of the allied strength is in its IRON
clad and monitor fleet; and yet at villeta
and Asuncion the Paraguayan guns sweep the
river. The allied army, stuck in the impassa-
BILE Dogs in front of villeta, has no hope except
to flank the position by cutting through the
swamps on the west side of the Paraguay
river, and, recrossing the stream above,
gain the enemy's rear. We give Marshal
Caxias few months to try this movement,
while the twenty thousand troops he de-
mands to reinforce him are being gathered, i
possible. Driven from villeta by army and
iron-clads, the Paragraphs will retire to the
interior. The Brazilian strength will then be
divided, while that of Lopez will be SO in
creased that the difficulty of conquering the
country will be greater than ever.
II, as is very probable, the Argentine Re-
public should withdraw it will force Brazil
into trouble with her allies, who have no right
to retire except by common agreement. The