The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-07


which, two years later, became successful by
the aid of Brazilian intervention. He was
also aided not little by the sympathy and
secret support of the Argentines. The revo-
luton of Flores was utterly uniusti6able, as
the Blanco party, then in power, re-
presented the vast majority of the
law-abiding "Orientals," or Uruguayans,
and complete amnesty existed for the party
to which Flores belonged. Besides, the ad
miDistration of President Berro had been the
best which that distracted republic had ever
enjoyed. The conduct of the Brazilian and
Argentine administrations, at this crisis, fixes
q stain upon those otherwise enlightened
governments, and Justly alienated from them
portion of that sympathy which they would
otherwise have had, when they, in their turn,
became the victims of ruthless aggression by
the tyrants of Paraguay!
The so-called Republic of Paraguay was
ruled by the famous DR.. Francia, first as con-
sul and afterwards as dictator, from 1911 till
his death in 1910. His power, which was alb
solute and ferociously exercised, was derived,
in q great measure from the tradition OF
Jesuit rule in those Guaraui missions which
were the germ of the Paraguayan population.
After his death the supreme power was seized
by Carlos Antonio Lopez, under the title of
consul, which he exchanged, in 1914, for that
of president. He remained in Office till his
death in September, 1862, when General
Francisco Solano Lopez succeeded to his
place, by virtue of the last will and testment
of his putative father, ratified by "Con-
gress" of his own exclusive selection.
have not space to enter here upon any
detail of the personal or administrative his
tory of either of the Lopezes. Suffice it to
say that the government remained, in theory
and practice, as absolute as in the day of
Francia that Paraguay never had either con-
stitution or code of laws; and that the
document sometimes called, for con-
venience, the Constitution of Paraguay"
was merely an edict of the elder
Lopez, attributing to himself alb
solute supremacy, with ''ex raordinary facu-
ties, whenever he should deem it necessary
to assume them. This edict was duly zap
proved" by the Paraguayan Congress"
body in which, during his whole administra-
ton, an opposition speech or vote was an uu-
known event, and which never took any other
action than to sanction every proposal of the
executive. l must also mention, in correc-
tion of q widespread error, that Carlos Anto-
Mo Lopez did not abolish slavery. He pro-
claimed, in 1874, that all children born
thereafter of slave parents should be-
come free at the age of twenty-five years so
that the earliest emancipation would only
have taken place last year.
Francisco Solano Lopez, born in 1926, be-
army, by his fathers appointment, at the age
of eighteen; was afterwards minister of war,
and was constantly engaged in other import
ant offices until his accession. In 1853 he
had been sent as minister to England, France,
and Italy, remaining in Europe about eigh-
teen months. 1t was at this time that he
first conceived the idea of making Paraguay
great military power, Sd as ultimately to
enlarge her limits an idea which thenceforth
hiC
other consideration was of secondary import
ance. The vast stores Of war material which
he accumulated, the Paraguayau fleet of
twenty steamers, the arsenal, the foundries,
the wel-drilled army of 40 900 men, all bore
witness, in 1864, to the thoroughness with
which he had carried out his long-matured
project.
At that date Paraguay had not been en-
gagged in actual hostilities for more than half
a century. A nominal state of war with the
Argentine dictator, Rosas, had existed in SIG,
in consequence of his refusing to recognize
Paraguayan independence; but no blood had
been shed. The Brazilian Government had
ever been the fast friend of Paraguay
interested motives, no doubt-and had aided
her with advice and with the glft of war
material. Unsettled boundary questions ex-
listed; but the region in dispute was desert
to which Brazil never attached great import
GuCe, anu tno SHed1 GIN JlrS SuoWeI roul4rh-
able forbearance in the face of aggravating
advances made by Paraguay towards it's occu-
patton. Nothing was farther from the
thoughts either OF the Brazilian or the Argen-
tine Governments than a war with Paraguay,
when the events of 1864, in the Republic of
Uruguay, furnished Lopez the ostensible pre-
text for what his newspaper organ called
emerging from the chrysalis !"
Van NostranFs Eclectic Engineering
Magazine for September presents an interest
ing and valuable series of articles selected
from the best home and foreign engineering
journals.
The September number of The RicerSSd1
Magazine is handsomely illustrated and con-
tains variety of entertaining reading mat
ter for young people, including a story by
! Hans Andersen.
Tile Little Corporal for September pre-
sents an interesting series of stories, sketches,
poetry, ETC., which will afford both amuse,
m ent and instruction to the young folks.