The Sun. — 1869-12-08 (London, England)

PHILIPPE. It was then that his mistress, Mrs. LiNen, the wife of a surgeon of the French Army, whom he had picked up in Paris seventeen years before, tozk up the Imperial design, anticipating the succession for her son by Lorcz, and 6he is to be held responsible for much of the Dictator's cruelty. His Brazilian Majesty would sooner have entrusted his daughter—Mr. WASHBURN'S words are —" to a buck allgator in the river ;" and when made aware of the estimation in which the Royal personage of South America held him, this champion of Republicanism commenced the war without notice in a manner so savage, so defiant of international law, that Brazil could never treat with him without deserving the contempt of the world. Mr. WASHBURN did not know what had caused the bitter hostility of LOPEZ till months after he had left Paraguay. It is thus he accounts for it :  " When after the war had lasted for more than two years, and LOPEZ found that the Allies would never treat with him; that at whatever sacrifice, to themselves they would not tolerate the existence, as the head of a neighbouring nation, a despot who respected no laws, human or divine, he saw that, without the intervention of some foreign Power, he must finally be overthrown. In this stress he learned, to his great relief, that the United States had offered its mediation. This offer was rejected by the Allies, and, though I obeyed my instructions so implicitly as to provoke unstinted abuse of mo by the Allies, yet LOPEZ from that time became my bitterest enemy. He thought that I should have had both the will and the power to Wince my Government to espouse his cause, and by active intervention rescue him from the desperate situation into which his own folly and ambition had led him. But as I had neither the will nor tho power, he was from that time accustomed, especially in his maudlin fits, to abuse me in the most gross and indecent terms. He did not allow this to appear, however, in his official relations, and I only learned of it long afterwards."  Captain KIRKLAND had testified before the Committee that Mrs. W ASHB URN, at the dinner table on board the Wa.cp, after the escape from Ascuncion, acknowledged that there had been a conspiracy to set up BENIGN° LOPEZ in place of his brother. Mr. WASHBURN, at this, frowned at the lady, and glances were exchanged between the other gentlemen. All this is bluntly denied, and throughout it is asserted that there never was a conspiracy, and that there is no evidence whatever that any such conspiracy existed. Mr. WASHBURN reviews the evidence in support of his assertion that LOPEZ was the greatest monster that the American Continent ever produced, and it will be found difficult to set asi:le the testimony. Nevertheless the circumstances are peculiar, awl no man, of any age in the world, ever went through such a terrible trial as that endured by LOPEZ and his people with clean hands. It appears, however, certain that LOPEZ killed his brothers, tortured his sisters, and tortured and murdered not only many of his near relatives, but numerous foreigners, as well as the best of his own people about his person. A peaceful, induArious community of 800,000, with a country on which plenty smiled, he reduced to a mutilated, stricken, starving band of 100,000, occupying the mountains ef a desolated laud. Why did he do this ? Mr. WASHBURN replies, to further his perioual schemes of aggrandisement, of ambition; the supporters of LOPEZ deny this and say, iu repelling the aggression of the domineering slave power, which desires to overrun all South America. On the true answer will hinge the estimate history forms of the Dictator's character; latitude will be given for excesses in the man who had so hard a part to play ; and the very fact that the evidence is so conflicting shows that there are two sides to the despot's character, for there is as little doubt of the honesty of Gen. M'AIAHoN iu the opinion he has formed as of that held by Mr. WAstinußN. The latest news from Paraguay says :—" LOPEZ is at San Joaquin, and, it is rumoured, has murdered his mother and brother for conspiring against his life."