3832.] Dr. Francia, the Dictator of Paraguay. 19 



declared their political independence. A congress was immediately 

 assembled, who deposed the Spanish governor, erecting in his stead a 

 junta, composed of a president, two assessors, and a secretary with a 

 deliberative voice : De Jose Gaspard Rodriguez de Francia was ap- 

 pointed to the latter office. This appointment was the stepping-stone to 

 his future greatness ; and he, in a very short time, became the soul of 

 the new government. Even at this early period of his career, he appears 

 to have conceived his great plan of isolation, which he has since so effec- 

 tually accomplished ; for he not only broke off all communications with 

 the Argentine Republic, but he refused to furnish a single soldier to the 

 armies struggling against the tyranny of Spain, or to send a deputy to 

 any of the congresses assembled, at different intervals of time, during 

 the revolutionary contest. The character of his colleagues were, it must 

 be confessed, admirably calculated to facilitate his ambitious projects. 

 Men, the maximum of whose acquirements consisted in breaking in a 

 wild horse, or in throwing the lasso, gave themselves up totally to plea- 

 sure and dissipation, while the whole country had become a theatre of 

 misrule, insubordination, and violence. Francia essayed in vain to stem 

 this torrent. On several occasions he feigned to despair of the state, 

 and retired to his country seat ; but so necessary was his presence to the 

 march of the government, that his colleagues made every concession to 

 induce him to return to the capital. 



The necessity of an immediate change in the government was now 

 felt by all parties. The junta was dissolved, and a new congress assem- 

 bled : yet such was the ignorance of the leaders of the revolutionary 

 movements, that not one among them had the most distant idea of the 

 machinery of a republic. In this dilemma, they resolved to consult 

 Rollin's Ancient History the first good book that had, perhaps, been 

 received in the country ; and, becoming suddenly enamoured of a con- 

 sular government, they abolished the senate, and substituted, for one 

 year only, two consuls Don Fulgencio Yegros, the ex-president, and 

 Dr. Francia. Accustomed to the despotic sway of a captain-general, 

 whose will was law, the Paraguayans, in their simplicity, took no pains 

 either to define the power of the consuls, or to limit their authority. At 

 the instalment of the two consuls, a circumstance occured which an- 

 nounced plainly enough the aspiring views of Francia. 



Two curule chairs were prepared, bearing the names of Caesar and 

 Pompey. Francia, without hesitation, took possession of the former, 

 leaving the other to his colleague, who, in the distribution of the power, 

 was no better treated than his historical prototype. Francia was not a 

 man who could brook to divide his power with any one, much less with an 

 individual whom he despised, and whose party he suspected. His ambition 

 soon betrayed itself; for, in 1812, the congress assembled to renew the 

 government. In order to get rid of his adversary, he induced the assem- 

 bly to confide, in imitation of the neighbouring states, the direction of 

 the republic to a single magistrate ; and he proposed, as an only alterna- 

 tive to save the country from the dangers which menaced it, to follow 

 the example of the Romans, and create a dictator. 



Observing, on the first two days, when the congress had assembled 

 for this purpose, that a majority of the votes were for Don Fulgencio 

 Yegros, he had the address to suspend the ballot. At last, on the third 

 day, the deputies understood the motive for having adjourned the elec- 

 tion ; and tired of living at great expence in the capital, and weary of 



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