BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DOM PEDRO II. 189 



hear such disgraceful proposals. Our fathers thought not of peace un- 

 der such circumstauces; ou tbe coutrarj', the greater the danger, the 

 greater their heroism aud perseverance. It is thus they became great!" 

 The Emperor would no more make peace with Lopez than the Eoman 

 senate with the king of Epirus. 



Another circumstauctfalso proved both how much Dom Pedro had at 

 heart the reparation of the affront to his country, and the entire confi- 

 dence he had in final victory : After the reverse of Curupaity, he had 

 confided the chief command of the Brazilian troops to the head of the 

 conservative party. Marshal Caxias, a measure which was approved by 

 the liberal ministry under Senator Zacarias. Some time after, the re- 

 ciprocal confidence between the general and this body was disturbed 

 to such a degree that both oflered to resign ; but the Emperor was able 

 to produce a reconciliation, and thus to secure the judgment and skill 

 of the general, which he deemed absolutely necessary for the success of 

 the imperial arms. Still a certain opposition began to be manifest, both 

 in the press and the chamber, by the minority of the liberal party, to the 

 marshal, who was accused of being too slow in his military operations. 

 This increased more and more, and even extended to the ministry; the 

 latter shortly after, disagreeing with the Emperor in regard to the choice 

 of a senator, (a choice exclusively reserved for the sovereign by the con- 

 stitution,) again offered their resignation, which was this time accepted, 



Dom Pedro was now obliged to choose between a new liberal ministry, 

 which could inspire the confidence neither of the general-in-chief nor 

 yet of those who were opposed to him, and a conservative ministry 

 which would be willing to aftbrd the marshal every possible means to 

 secure the victory. These considerations decided tbe Emperor in favor 

 of the latter, which was presided over by the Viscount de Itaborahy, 

 who was obliged to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies for refusing to 

 support him (July, 1868). 



The conduct of the Emperor towards vanquished Paraguay proved 

 that he had been animated by no feeling of hatred for that unhappy 

 country; on the contrary, it afforded another evidence of his proverbial 

 magnanimity, for he voluntarily pledged himself after the war to keep 

 the country independent for ten \ ears, on account of the feeble state to 

 which it had been reduced. 



X. 



The war did not prevent the imperial government from taking all the 

 administrative measures the circumstances would allow to increase the 

 prosperity of the country. The navigation of the Amazon was opened 

 to foreign nations ; new lines of railroad were projected, aud the con- 

 struction of those which had been commenced was not allowed to be 

 interrupted ; in a word, progress continued with a firm and assured pace, 

 and, except a slight increase in the rights of dower and of laud and per- 

 sonal taxes, absolutely nothing indicated that the nation was engaged 



