PARAGUAY. 



PARSONS, THEOPHILUS. 673 



PARAGUAY (REPUBLICS DEL PARAGUAY). 

 Provisional President, General B. Caballero ; 

 Secretary of the Interior, Colonel Duarte ; 

 Secretary of Foreign Affairs, J. S. Decoud ; 

 Secretary of the Treasury, J. A. Jara ; Secre- 

 tary of Justice and Public Worship, J. A. Ba- 

 zaras ; Secretary of War, Colonel Duarte. 



The republic covers an area of 238,290 kilo- 

 metres square, or 91,650 square miles. 



POPULATION. The last census, that of 1876, 

 fixes the population at 293,844 persons. Since 

 the war of 1865-'70, the number of females 

 greatly predominates. The number of foreigners 

 is named at about 7,000 ; of these more than one 

 third are Italians. Next to them, the most nu- 

 merous are Brazilians, Argentines, Spaniards, 

 and Portuguese. Since 1881 the number of 

 Germans has rapidly increased, there being 

 about 350 in the country. The capital, Asun- 

 cion, contains 19,463 inhabitants. 



FINANCES. The chief source of revenue is 

 derived from the duties on imports, which in 

 1881 furnished an income of $412,740, silver. 

 The export duty was abolished in 1877, but, 

 since then, that on hides and Paraguay tea 

 (yerba mate} has been re-established. The 

 budget estimate for 1882 fixed the public ex- 

 penditure at $313,429, of which the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior was expected to absorb 

 $134,583 ; Foreign Affairs, $10,440 ; Treasury 

 Department, $42,948 ; Justice and Public Wor- 

 ship, $60,564 ; and War and Navy, $64,894. 



PUBLIC DEBT. Under the provisions of the 

 treaty of peace with the nationalities that com- 

 posed the triple alliance, Paraguay assumed to 

 pay the expense of the war, as well as an in- 

 demnity for the destruction wrought by the 

 invading hosts of Lopez on the borders of Bra- 

 zil and the Argentine Republic. The amount 

 of the indemnity of the war has never been 

 stipulated, but the inhabitants that had been 

 sufferers in consequence of the invasion have 

 drawn up their account establishing a joint 

 claim of several million dollars. This bill 

 Paraguay has formally acknowledged. The 

 internal debt has been reduced by the sale of 

 national property and of the railroad, and fur- 

 ther through the working of a sinking fund 

 created by 15 per cent extra duties levied, so 

 that it now amounts to a mere trifle. On the 

 other hand, the foreign indebtedness increases 

 steadily, through accumulation of unpaid cou- 

 pons. 



ARMY. Every able-bodied citizen is held to 

 serve his country ; yet, for economy's sake, the 

 number of soldiers actually enrolled and doing 

 service does not exceed 500 men, 350 of whom 

 are infantry and 150 cavalry. Part of this 

 little force is garrisoned at Asuncion, the re- 

 mainder being scattered along the frontier. In 

 time of war the National Guard is called under 

 VOL. xxii. 43 A 



arms. The entire country is subdivided into 

 70 departments, each of them under a chief of 

 police. 



COMMERCE. The imports amounted in 1880 

 to $1,030,000, the exports to $1,163,000, the 

 duties collected thereon amounting to $320,000, 

 while in 1881 the imports reached $1,278,000, 

 and the exports $1,812,000, $430,000 being the 

 customs revenue derived therefrom. 



The chief articles of import in 1881 were 

 the following : Cotton goods, $263,000 ; wines, 

 $112,500; flour, $40,800; rice, 25.100; malt- 

 liquors, $24,400 ; bagging, $18,800; exports in 

 the same year: Paraguay tea, 5, 000 tons; to- 

 bacco, 3,600 tons; cigars, 2,000,000; oranges, 

 24,000,000, the balance being made up from 

 hides, tanning-bark, starch, essence of orange- 

 flowers (2,500 kilogrammes), woods, brandy, 

 Indian corn, and leather. 



There is no railroad in operation except the 

 Asuncion and Paraguay line, of 45 miles in 

 length. 



The postal service only forwarded 67,335 

 letters in 1880, of which 20,796 were inland ; 

 and in 1881 the amount had nearly doubled, 

 130,113 being forwarded, of which 34,117 were 

 inland. The receipts were $1,872 in 1880, and 

 $2,227 in 1881. 



The only line of telegraph is the one running 

 parallel with the railroad. 



PARSONS, THEOPHILUS, died January 26th, 

 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was de- 

 scended from a long line of men eminent in 

 Massachusetts since its colonization, and was 

 the son of Chief-Justice Theophilus Parsons, of 

 that State. He was born at Newburyport, in 

 1797, when that town was a flourishing com- 

 mercial port. After graduating at Harvard in 

 1816, he spent a year in Europe, and then en- 

 tered upon the study of the law in Boston, in 

 the office of Judge William Prescott, father of 

 the eminent historian. He first practiced his 

 profession in Taunton, and afterward in Bos- 

 ton. At this time he became a frequent con- 

 tributor to " The North American Review " 

 and lesser periodicals, among which were the 

 "Club Room," edited by William H. Prescott; 

 Walsh's " American Review," published in 

 Philadelphia; Merrick's "Free Press," and 

 the " New England Galaxy," of which he was 

 for some time associate editor. He also 

 founded and edited the " United States Liter- 

 ary Gazette," which had but a brief existence. 

 Among Professor Parsons's earlier literary pro- 

 ductions, were a volume of " Sunday Lessons," 

 setting forth the Swedenborgian doctrines, and 

 one of essays treating of such subjects as "Prov- 

 idence," "Life," and "Religion." It is, how- 

 ever, as a writer upon legal subjects that Pro- 

 fessor Parsons is best known. He was appoint- 

 ed to the Dane Professorship of Law at Harvard 



