724 



PARAGUAY PARCHMENT. 



foreign intercourse, forbidding any one either to 

 enter or leave his territories; his object being.it 

 is said, to prevent the people from being infected 

 with any ideas from without, by which they 

 might be tempted to rebel against his authority. 

 Hence commerce was completely brought to a 

 stand, and much distress unavoidably occasioned, 

 but not without some counter- balancing advantage 

 in the stimulus which was given to the production 

 of all eatable and wearable articles within the pro- 

 vince. When the order for non-intercourse was 

 issued, there were about forty foreigners, chiefly 

 merchants, at Assumcion : they were detained 

 there for several years, and only liberated when 

 Mr Canning acknowledged the independence of the 

 South American states. Two Swiss naturalists, 

 Regnger and Longchamps, and the eminent M. 

 Bonpland, the companion of Humboldt, who had 

 entered the country in pursuit of scientific objects, 

 were likewise detained for some years. 



The ancient municipalities, and all other vesti- 

 ges of free institutions, were banished from Para- 

 guay ; and the law was administered by a few al- 

 cades, removable, of course, at the pleasure of the 

 despot. Francia, indeed, managed every thing, 

 with the assistance of only a few officers or crea- 

 tures of his own. He planned roads and bridges, 

 commanded and organised the army, conducted the 

 revenues, and thought no details too mean for his 

 attention. He did not encourage public instruc- 

 tion, but neither did he impede it. His authority 

 was supported, during its earlier years, only by 

 exercising great cruelty towards all who were not 

 friendly to it; but when at length his arbitrary 

 proceedings had demolished the strength of the 

 middle and upper ranks, and fairly broke the spirit 

 of the people, he began in some small degree to 

 relent, and he was sometimes heard to say that 

 possibly, in the course of time, a little liberty 

 might be extended to the Paraguayse. Executions 

 merely for the support of his power now ceased, 

 and he began to receive with coldness the tales 

 brought to him by spies and informers. Yet he 

 ever found it necessary to act and move with the 

 greatest caution for fear of assassination. 



Francia was not perhaps quite a sane man. His 

 father is known to have been a person of great 

 eccentricity ; he had a brother a lunatic, and a sis- 

 ter who was many years deranged ; and he himself 

 was subject to occasional fits of hypochondria, 

 bordering on madness. During these times, he 

 shut himself closely up in his palace, vented his 

 ill humour on all around him, and only took plea- 

 sure in ordering executions. Of such scenes he was 

 usually a witness from his palace windows. 



He had no confidant, no favourite, no friend. 

 The only person he is said to have ever shown 

 any attachment to, was a sister who had charge of 

 his countryhouse. One of his first acts after be- 

 coming dictator was to dismiss two nephews he 

 had in the army, merely from a fear lest they 

 should presume upon the relationship. One of 

 them was afterwards confined in irons for four 

 years, for having struck a man who had offended 

 him at a ball, and the other passed a year in the 

 public prison, for having employed one of the 

 military band in a serenade which he gave his mis- 

 tress. The dictator had for many years taken no 

 part in public worship ; he seized, on the contrary, 

 every opportunity of showing his dislike and con- 

 tempt for the religious observances of his subjects. 

 On a commandant asking him for the image of a 



saint, that he might place a new constructed for- 

 tress under its protection, he exclaimed, " Oh, 

 Paraguayse, how long will you remain idiots! 

 When I was a Catholic, I believed as you do ; but 

 now I know that bullets are the best saints you 

 can have on the frontiers." However ruthless and 

 austere, he had at least the merit of Robespierre, 

 that of wishing to make no money by his power ; 

 he never accepted a present, and his salary was 

 always in arrear. There was a mixture of imperial 

 state with republican simplicity in his ordinary 

 mode of life. He had at first a body guard of a 

 hundred men, the tallest and handsomest that 

 could be found ; and a small escort of this corps 

 used to ride out with him when he took exercise, 

 for the purpose of driving away all who might be 

 upon or near the way. The body-guard was sub- 

 sequently dissolved, and he was then content with 

 the protection afforded by detachments of the 

 army. 



For several months in the year he resided at the 

 cavalry barracks, which are outside the city, about 

 a league from his usual residence: but then his 

 manner of living was the same, except that he 

 sometimes indulged in the pleasure of the chase. 

 In the apartment that he occupied there were 

 always arms within his reach, or placed upon the 

 table near him ; and sabres, the greater number un- 

 sheathed, were to be found in every corner. This 

 fear of assassination was also shown in the etiquette 

 prescribed at his audiences. The person admitted 

 dared not approach nearer to the dictator than six 

 paces, until he made him a sign to advance ; and 

 even then, he was obliged to stop at a distance of 

 three steps. The officers, even, were not per- 

 mitted to enter his presence with swords by their 

 sides. He had a most penetrating look, blended 

 with a strong expression of distrust. He wore 

 the official costume, which consisted of a blue- 

 laced coat (the uniform of a Spanish general,) 

 waistcoat, breeches, and stockings, of white silk, 

 and shoes with gold buckles. The dictator was 

 in his eighty-second year. Although his career 

 was marked by great severities, it was not without 

 its beneficial results. He promoted agriculture, 

 originated many useful public works, rebuilt and 

 embellished the capital, created an army, subdued 

 the Indians, and procured respect and tranquillity 

 for his people. It is also not impossible, that, 

 under any other kind of rule, Paraguay might have 

 undergone greater disasters, and witnessed much 

 more bloodshed. 



PARCHMENT, (a.) Parchment seems to have 

 been rather a scarce commodity until modern times. 

 It was no uncommon thing, in the middle ages, to 

 erase a beautiful poem, or a valuable history, 

 merely for the sake of the parchment or vellum on 

 which it was written. Many of the valuable writ- 

 ings of the ancients have been recovered from be- 

 neath a monkish effusion, or a superstitious legend, 

 by carefully following the traces of the pen, or 

 style, which had impressed the former performance 

 upon the membrane ; which traces had not been 

 entirely obliterated by the second scribe. Persons 

 who prepared parchment, by erasing a manuscript, 

 were called " parchment restorers ;" thus an old 

 French writer says : Our parchment makers are 

 very skilful. Our parchment restorers are not less 

 so. Some parchment has been restored three or 

 four times, and has successively received the verses 

 of Virgil, the controversies of the Arians, the de- 

 crees against the books of Aristotle, and, finally 





