[Foreign Quarterly Review.]
https://archive.org/stream/criticalmiscella00incarl/criticalmiscella00incarl_djvu.txt
The confused South American revolution,
and set of revolutions, like the South American
continent itself, is doubtless a great confused
phenomenon; worthy of better knowledge than
men yet have of it. Several books, of which
we here name a few known to us, have been
written on the subject; but bad books mostly,
and productive of almost no effect. The heroes
of South America have not yet succeeded in
picturing any image of themselves, much less
any true image of themselves, in the Cis-Atlan-
tic mind or memory.
Iturbide, " the Napoleon of Mexico," a great
man in that narrow country, who was he? He
made the thrice-celebrated " Plan of Iguala :"
a constitution of no continuance. He became
Emperor of Mexico, most serene " Augustin
I. :" was deposed, banished to Leghorn, to Lon-
don ; decided on returning; — landed on the
shore at Tampico, and was there met, and shot :
this, in a vague sort, is Avhat the world knows
of the Napoleon of Mexico, most serene Au-
gustin the First, most unfortunate Augustin
the Last. He did himself publish memoirs or
memorials,! but few can read them. Oblivion,
and the deserts of Panama, have swallowed
this brave Don Augustin : vnte caruit sacro.
And Bolivar, " the Washington of Colum-
bia," Liberator Bolivar, he too is gone without
* 1. Funeral Discourse delivered on occasion of celchrat-
jno- the obsequies of his late Excellency the Perpetual Dic-
tator of the Republic of Paraguay, the Citizen Dr. Jos^
Gaspar Francia, by Citizen the Rev. Manuel Jlntonia
Perez, of the Church of the Incarnation, on the iOth of
October, 1840. In the " British Packet and Arsentine
News." No. 813. Buenos Ayres : March 19, 1842.
2. Essai Historique sur la Revolution de Paraguay, et le
Gouvernement Dictatorial du Docteur Francia. Par MM.
Reng^er et Longchamp. 2de edition. Paris, 1827.
3. Letters on Paraguay. By J. P. and W. P. Robertson.
2 vols. Second edition. London, 1839.
4. Francia's Reign of Terror. By the same. Lon-
don, 1829.
5. Letters on South .America. By the same. 3 vols.
London, 1843.
6. Travels in Chile and La Plata. By John Miers.
2 vols. I/ondon, 1826.
7. Memoirs of General Miller, in the Service of the Re-
public of Peru. 2 vols. 2d edition. London., 1829.
t A Statement of some of the principal Events in the
Public Life of Ausustin de Iturbide : written by Him-
self. London, 1843.
his fame. Melancholy lithographs represent
to us a long-faced, square-browed man ; of
stern,considerate,("onsciotw-skulls, toasting stripes of
■,->eef, and "dictating to three secretaries at
once."* They sit on the skull of the cow in
country places ; nay they heat themselves,
and even burn lime, by igniting the carcass of
the cow.
One art they seem to have perfected, and
one only — that of riding. Astleys and Ducrows
must hide their head, all glories of Newmarket
and Epsom dwindle to extinction, in compari-
son of Guacho horsemanship. Certainly if
ever Centaurs lived upon the earth, these are
of them. They stick on their horses as if both
were one flesh; galloping where there seems
hardly path for an ibex; leaping like kan-
garoos, and flourishing their nooses and bolases
the while. They can whirl themselves round
under the belly of the horse, in cases of war-
stratagem, and stick fast, hanging on by the
mere great toe and heel. You think it is a
drove of w^ild horses galloping up: on a sud-
den, with wild scream, it becomes a troop of
Centaurs with pikes in their hands. Na)%they
have the skill, which most of all transcends
Newmarket, of riding on horses that are not
fed; and can bring fresh speed and alacrity
out of a horse which, with you, was on the
point of lying down. To ride on three horses
with Ducrow they would esteem a small feat :
to ride on the broken-winded fractional part
of one horse, that is the feat!
'i'heir huts abound in beef, in reek also, and
rubbish ; excelling in dirt most places that
human nature has anywhere inhabited. Poor
Guachos ! They drink Paraguay tea, sucking
it up in succession, through the same tin pipe,
from one common skillet. They are hospita-
ble, sooty, leathery, lying, laughing fellows ;
of excellent talent in their sphere. They have
stoicism, though ignorant of Zeno ; nay stoic-
ism coupled with real gayety of heart. Amidst
their reek, they laugh loud, in rough jolly
banter; they twang, in a plaintive manner,
rough love-melodies on a kind of guitar;
smoke infinite tobacco; and delight in gam-
bling and ardent spirits, ordinary refuge of
voracious empty souls. For the same reason,
and a better, they delight also in Corpus-
Christi ceremonies, mass-chantings, and de-
votional performances. These men are fit to
be drilled into something! Their lives stand
there like empty capacious bottles, calling to
the heavens and the earth, and all Dr. Francias
who may pass that way: "Is there nothinjr to
put into us, then 1 Nothing but nomadic idle-
ness, Jesuit superstition, rubbish, reek, and dry
stripes of tough beef?" Ye unhappy Guachos,
— yes, there is something other, there are
several things other, to put into you! But
withal, you will observe, the seven devils have
first to be put out of you: Idleness, lawless
Brutalness, Darkness, Falseness — seven devils
or more. And the way to put something into
you is, alas, not so plain at present! Is it. —
alas, on the whole, is it not perhaps to lay
good horse- whips lustily upi»i you, and cast
out these seven devils as a preliminary?
How Francia passed hiS days in such a
region, where philosophy, as is too clear, was
at the lowest ebb? Francia, like Quintus
Fixlein, had "perennial fire-proof joys, namely
' Letters on Par^s"ay.
DR. FRANCIA.
557
employments." He had much law-business, a
great and ever-increasing reputation as a man
at once skilful and faithful in ihe management
of causes for men. Then, in his leisure hours,
he had his Volneys, Raynals; he had second-
hand scientific treatises in French ; he loved
to " interrogate Nature," as they say; to pos-
sess theodolites, telescopes, star-glasses, — any
kind of glass or book, or gazing implement
whatever, through which he might try to catch
a glimpse of Fact in this strange Universe :
poor Francia ! Nay, it is said, his hard heart
was not without inflammability; was sensible
to those Andalusian eyes still bright in the
tenth or twelfth generation. In such case, too,
it may have burnt, one would think, like an-
thracite, in a somewhat ardent manner. Ru-
mours to this efl^ecl are afloat; not at once in-
credible. Pity there had not been some An-
dalusian pair of eyes, with speculation, depth
and soul enough in the rear of them to fetter
Dr. Francia permanently, and make a house-
father of him. It had been better; but it be-
fell not. As for that light-headed, smart, brown
girl whom, twenty years afterwards, you saw
.'selling flowers on the streets of Assumpcion,
and leading a light life, is there any certainty
that she was Dr. Francia's daughter? Any
certainty that, even if so, he could and should
have done something considerable for her?*
Poor Francia, poor light-headed, smart, brown
girl, — this present reviewer cannot say!
Francia is a somewhat lonesome, down-
looking man,aptto be solitary even in the press
of men ; wears a face not unvisiied by laughter,
yet tending habitually towards the sorrowful,
the stern. He passes everywhere for a man
of veracity, punctuality, of iron methodic
rigour; of iron rectitude, above all. "The
skilful lawyer," " the learned lawyer," these
are reputations; but the "honest lawyer!"
This law-case was reported by the Robertsons
before they thought of writing a " Francia's
Reign of Terror," with that running shriek,
which so confuses us. We love to believe the
anecdote, even in its present loose state, as
significant of many things in Francia :
"It has been already observed that Francia's
reputation, as a lawyer, was not only unsullied
by venality, but conspicuous for rectitude.
"He had a friend in Assumpcion of the
name of Domingo Rodriguez. This man had
cast a covetous eye upon a Naboth's vineyard,
and this Naboth, of whom Francia was the
open enemy, was called Estanislao Machain.
Never doubting that the young doctor, like
other lawyers, would undertake his unright-
eous cause, Rodriguez opened to him his case,
and requested, with a handsome retainer, his
advocacy of it. Francia saw at once that
his friend's pretensions were founded in fraud
and injustice ; and he not only refused to act
as his counsel, but plainly told him, that much
as he hated his antagonist Machain, yet if he
(Rodriguez) persisted in his iniquitous suit,
that antagonist should have his (Francia's)
most zealous support. But covetousness, as
Ahab's story shows us, is not so easily driven
from its pretensions ; and in spite of Francia's
warning, Rodriguez persisted. As he was a
potent man in point of fortune, all was going
against Machain and his devoted vineyard.
" At this stage of the question, Francia wrap-
ped himself one night in his cloak, and walked
to the house of his inveterate enemy, Machain.
The slave who opened the door, knowing that
his master and the doctor, like the houses of
Montagu and Capulet, were smoke in each
other's eyes, refused the lawyer admittance,
and ran to inform his master of the strange
and unexpected visit. Machain, no less struck
by the circumstance than his slave, for some
time hesitated ; but at length determined to
admit Francia. In walked the silent doctor to
Machain's chamber. All the papers connected
with the law-plea — voluminous enough I have
been assured — were outspread upon the de-
fendant's escritoire.
"'Machain,' said the lawyer, addressing
him, 'you know I am your enemy- But I
know that my friend Rodriguez meditates, and
will certainly, unless I interfere, carry against
you an act of gross and lawless aggression; I
have come to ofler my services in your de-
fence.'
"The astonished Machain could scarcely
credit his senses ; but poured forth the ebulli-
tion of his gratitude in terms of thankful ac-
quiescence.
"The first 'escrito,' or writing, sent in by
Francia to the Juez de Alzada, or Judge of the
Court of Appeal, confounded the adverse advo-
cates, and staggered the judge, who was in their
interest. 'My friend,' said the judge to the
leading counsel, 'I cannot go forward in this
matter, unless you bribe Dr. Francia to be
silent.' 'I will try,' replied the advocate, and
he went to Naboth's counsel with a hundred
doubloons, (about three hundred and fifty
guineas,) which he offered him as a bribe to
let the cause take its iniquitous course. Con-
sidering, too, that his best introduction would
be a hint that his douceur was offered with
the judge's concurrence, the knavish lawyer
hinted to the upright one that such was the fact.
''^ Saiga Usted,' said Francia, 'con sus viles
pensamientos, y vilisimo oro de mi ?tisa.' ' Out
with your vile insinuations and dross of gold
from my house.'
" Off marched the venal drudge of the unjust
judge; and in a moment putting on his capote,
the offended advocate went to the residence of
the Juez de Alzada. Shortly relating what had
passed between himself and the myrmidon, —
'Sir,' continued Francia, 'you are a disgrace
to law, and a blot upon justice. You are, more-
over, completely in my power; and unless
to-morrow I have a decision in favour of my
client, I will make your seat upon the bench
too hot for you, and the insignia of your judi-
cial ofl^ce shall become the emblems of your
shame.'
"The morrow did bring a decision in favour
of Francia's client. Naboth retained his vine-
yard; the judge lost his reputation; and the
young doctor's fame extended far and wide."
On the other hand, it is admitted that he
quarrelled with his father, in those days ; and,
as is reported, never spoke to hira more. The
3a2
CARLYLE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.
subject of ihe quarrel is vaguely supposed to
have been " money matters." Francia is not
accused of avarice ; nay, is expressly acquitted
of loving money, even by Rengger. But he
did hate injustice; — ^nd probably was not in-
disposed to allow himself, among others, " the
height of fair play !" A rigorous, correct man,
that will have a spade be a spade; a man of
much learning in Creole law, and occult
French sciences, of great talent, energy, fide-
lity: — a rii..n of some temper withal : unhap-
pily subject to private "hypochondria; black
private thunder-clouds, whence probably the
origin of these lightnings, when you poke into
him ! He leads a lonesome self-secluded life ;
" interrogating nature*' through mere star-
glasses, and Abbe-Raynal philosophies — who
in that way will yield no very exuberant re-
sponse. Mere law-papers, advocate fees, civic
officialities, renowns, and the wonder of As-
sumpcion Guachos; — not so much as a pair
of Audalusian eyes that can lasso him, except
in a temporary way : this man seems to have
got but a lean lease of nature, and may end in
a rather shrunk condition ! A century ago,
with this attrabiliar earnestness of his, and
such a reverberatory furnace of passions, in-
quiries, unspeakabilities burning in him, deep
under cover, he might have made an excel-
lent monk of St. Dominic, fit almost for canoni-
zation ; nay, on excellent Superior of the
Jesuits, Gra.id Inquisitor, or the like, had you
developed him in that way- But, for all this,
he is now a day too late. Monks of St.
Dominic that mitht have been, do now, instead
of devotional raptures and miraculous suspen-
sions in prayer, produce — brown accidental
female infant?, to sell flowers, in an indigent
state, on the streets of Assumpcion ! It is
grown really a most barren time ; and this
Francia with his grim unspeakabilities, with
his fiery splenetic humours, kept close under
lock and key, what has he to look for in it ? A
post on the bench, in the municipal Cabildo, —
nay, he has already a post in the Cabildo; he
has already been Alcalde, Lord-Mayor of As-
sumpcion, and ridden in such gilt coach as
they had. He can look for little, one would
say, but barren moneys, barren Guacho world-
celebrities ; Abbe-Raynal philosophisms also
very barren ; wholly a barren life-voyage of
it, ending — in zero, thinks the Abbe-Raynal ?
But no ; the world wags not that way in
those days. Far over the waters there have
been federations of the Champ de Mars ; guil-
lotines, portable-guillotines, and a French
people risen against tyrants; there has been a
Sansmlo!tis7n, speaking at last in canon-volleys
and the crash of towns and nations over half
the world. Sleek Fatpauncho Usandwonto,
sleek aristocratic Donothingism, sunk as in
death-sleep in its well-stuffed easy chair, or
staggering in somnambulism on the house-
tops, seemed to itself to hear a voice say,
Sleep no more, Donothingism; Donothingism
doth murder sleep ! It was indeed a terrible |
explosion, that of Sansculottism ; commin- j
gling very Tnrtarus with the old-established l
!;tars, - fit, sucls a tumult was it, to awaken allj
but the dend. And out of it there had come i
Napoleonisms, Taraerlanisms ; and then as a |
branch of these, conventions of Aranjuez, soon
followed by Spanish Juntas, Spanish Cortes ;
and, on the whole, a smiting broad awake of
poor old Spain itself, much to its amazement.
And naturally of New Spain next, — its double
amazement, seeing itself awake ! And so, in
the new hemisphere too, arise wild projects,
angry arguings ; arise armed gatherings in
Santa Marguerita Island with Bolivars and In-
vasions of Cumana; revolts of La Plata, re-
volts of this and then of that ; the subterranean
electric element, shock on shock, shaking and
exploding, in the new hemisphere too, from
sea to sea. Very astonishing to witness, from
the year 1810 and onwards. Had Dr. Rodriguez
Francia three ears, he would hear; as many eyes
as Argus, he would gaze ! He is all eye, he
is all ear. A new, entirely different figure of
existence is cut out for Dr. Rodriguez.
The Paraguay people as a body, lying far
inland, with little speculation in their heads,
were in no haste to adopt the new republican
gospel ; but looked first how it would succeed
in shaping itself into facts. Buenos Ayres,
Tucuman,most of the La Plata provinces, had
made their revolutions, brought in the reign
of liberty, and unluckily driven out the reign
of law and regularity ; before the Paraguenos
could resolve on such an enterprise. Perhaps
they are afraid? General Belgrano, with a
force of a thousand men, missioned by Buenos
Ayres, came up the river to countenance them,
in the end of 1810; but was met on their fron-
tier in array of war; was attacked, or at least
was terrified, in the night watches, so that his
men all fled ; — and on the morrow, poor Gene-
ral Belgrano found himself not a countenancer,
but one needing countenance; and was in a
polite way sent down the river again !* Not
till a year after did the Paraguenos, by spon-
taneous movement, resolve on a career of free-
dom; — resolve on getting some kind of Con-
gress assembled, and the old government sent
its ways. Francia, it is presumable, was active
at once in exciting and restraining them : the
fruit was now drop-ripe, we may say, and fell
by a shake. Our old royal governor went
aside, worthy man, with some slight grimace,
when ordered to do so; National Congress in-
troduced itself: secretaries read papers, com-
piled chiefly out of Rollin's Ancient History,
and we became a Republic : with Don Ful-
gencio Yegros, one of the richest Guachos and
best horsemen of the province, for President,
and two assessors with him, called also Vocnles,
or Vowels, whose names escape us ; Francia,
as Secretary, being naturally the Consonant, or
motive soul of the combination. This, as we
grope out the date, was in 1811. The Para-
guay Congress, having completed this consti-
tution, went home again to its field-labours,
hoping a good issue.
Feebler light hardly ever dawned for the
historical mind, than this which is shed for us
by Rengger, Robertsons, and Company, on the
birth, cradling, baptismal processes, and early
fortunes of the new Paraguay Republic.
Through long vague, and, indeed, intrinsically
♦ Rengger.
DR. FRANCIA.
559
vacant pages of their books, it lies gray, unde-
cipherable, without form and void. Francia
was secretary, and a republic did take place ;
this, as one small clear-burning fact, shedding
far a comfortable visibility, conceivability over
the universal darkness, and making it into con-
ceivable dusk with one rushlight fact in the
centre of it, — this we do know; and, cheerfully
yielding to necessity, decide that this shall
suffice us to know. What more is there ]
Absurd somnolent persons, struck broad awake
by the subterranean concussion of civil and
religious liberty all over the world, meeting
together to establish a republican career of
freedom, and compile official papers out of
RoUin, — are not a subject on which the histori-
cal mind can be enlightened. The historical
mind, thank Heaven, forgets such persons and
their papers, as fast as you repeat them. Be-
sides, these Guacho populations are greedy,
superstitious, vain; and, as Miers said in his
haste, mendacious every soul of them ! Within
the confines of Paraguay, we know for certain
but of one man who would do himself an in-
jury to do a just or true thing under the sun ;
one man who understands in his heart that
this Universe is an eternal Fact, — and not
some huge temporary Pumpkin, saccharine,
absinthian ; the rest of its significance chime-
rical merely! Such men cannot have a his-
tory, though a Thucydides came to write it. —
Enough for us to understand that Don This
was a vapouring blockhead, who followed his
pleasures, his peculations, and Don That an-
other of the same ; that there occurred fatui-
ties, mismanagements innumerable; then dis-
contents, open grumblings, and, as a running
accompaniment, intriguings, caballings, out-
ings, innings; till the Government House, fouler
than when the Jesuits had it, became a bottom-
less, pestilent inanity, insupportable to any
articulate-speaking soul; till Secretary Francia
should feel that he, for one, could not be Conso-
nant to such a set of Vowels ; till Secretary
Francia, one day, flinging down his papers,
rising to his feet, should jerk out with oratori-
cal vivacity his lean right hand, and say, with
knit brows, in a low swift tone, " Adieu, Sen-
hores ; God preserve you many years !"
Francia withdrew to his chcicra, a pleasant
country-house in the woods of Ytapua not far
otT; there to interrogate Nature, and live in a
private manner. Parish Robertson, much
about this date, which we grope and guess to
have been perhaps in 1812, was boarded with
a certain ancient Donna Juanna, in' that same
region; had tcrtvlias of unimaginable brillian-
cy ; and often went shooting of an evening.
On one of those — but he shall himself report:
" On one of those lovely evenings in Para-
guay, after the south-west wind has both clear-
ed and cooled the air, T was drawn, in my pur-
suit of game, into a peaceful valley, not far
from Donna Juanna's, and remarkable for its
combination of all the striking features of the
scenery of the country. Suddenly I came upon
a neat and unpretending cottage. Up rose a
partridge ; I fired, and the bird came to the
grouhd A voice from behind called out, ' Euen
tiro' ' a good shot.' I turned round, and be-
held a gentleman of about fifty years of age,
dressed in a suit of black, with a large scarlet
capote, or cloak, thrown over his shoulders.
He had a «ia/£-cup in one hand, a cigar in the
other; and a little urchin of a negro, with his
arms crossed, was in attendance by the gentle-
man's side. This gentleman's countenance
was dark, and his black eyes were very pene-
trating, while his jet hair, combed back from
a bold forehead, and hanging in natural ring-
lets over his shoulders, gave him a dignified
and striking air. He wore on his shoes large
golden buckles, and at the knees of his breeches
the same."
" In exercise of the primitive and simple
hospitality common in the country, I was in-
vited to sit down under the corridor, and to
take a cigar and mate (cup of Paraguay tea.)
A celestial globe, a large telescope, and a theo-
dolite were under the little portico; and I im-
mediately inferred that the personage before
me was no other than Doctor Francia."
Yes, here for the first time in authentic his-
tory, a remarkable hearsay becomes a remarka-
ble visuality ; through a pair of clear human
eyes, you look face to face on the very figure
of the man. Is not this verily the exact record
of those clear Robertsonian eyes, and seven
senses; entered accurately, then and not after-
wards, on the ledger of the memory ] We will
hope so; who can but hope so? The figure
of the man will, at all events, be exact. Here
too is the figure of his library; — the conversa-
tion, if any, was of the last degree of insig-
nificance, and may be left out, or supplied ad
libitum :
" He introduced me to his library, in a con-
fined room, with a very small window, and
that so shaded by the roof of the corridor, as
to admit the least portion of light necessary
for study. The library was arranged on three
rows of shelves, extending across the room,
and might have consisted of three hundred
volumes. There were many ponderous books
on law ; a few on the inductive sciences ; some
in French and some in Latin upon subjects of
general literature, with Euclid's Elements, and
some school-boy treatises on algebra. On a
large table were heaps of law-papers and pro-
cesses. Several folios bound in vellum were
outspread upon it ; a lighted candle (though
placed there solely with a view to light cigars)
lent its feeble aid to illumine the room ; while
a mate-cup and inkstand, both of silver, stood
on another part of the table. There was
neither carpet nor mat on the brick floor ; and
the chairs were of such ancient fashion, size,
and weight, that it required a considerable ef-
fort to move them from one spot to another."
Peculation, malversation, the various forms
of imbecility and voracious dishonesty, went
their due course in the government offices of
Assumpcion, unrestrained by Francia, and
unrestrainable : — till, as we may say, it reach-
ed a height ; and, like other suppurations and
diseased concretions in the living system, had
to burst, and take itself away. To the eyes
of Paraguay in general, it had become clear
that such a reign of liberty was unendurable ;
that some new revolution, or change "^f minis-
try, was indispensable.
Rengger says that Francia withdrew "moie
CARLYLE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.
than once" to his chacra, disgusted with his
colleagues ; who alwa3-s, by unlimited promises
and protestations, had to flatter him back
again; and then anew disgusted him. Francia
is the Consonant of these absurd "Vowels;"
no business can go on without Francia ! And
the finances are deranged, insolvent; and the
military, unpaid, ineffective, cannot so much
as keep out the Indians; and there comes
trouble and rumour of war from Buenos Ayres;
— alas, from what quarter of the great conti-
nent come there other than troubles and ru-
mours of war 1 Patriot generals become trai-
tor generals ; get themselves "shot in market-
places :" revolution follows revolution. Arti-
gas, close on our borders, has begun harrying
the Banda Oriental with fire and sword ; " dic-
tating despatches from cow-skulls." Like
clouds of wolves, — only feller, being mounted
on horseback, with pikes, — the Indians dart in
on us; carrying conflagration and dismay.
Paraguay must get itself governed, or it will
be worse for Paraguay! The eyes of Para-
guay, we can well fancy, turn to the one man
of talent they have, the one man of veracity
they have.
In 1813 a second Congress is got together :
we fancy it was Francia's last advice to the
Government suppuration, when it flattered him
back for the last time, to ask his advice. That
such suppuration do now dissolve itself, and a
new Congress be summoned ! In the new Con-
gress, the Vocales are voted out ; Francia and
Fulgencioare named joint Consuls: with Fran-
cia for Consul, and Don Fulgencio Yegros for
Consttrs-cloak, it may be better. Don Fulgen-
cio rides about in gorgeous sash and epaulettes,
a rich man and horse-subduer; good as a Con-
sul's cloak ; — but why should the real Consul
have a cloak? Next year in the third Congress,
Francia, "by insidious manoeuvring," by "fa-
vour of the military," and, indeed, also in some
sort, we may say, by law of Nature, — gets him-
self declared Dlclalor: "three years," or for
life, may in these circumstances mean much
the same. This was in 1814. Francia never
assembled any Congress more; having stolen
the constitutional palladiums, and insidiously
got his wicked will ! Of a Congress that com-
piled constitutions out of Rollin, who would
not lament such destiny 1 This Congress
should have met again ! It was indeed, say
Rengger and the Robertsons themselves, such
a Congress as never met before in the world ;
a Congress which knew not its right hand
from its left ; which drank infinite rum in the
taverns; and had one wish, that of getting on
horseback, home to its field-husbandry and
partridge-shooting. The military mostly fa-
voured Francia ; being gained over by him, —
the thief of constitutional palladiums.
With Francia's entrance on the government
as Consul, still more as Dictator, a great im-
provement, it is granted even by Rengger, did
in all quarters forthwith show itself. The fi-
nances were husbanded, were accurately ga-
thered ; every oflicial person in Paraguay had
to bethink him, and begin doing his work, in-
stead of merely seeming to do it. The soldiers
Kraucia took care to see paid and drilled ; to
see march, with real death-shot and service,
when the Indians or other enemies showed
themselves. Guardias, guardhouses, at short
distances, were established along the river's
bank and all round the dangerous frontiers;
wherever the Indian centaur-troop showed
face, an alarm-cannon went off, and soldiers,
quickly assembling, with actual death-shot and
service, were upon them. These wolf-hordes
had to vanish into the heart of their deserts
again. The land had peace. Neither Artigas,
nor any of the fire-brands and war-plagues
which were distracting South America from
side to side, could get across the border. All
negotiation or intercommuning with Buenos
Ayres, or with any of these war-distracted
countries, was peremptorily waived. To no
Congress of Lima, General Congress of Pana-
ma, or other general or particular congress
would Francia, by deputy or message, offer
the smallest recognition. All South America
raging and ravening like one huge dog-kennel
gone rabid, we here in Paraguay have peace,
and cultivate our tea-trees: why should we
not let well alone 1 By degrees, one thing act-
ing on another, and this ring of frontier " guard-
houses" being already erected there, a rigorous
sanitary line, impregnable as brass, was drawn
round all Paraguay; no communication, im-
port or export trade allowed, except by the
Dictator's license, — given on payment of the
due moneys, when the political horizon seemed
innocuous ; refused when otherwise. The
Dictator's trade-licenses were a considerable
branch of his revenues ; his entrance dues,
somewhat onerous to the foreign merchant,
(think the Messrs. Robertson,) were another.
Paraguay stood isolated ; the rabid dog-kennel
raging round it, wide as South America, but
kept out as by lock and key.
These were vigorous measures, gradually
coming on the somnolent Guacho population !
It seems, meanwhile, that, even after the per-
petual dictatorship, and onwards to the fifth or
the sixth year of Francia's government, there
was, though the constitutional palladiums
were stolen, nothing very special to complain
of. Paraguay had peace ; sat under its tea-
tree, the rabid dog-kennel, Indians, Artigue-
no and other war-firebrands, all shut out from
it. But in that year 1819, the second year of
the perpetual dictatorship, there arose, not for
the first time, dim indications of "plots," even
dangerous plots ! In that 3^ear ihe firebrand
Artigas was finally quenched; obliged to beg
a lodging even of Francia, his enemy; — and
got it, hospitably though contemptuously. And
now straightway there advanced, from Arti-
gas's lost, wasted country, a certain General
Ramirez, his rival and victor, and fellow-ban-
dit and firebrand. This General Ramirez ad-
vanced up to our very frontier; first, with of-
fers of alliance : failing that, with offers of
war; on which latter offer he was closed with,
was cut to pieces ; and — a letter was found
about him, addressed to Don Fulgencio Yegros,
the rich Guacho horseman and Ex-Consul;
which arrested all the faculties of Dr. Fran-
cia's most intense intelligence, there and then !
A conspiracy, with Don Fulgencio at the head
of it; conspiracy which seems the wid«"
DR. FRANCIA.
561
spread the farther otie investigates it; which
has been brewing itself these " two years,"
and now " on Good-Friday next" is to be
burst out; starting with the massacre of Dr.
Francia and others, whatever it may close
with !* Francia was not a man to be trifled
with in plots ! He looked, watched, investigated,
till he got the exact extent, position, nature, and
structure of this plot fully in his eye; and
then — why, then he pounced on it like a glede-
falcon, like a fierce condor, suddenly from the
invisible blue; struck beak and claws into the
very heart of it, tore it into small fragments,
and consumed it on the spot. It is Francia's
way ! This was the last plot, though not the
first plot, Francia ever heard of during his
perpetual dictatorship.
It is, as we find, over these three or these
two 3'ears, while the Fulgencio plot is getting
itself pounced upon and torn in pieces, that
the "reign of terror," properly so called, ex-
tends. Over these three or these two years
only, — though the "running shriek" of it con-
fuses all things to the end of the chapter. It
was in this stern period that Francia executed
above forty persons. Not entirely inexplica-
ble ! " Par Dios, ye shall not conspire against
me; I will not allow it. The career of free-
dom, be it known to all men, and Guachos, is
not yet begun in this country; I am still only
casting out the Seven Devils. My lease of
Paraguay, a harder one than your stupidities
suppose, is for life; the contract is. Thou
must die if thy lease be taken from thee. Aim
not at my life, ye constitutional Guachos, — or
let it be a diviner man than Don Fulgencio,
the horse-subduer, that does .t. By heaven, if
you aim at my life, I will bid you have a care
of your own!" He executed upwards of forty
persons. How many he arrested, flogged,
cross-questioned — for he is an inexorable man !
If you are guilty, or suspected of guilt, it will
go ill with j'ou here. Francia's arrest, carried
by a grenadier, arrives; you are in strait
prison; you are in Francia's bodily presence;
those sharp St. Dominic eyes, that diabolic
intellect, prying into you, probing, cross-
questioning you, till the secret cannot be hid:
till the " three ball cartridges" are handed to a
sentry; — and your doom is Rhadamanthine !
But the plots, as we say, having ceased by
this rough surgery, it would appear that there
was, for the next twenty years, little or no
more of it, little or no use for more. The
" reign of terror," one begins to find, was
properly a reign of rigour; which would be-
come " terrible" enough if you infringed the
rules of it, but which was peaceable other-
wise, regular otherwise. Let this, amid the
"running shriek," which will and should run
Its full length in such circumstances, be well
kept in mind.
It happened too, as Rengger tells ns, in the
same year, (1820, as we grope and gather,)
that a visitation of locusts, as sometimes oc-
curs, destroyed all the crops of Paraguay ; and
there was no prospect but of universal dearth
or famine. The crops are done; eaten by
locusts ; the summer at an end ! We have no
Renccer.
71
foreign trade, or next to none, and never had
almost any ; what will become of Paraguay
and its Guachos ? In Guachos is no hope, no
help: but in a Dionysius of the Guachos T
Dictator Francia, led by occult French sciences
and natural sagacity, nay, driven by necessity
itself, peremptorily commands the farmers
throughout all Paraguay to sow a certain
portion of their lands anew; with or without
hope, under penalties! The result was a
moderately good harvest still: the result was a
discovery that two harvests were, every year,
possible in Paraguay; that agriculture, a rigor-
ous Dictator presiding over it, could be in-
finitely improved there.* As Paraguay has
about 100,000 square miles of territory mostly
fertile, and only some two souls planted on
each square mile thereof, it seemed to the
Dictator that this, and not foreign trade, might
be a good course for his Paraguenos. This
accordingly, and not foreign trade, in the pre-
sent state of the political horizon, was the
course resolved on; the course persisted in,
" with evident advantages," says Rengger.
Thus, one thing acting on another, — domestic
plot, hanging on Artigas's country from with-
out; and locust swarms with improvement of
husbandry in the interior; and those guard-
houses all already there, along the frontier, —
Paraguay came more and more to be hermeti-
cally closed; and Francia reigned over it, for
the rest of his life, as a rigorous Dionysius
of Paraguay, without foreign intercourse, or
with such only as seemed good to Francia.
How the Dictator, now secure in possession,
did manage this huge Paraguay, which, by
strange " insidious" and other means, had fallen
in life-lease to him, and was his to do the best
he could with, it were interesting to know.
What the meaning of him, the result of him
actually was 1 One desiderates some Biogra-
phy of Francia by a native ! — Meanwhile, in
the " ^sthelische Brie/ivechsel" of Herr Professor
Sauerteig, a work not yet known in England,
nor treating specially of this subject, we find,
scattered at distant intervals, a remark or two
which may be worth translating. Professor
Sauerteig, an open soul, looking with clear eye
and large recognizingheart over all accessible
quarters of the world, has cast a sharp sun-
glance here and there into Dr. Francia too.
These few philosophical remarks of his, and
then a few anecdotes gleaned elsewhere, such
as the barren ground yields, must comprise
what more M-e have to say of Francia.
"Pity," exclaims Sauerteig once, "that a
nation cannot reform itself, as the English are
now trying to do, by what their newspapers
call 'tremendous cheers!' Alas, it cannot be
done. Reform is not joyous but grievous: no
single man can reform himself without stern
suffering and stern working; how much less
can a nation of menl The serpent sheds not
his old skin without rusty disconsolateness : he
is not happy but miserable ! In the Water-cure
itself, do you not sit steeped for months ,
washed to the heart in elemental drenchings;
and like Job, are made to curse your day 1
Rengger, 67, &c.
662
CARLYLE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.
Reforming of a nation is a terrible business !
Thus, too, Medea, when she made men young
again, was wont (du Himmd!) to hew tliem in
pieces, with meat-axes ; cast them into caldrons,
and boil them for a length of time. How
much handier could they but have done it by
' tremendous cheers' alone !"
" Like a drop of surgical antiseptic liquid,
poured (by the benign Powers, as I fancy!)
into boundless brutal corruptions ; very sharp,
very caustic, corrosive enough, this tawny
tyrannous Dr. Francia, in the interior of the
South American continent, — he, too, is one of
the elements of the grand phenomenon there.
A monstrous moulting process taking place;
— monstrous gluttonous boa-constrictor (he is of
length from Panama to Patagonia) shedding
his old skin; whole continent getting itself
chopped to pieces, and boiled in the Medea
caldron, to become young again, — unable to
manage it by ' tremendous cheers' alone!"
"What they say about 'love of power'
amounts to little. Power? Love of ' power'
merely to make flunkies come and go for you
is a Move,' I should think, which enters only
into the minds of persons in a very infantine
state! A grown man, like this Dr. Francia,
who wants nothing, as I am assured, but three
cigars daily, a cup of mate, and four ounces of
butchers' meat with brown bread; the whole
world and its united flunkies, taking constant
thought of the matter, can do nothing for him
but that only. That he already has, and has
had always ; why should he, not being a minor,
love flunkey ' power 1' He loves to see yoit
about him, with your flunkey promptitudes,
with 3'our grimaces, adulations, and sham-
loyalty. You are so beautiful, a daily and
hourly feast to the eye and soul 1 Ye unfortu-
nates, from his heart rises one prayer. That
the last created flunkey had vanished from
this universe, never to appear more!
"And yet truly a man does tend, and must
under frightful penalties perpetually tend, to
be king of his world; to stand in his world as
what he is, a centre of light and order, not of
darkness and confusion. A man loves power:
yes, if he sees disorder his eternal enemy
rampant about him, he does love to see said
enemy in the way of being conquered; he can
have no rest till that come to pass ! Your
Mohammed can bear a rent cloak, but clouts it
with his own hands, how much more a rent
country, a rent world. He has to imprint the
itnage of his own veracity upon the world, and
shall, and must, and will do it, more or less:
it is at his peril if he neglect any great or any
small possibility he may have of this. Fran-
cia's inner flame is but a meager, blue-burning
.me: let him irradiate midnight Paraguay with
11, such as it is."
"Nay, on the whole, how cunning is Nature
in getting her farms leased ! Is it not a blessing
this Paraguay can get the one veracious man
it has, to take lease of it, in these sad circum-
stances! His farm profits, and whole wages,
U would seem, amount only to what is called
' Nothing and find yourself!' S^ rtan food
and lodging, solitude, two cigars, and a cup of
?nate daily, he already had."
Truly, it would seem, as Sauerteig remarks,
Dictator Francia had not a very joyous exist-
ence of it, in this his life-lease of Paraguay !
Casting out of Seven Devils from a Guacho
population is not joyous at all ; both exorcist
and exorcised find it sorrowful ! Meanwhile,
it does appear, there was some improvement
made ; no veritable labour, not even a Dr.
Francia's, is in vain.
Of Francia's improvements there might as
much be said of his cruelties or rigours; for
indeed, at bottom, the one was in proportion
to the other. He improved agriculture: — not
two ears of corn where only one grew, but
two harvests of corn, as we have seen ! He
introduced schools, "boarding-schools," "ele-
mentary schools," and others, on which Reng-
ger has a chapter; everywhere he promoted
education, as he could; repressed superstition
as he could. Strict justice between man was
enforced in his law-courts: he himself would
accept no gift, not even a trifle, in any case
whatever. Rengger, on packing up for de-
parture, had left in his hands, not from forget-
fulness, a Print of Napoleon ; worth some
shillings in Europe, but invaluable in Para-
guay, where Francia, who admired this hero
much, had hitherto seen no likeness of him
but a Niirnberg caricature. Francia sent an
express after Rengger, to ask what the value
of the Print was. No value; M. Rengger
could not sell Prints; it was much at his
Excellency's service. His Excellency straight-
way returned it. An exact, decisive man!
Peculation, idleness, inefiectuality, had to cease
in all the public offices of Paraguay. So far
as lay in Francia, no public and private man
in Paraguay was allowed to slur his work; all
public and all private men, so far as lay in
Francia, were forced to do their work or die !
We might define him as the born enemy of
quacks; one who has from Nature a heart-
hatred of xifiveracity in man or in thing, where-
soever he sees it. Of persons who do not
speak the truth, and do not act the truth, he
has a kind of diabolic-divine impatience; they
had better disappear out of his neighbourhood.
Poor Francia: his light was but a very sul-
phurous, meager, blue-burning one ; but he
irradiated Paraguay with it (as our Professor
says) the best he could.
That he had to maintain himself alive all the
while, and would suffer no man to glance con-
tradiction at him, but instantaneously repressed
all such: this too we need no ghost to tell us;
this lay in the very nature of the case. His
lease of Paraguay was a /i/e-lease. He had
his "three ball cartridges" ready for whatever
man he found aiming at his life. He had fright-
ful prisons. He had Tcvcgo far up among the
wastes, a kind of Paraguay Siberia, to which
unruly persons, not yet got the length of shoot-
ing, were relegated. The main exiles, Reng-
ger says, were drunken mulattoes and the class
called unfortunate-females. They lived mise-
rably there; became a sadder, and perhaps a
wiser, body of mulattoes and unfortunate-
females.
But let us listen for a moment to the fceve-
DR. FRANCIA.
563
rend Manuel Perez as he preaches,-" in the
Church of the Incarnation at Assumpcion, on
the 20th October, 1840," in a tone somewhat
nasal, yet trustworthy withal. His Funeral
Discourse, translated into a kind of English,
presents itself still audible in the " Argentine
News" of Buenos Ayres, No. 813. We select
some passages; studying to abate the nasal
tone a little; to reduce, if possible, the Argen-
tine English under the law of grammar. It is
the worst translation in the world, and does
poor Manuel Perez one knows not what in-
justice. This Funeral Discourse has "much
surprised" the Able Editor, it seems; — has led
him perhaps to ask, or be readier for asking.
Whether all that confused loud litanying about
"reign of terror," and so forth, was not possi-
bly of a rather long-eared nature 1
"Amid the convulsions of revolution," says
the Reverend Manuel, "The Lord, looking
down with pity on Paraguay, raised up Don
Jose Gaspar Francia for its deliverance, ^nd
when, in the words of my text, the children of
Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised vp a de-
liverer to the childre7i of Israel, rvho delivered
them."
"What measures did not his Excellency de-
vise, what labours undergo, to preserve peace
in the Republic at home, and place it in an
attitude to command respect from abroad ! His
first care was directed to obtain supplies of
arms, and to discipline soldiers. To all that
would import arms he held out the induce-
ment of exemption from duty, and the permis-
sion to export in return whatever produce they
preferred. An abundant supply of excellent
arms was, by these means, obtained. I am
lost in wonder to think how this great man
could attend to such a multiplicit)' of things!
He applied himself to study of the military art ;
and, in a short time, taught the exercise, and
directed military evolutions like the skilfullest
veteran. Often have I seen his Excellency go
up to a recruit, and show him by example how
to take aim at the target. Could any Para-
gueno think it other than honourable to carry
a musket, when his Dictator taught him how
to manage iti The cavalry-exercise too,
though it seems to require a man at once robust
and experienced in horsemanship, his Excel-
lency as you know did himself superintend :
at the head of his squadrons he charged and
manosuvred, as if bred to it : and directed them
with an energy and vigour which infused his
own martial spirit into these troops."
"What evils do not the people suffer from
highwaymen !" exclaims his Reverence, a little
farther on; "violence, plunder, murder, are
crimes familiar to these malefactors. The in-
accessible mountains and wide deserts in this
Republic seemed to offer impunity to such
men. Our Dictator succeeded in striking such
a terror into them that they entirely disap-
peared, seeking safetj' in a change of life. His
Excellency saw that the manner of inflicting
the punishment was more efncacious than
even the punishment itself; and on this prin-
ciple he acted. Whenever a robber conld be
.«!eized, he was led to the nearest guardhouse
(Guardin) ; a summary trial took place; and,
straightway, so soon as he had made confes-
sion, he was shot. These means proved effec-
tual. Ere long the Republic was in such
security, that, we may say, a child might have
travelled' from the Uruguay to the Parana
without other protection than the dread which
the Supreme Dictator inspired." — This is say-
ing something, your Reverence !
" But what is all this compared to the demon
of anarchy. Oh !" exclaims his simple Reve-
rence, "Oh, my friends, would I had the talent
to paint to you the miseries of a people that
fall into anarchy] And was not our Republic
on the very eve of this 1 Yes, brethren." — " It
behoved his Excellency to be prompt; to
smother the enemy in his cradle! He did so.
He seized the leaders; brought to summary
trial, they were convicted of high treason
against the country. What a struggle now,
for his Excellency, between the law of duty
and the voice of feeling" — if feeling to any ex-
tent there were! "I," exclaimed his Reve-
rence, "am confident that had the doom of im-
pi-isonment on those persons seemed sufficient
for the state's peace, his Excellency never
would have ordered their execution." It was
unavoidable ; nor was it avoided ; it was done !
"Brethren, should not I hesitate, lest it be a
profanation of the sacred place I now occupy,
if I seem to approve sanguinary measures in
opposition to the mildness of the Gospel 1 Bre-
thren, no. God himself approved the conduc'
of Solomon in putting Joab and Adonijah to
death." Life is sacred, thinks his Revereuce,
but there is something more sacred still: wo
to him who does not know that withal!
Alas, your Reverence, Paraguay has not yet
succeeded in abolishing capital punishment,
thenl But indeed neither has Nature, any-
where that I hear of, yet succeeded in abolish-
ing it. Act with the due degree of perversity,
you are sure enough of being violently put "to
death, in hospital or highway — by dyspepsia,
delirium tremens, or stuck through by the
k'indled rage of your fellow-men ! What can
the friend of humanity do ? Twaddle in Exeter-
hall or elsewhere, " till he become a bore to us,"
and perhaps worse! An advocate in Arras
once gave up a good judicial appointment, and
retired into frugality and privacy, rather than
doom one culprit to die by law. The name of
this advocate, let us mark it well, was Maxi-
milien Robespierre. There are sweet kinds of
twaddle that have a deadly virulence of poison
concealed in them ; like, the sweetness of sugar
of lead. Were it not better to make ju!>t laws,
think you, and then execute them strictly, — as
the gods still do ?
"His Excellency next directed his attention
to purging the state from another class of ene-
mies," says Perez in the Incarnation Church;
"the peculating tax-gatherers, namely. Vigi-
lanfly detecting their frauds, he made them re-
fund for what was past, and took precautions
against the like in future: all their accounts
were to be handed in, for his examination, once
every year."
" The habit of his Excellencj'- when he deli-
vered out articles for the supply of the public ;
that prolix and jninute counting of things ap-
parently unworthy of his attention^had its
origin in the same motive. I believe that he
564
CARLYLE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.
did so, less from a want of confidence in the
individuals lately appointed for this purpose,
than from a desire to show them with what
delicacy they should proceed. Hence likewise
his ways, in scrupulously examining every
piece of artisans' workmanship."
" Republic of Paraguay, how art thou in-
debted to the toils, the vigils and cares of our
Perpetual Dictator! It seemed as if this ex-
traordinary man were endowed with ubiquity,
to attend to all thy wants and exigences.
Whilst in his closet, he was traversing thy
frontiers to place thee in an attitude of security.
What devastation did not those inroads of In-
dians from the Chaco occasion to the inhabi-
tants of Rio-Abajo I Ever and anon there
reached Assumpcion, tidings of the terror and
aifliction caused by their incursions. Which
of us hoped that evils so wide-spread, ravages
so appalling, could be counteracted 1 Our
Dictator, nevertheless, did devise effectual
ways of securing that part of the Republic.
" Four respectable fortresses with competent
garrisons have been the impregnable barrier
which has restrained the irruptions of those
ferocious Savages. Inhabitants of Rio-Abajo !
rest tranquil in your homes : you are a por-
tion of the people whom the Lord confided to
the care of our Dictator; you are safe."
"The precautions and wise measures he
adopted to repel force, and drive back the Sa-
vages to the north of the Republic; the for-
tresses of Climpo, of San Carlos de Apa, placed
on the best footing for defence ; the orders and
instructions furnished to tKe Villa de la Con-
cepcion, — secured that quarter of the republic
under attack from all.
" The great wall, ditch, and fortress on the
opposite bank of the river Paran^; the force
and judicious arrangement of the troops dis-
tributed over the interior in the south of our
Republic, have commanded the respect of its
enemies in that quarter."
" The beaut)', the symmetry and good taste
displayed in the building of cities convey an
advantageous idea of their inhabitants," con-
tinues Perez : " Thus thought Caractacus, King
of the Angles," — thus think most persons!
" His Excellency, glancing at the condition of
the capital of the republic, saw a city in dis-
order and without police ; streets without re-
gularity, houses built according to the caprice
of their owners."
But enough, O Perez; for it becomes too
nasal ! Perez, with a confident face, asks, in
fine. Whether all these things do not clearly
prove to men and Guachos of sense, that Dic-
tator Francia ivas " the deliverer whom the Lord
raised up to deliver Paraguay from its ene-
mies 1" — Truly, O Perez, the benefits of him
seem to have been considerable. Undoubtedly
a man "sent by Heaven," — as all of us are!
Nay, it may be, the benefit of him is not even
yet exhausted, even yet entirely become visi-
ble. Who knows but, in unborn centuries,
Paragueno men will look back to their lean
iron Francia, as men do, in such cases, to the
one veracious person, and institute considera-
tions ! Oliver Cromwell, dead two hundred
years, does yet speak; nay, perhaps, now first
legins to speak. The meaning and meanings
of the one true man, never so lean and limited,
starting up direct from Nature's heat, in this
bewildered Guacho world, gone far away from
Nature, are endless!
The Messrs. Robertson are very merry on
this attempt of Francia's to rebuild on a bet-
ter plan the City of Assumpcion. The City of
Assumpcion, full of tropical vegetation and
"permanent hedges, the deposits of nuisance
and vermin,"* has no pavement, no straight-
ness of streets; the sandy thoroughfare, in
some quarters, is torn by the rain into gullies,
impassable with convenience to any animal
but a kangaroo. Francia, after meditation, de-
cides on having it remodelled, paved, straight-
ened — irradiated with the image of the one
regular man. Robertson laughs to see a Dic-
tator, sovereign ruler, straddling about, " taking
observations with his theodolite," and so forth :
Robertson, if there was no other man that
cokW observe with a theodolite 1 Nay, it seems
further, the improvement of Assumpcion was
attended, once more, with the dreadfullest
tyrannies: peaceable citizens dreaming no
harm, no active harm to any soul, but mere
peaceable passive dirt and irregularity to all
souls, were ordered to pull down their houses
which happened to stand in the middle of
streets; forced (under rustle of the gallows)
to draw their purses, and rebuild them else-
where ! It is horrible. Nay, they said Fran-
cia's true aim in these improvements, in this
cutting down of the luxuriant "cross hedges"
and architectural monstrosities, was merely to
save himself from being shot, from under co-
ver, as he rode through the place. It may be
so: but Assumpcion is now an improved,
paved cit}', much squarer in the corners (and
with the planned capacity, it seems, of grow-
ing ever squarer;*) passable with convenience,
not to kangaroos only, but to wooden bullock-
carts and all vehicles and animals.
Indeed our Messrs. Robertson find some-
thing comic as well as tragic in Dictator
Francia; and enliven their running shriek, all
through this " Reign of Terror," with a plea-
sant vein of conventional satire. One even-
ing, for example, a Robertson being about to
leave Paraguay for England, and having wait-
ed upon Francia to make the parting compli-
ments, Francia, to the Robertson's extreme
astonishment, orders in a large bale of goods,
orders them to be opened on the table there:
Tobacco, poncho-cloth, and other produce of
the country, all of first-rate quality, and with
the prices ticketed. These goods this asto-
nished Robertson is to carry to the "Bar of the
House of Commons," and there to say, in such
fashion and phraseology as a native may
know to be suitable : " Mr. Speaker — Dr. Fran-
cia is Dictator of Paraguay, a country of tro-
pical fertility, and 100,000 square miles in e*:
tent, producing these commodities at these
prices. With nearly all foreign nations he
declines altogether to trade; but with the Eng-
lish, such is his notion of them, he is willing
and desirous to trade. These are his commo-
dities, in endless quantity; of this quality, at
these prices. He wants arms for his part.
DR. FRANCIA.
565
What say you, Mr. Speaker!" — Sure enough,
our Robertson, arriving at the "Bar of tha
House of Commons" with such a message
would have cut an original figure ! Not to the
"House of Commons," was this message pro
perly addressed; but to the English Nation
which Francia, idiot-like, supposed to be
somehow represented, and made accessible
and addressable in the House of Commons
It was a strange imbecility in any Dictator!—
The Robertson, we find accordingly, did not
take this bale of goods to the bar of the House
of Commons ; nay, what was far worse, he did
not, owing to accidents, go to England at all,
or bring any arms back to Francia at all:
hence, indeed, Francia's unreasonable detesta-
tion of him, hardly to be restrained within the
bounds of common politeness ! A man who
said he would do, and then did not do, was at
no time a kind of man admirable to Francia.
Large sections of this " Reign of Terror" are
a sort of unmusical sonata, or free duet with
variations, to this text : " How unadmirable a
hide-merchant that does not keep his word !" —
"How censurable, not to say ridiculous and
imbecile, the want of common politeness in a
Dictator !"
Francia was a man that liked performance :
and sham-performance, in Paraguay as else-
where, was a thing too universal. What a
time of it had this strict man with wwreal per-
formers, imaginary workmen, public and pri-
vate, cleric and laic! Ye Guachos, — it is no
child's play, casting out those Seven Devils
from you !
Monastic or other entirely slumberous
church-establishments could expect no great
favour from Francia. Such of them as seem-
ed incurable, entirely slumberous, he some-
what roughly shook awake, somewhat sternly
ordered to begone. DcbmU canaille faineante,
as his prophet Raynal says; Dehout : aux
champs, aux ateliers ! Can I have you sit here,
droning old metre through your nose ; your
heart asleep in mere gluttony, the while ; and
all Paraguay a wilderness or nearly so, — the
Heaven's blessed sunshine growing mere
tangles, lianas, yellow-fevers, rattlesnakes, and
jaguars on it! Up, swift, to work, — or mark
this governmental horsewhip, what the crack
of it is, what the cut of it is like to be ! — In-
curable, for one class, seemed archbishops,
bishops, and such like; given merely to a
sham-warfare against extinct devils. At the
crack of Francia's terrible whip they went,
dreading what the cut of it might be. A cheap
worship in Paraguay, according to the humour
of the people, Francia left ; on condition that
it did no mischief. Wooden saints and the
like ware, he also left sitting in their niches :
no new ones, even on solicitation, would he
give a doit to buy. Being petitioned to pro-
vide a new patron saint for one of his new forti-
fications once, he made this answer: "O peo-
ple of Paraguay, how long wnll you continue
idiots ! While I was a Catholic I thought as
you do ; but I now see there are no saints but
good cannons that will guard our frontiers !"*
This also is noteworthy. He inquired of the
two Swiss surgeons, wnar then religion was;
and then added, "Be of what religion you
like, here: Christians, Jews, Mussulman'; -
but don't be Atheists."
Equal trouble had Francia with his laic
workers, and indeed with all manner of work-
ers ; for it is in Paraguay as elsewhere, like
priest like people. Francia had extensive
barrack-buildings, nay city-buildings, (as we
have seen,) arm-furnishings ; immensities of
work going on, and his workmen had in gene-
ral a tendency to be imaginary. He could get
no work out of them; only a more or less de-
ceptive similitude of work ! Masons, so-
called, builders of houses did not build, but
merely seemed to build; their walls would not
bear weather; stand on their bases in high
W'inds. Hodge-razors, in all conceivable kinds,
were openly marketed, "which were never
meant to shave, but only to be sold !" For a
length of time Francia's righteous soul strug-
gled sore, yet unexplosively, with the propen-
sities of these unfortunate men. By rebuke,
by remonstrance, encouragement, offers of re-,
ward, and every vigilance and effort, he strove
to convince them that it wzs unfortunate for a
Son of Adam to be an imaginary workman;
that every Son of Adam had better make razors
which ivere meant to shave. In vain, all in
vain ! At length Francia lost patience with
them. " Thou wretched Fraction, wilt thou be
the ninth part even of a tailor] Does it be-
seem thee to weave cloth of devil's dust in-
stead of true wool; and cut and sew it as if
thou wert not a tailor, but the fraction of
a very tailor! I cannot endure every thing !"
Francia, in despair, erected his " Workman's
Gallows." Yes, that institution of the country
did actually exist in Paraguay ; men and work-
men saw it with eyes. A most remarkable,
and on the whole, not unbeneficial institution
of society there. Robertson gives us the ful-
lowing scene with the Belt-maker of Assump-
cion; which, be it hteral, or in part poetic,
does, no doubt of it, hold the mirror up to Na-
ture in an altogether true, and surely in a sur-
prising manner:
"In came, one afternoon, a poor shoemaker,
with a couple of grenadiers' belts, neither ac-
cording to the fancy of the Dictator. 'Senti-
nel,' — said he, — and in came the Sentinel ;
when the following conversation ensued:
"Dictator: — 'Take this bribonazo (a very
favourite word of the Dictator's, and which
being interpreted, means 'most impertinent
scoundrel') — 'take this bribonazo to the gibbet
over the way ; w^alk him under it half-a-dozea
times: and now,' said he, turning to the trem-
bling shoemaker, 'bring me such another pair
of belts, and instead of walking under the gal-
lows, we shall try how you can swinii: upon it.'
"Shoemaker: — 'Please your excellency I
have done my best.'
"Dictator: — 'Well, bribon, if this be your
best, I shall do 7mj best to see that you never
asain mar a bit of the state's leather. The
belts are of no use to me; but they will do
very well to hang you upon the little frame-
work which the grenadier will show you.'
" Shoemaker : — ' God bless your excellency,
the Lord forbid! I am your vassal, your
3B
666
CARLYLE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.
slave : day and night have I served, and will
serve my lord; only give me two days more to
prepare the belts ; y por d alma de un triste za-
patero, (by the soul of a poor shoemaker,) I
will make them to your excellency's liking.'
" Dictator : — ' Off with him, sentinel !'
"Sentinel: — ' Venga, bribon: come along,
you rascal.'
" Shoemaker : — ' Senor Excelentisimo : This
very night I will make the belts according to
your excellency's pattern.'
"Dictator:— 'Well, you shall have till the
morning; but still you must pass under the
gibbet: it is a salutary process, and may at
once quicken the work and improve the work-
manship.'
"Sentinel: — ' Vamonos, bribon; the supreme
commands it.'
"Off was the shoemaker marched : he was,
according to orders, passed and repassed un-
der the gibbet, and then allowed to retire to
his stall."
He worked there with such an alacrity and
sibylline enthusiasm, all night, that his belts
on the morrow were without parallel in South
America; and he is now, if still in this life,
Belt-maker general to Paragua}% a prosperous
man; grateful to Francia and the gallows, we
may hope, for casting certain of the seven
devils out of him !
Such an institution of society would evi-
dently not be inlroducable, under that simple
form, in our old-constituted European coun-
tries. Yet it may be asked of constitutional
persons in these times, By what succedaneum
they mean to supply the want of it, then 1 In
a community of imaginary workmen, how
can you pretend to have any government, or
social thing whatever, that were real ? Cer-
tain ten-pound franchisers, with their "tre-
mendous cheers," are invited to reflect on
this. With a community of quack workmen,
it is by the law of Nature impossible that
other than a quack government can be got to
exist. Constitutional or other, with ballot-
boxes or with none, your society in all its
phases, administration, legislation, teaching,
preaching, praying, and writing periodicals
per sheet, will be a quack society ; terrible to
live in, disastrous to look upon. 'Such an in-
stitution of society, adapted to our European
ways, seems pressingly desirable. O Guachos,
South-American and European, what a busi-
ness is it, casting out your seven devils ! —
But perhaps the reader would like to take a
view of Dr. Francia in the concrete, there as
he looks and lives ; managing that thousand-
sided business for his Paraguenos, in the time
of Surgeon Rengger? It is our last extract, or
last view of the Dictator, who must hang no
longer on our horizon here:
" I have already said that Doctor Francia, so
soon as he found himself at the head of affairs
took up his residence in the habitation of the
former Governors of Paraguay. This edifice,
which is one of the largest in Assumpcion,
was erected by the Jesuits, a short time before
their expulsion, as a house of retreat for laymen,
who devoted themselves to certain spiritual
exercises instituted by Saint Ignatius. This
structure the Dictator repaired and embel-
lished; he has detached it from the other
houses in the city, by interposing wide streets.
Here he lives, with four slaves, a little negro,
one male and two female raulattoes, whom he
treats with great mildness. The two males
perform the functions of valet-de-chambre and
groom. One of the two mulatto women is his
cook, and the other takes care of his wardrobe.
He leads a very regular life. The first rays of
the sun very rarely find him in bed. So soon
as he rises, the negro brings a chafing-dish, a
kettle, and a pitcher of water; the water is
made to boil there. The Dictator then prepares,
with the greatest possible care, his mule, or
Paraguay tea. Having taken this, he walks
under the interior colonnade that looks upon
the court, and smokes a cigar, which he first
takes care to unroll, in order to ascertain that
there is nothing dangerous in it, though it is
his own sister who makes up his cigars for
him. At six o'clock comes the barber, an ill-
washed, ill-clad mulatto, given to drink too;
but the only member of the faculty whom he
trusts in. If the Dictator is in good humour,
he chats with the barber; and often in this
manner makes use of him to prepare the pub-
lic for his projects; this barber may be said to
be his Official Gazette. He then steps out, in
his dressing-gown of printed calico, to the
outer colonnade, an open space with pillars,
which ranges all round the building: here he
walks about, receiving at the same time such
persons as are admitted to an audience. To-
wards seven, he withdraws to his room, where
he remains till nine ; the officers and other
functionaries then come to make their reports,
and receive his orders. At eleven o'clock, the
fiel del fecho (principal secretary) brings the
papers which are to be inspected by him, and
writes from his dictation till noon. At noon
all the officers retire, and Dr. Francia sits down
to table. His dinner, .which is extremely
frugal, he always himself orders. When the
cook returns from market, she deposits her
provisions at the door of her master's room;
the Doctor then comes out, and selects what he
wishes for himself. After dinner he takes his
siesta. On awakening, he drinks his mate, and
smokes a cigar, with the same precautions as
in the morning. From this till four or five, he
occupies himself with business, when the
escort to attend him on his promenade arrives.
The barber then enters and dresses his hair,
while his horse is getting ready. During his
ride, the Doctor inspects the public works, and
the barracks, particularly those of the cavalr}',
where he has had a set of apartments prepared
for his own use. While riding, though sur-
rounded by his escort, he is armed with a sabre,
and a pair of double-barrelled pocket-pistols.
He returns home about nightfall, and sits down
to study till nine ; then he goes to supper,
which consists of a roast pigeon and a glass
of wine. If the weather be fine, he again
walks in the outgr colonnade, where he often
remains till a very late hour. At ten o'clock
he gives the watchword. On returning into
the house, he fastens all the doors himself."
Francia's brother was already mad. Francia
banished this sister by-and-by, because she had
employed one of bis grenadiers, one of the
DR. FRANCIA.
567
public government's soldiers, on some errand
of her own.* Thou lonely Francia!
Francia's escort of cavalry used to " strike
men with the flat of their swords," much more
assault them with angry epithets, if they
neglected to salute the Dictator as he rode out.
Both he and they, moreover, kept a sharp eye
for assassins ; but never found any, thanks
perhaps to their watchfulness. Had Francia
been in Paris ! — At one time, also, there arose
annoyance in the Dictatorial mind from idle
crowds gazing about his Government House,
and his proceedings there. Orders were given
that all people were to move on, about their
afl^airs, straight across this government espla-
nade; instructions to the sentry, that if any per-
son paused to gaze, he was to be peremptorily
bidden. Move on ! — and if he still did not move,
to be shot with ball-cartridge. All Paraguay men
moved on, looking to the ground, swift as pos-
sible, straight as possible, through those pre-
carious spaces; and the alBuence of crowds
thinned itself almost to the verge of solitude.
One day, after many weeks or months, a human
figure did loiter, did gaze in the forbidden
ground : " Move on !" cried the sentry, sharply ;
— no effect: "Move on!" and again none.
Alas, the unfortunate human figure was an In-
dian, did not understand human speech, stood
merely gaping interrogatively, — whereupon a
shot belches forth at him, the whev/ing of
winged lead; which luckily only whewed, and
did not hit! The astonishment of the Indian
must have been great, his retreat-pace rapid.
As for Francia he summoned the sentry with
hardly suppressed rage, " What news, Amiga .?"
The sentry quoted " your Excellency's order;",
Francia cannot recollect such an order; com-
mands now, that at all events such order
cease.
It remains still that we say a word, not in
excuse, which might be difficult, but in ex-
planation, which is possible enough, of Fran-
cia's unforgivable insult to human science in the
person of M. Aime Bonpland. M. Aime Bon-
pland, friend of Humboldt, after much botanical
wandering, did, as all men know, settle himself
in Entre Rios, an Indian or Jesuit country close
on Francia, now burnt to ashes by Artigas ; and
there set up a considerable establishment for
the improved culture of Paraguay tea. Botany 1
Why, yes, — and perhaps commerce still more.
"Botany!" exclaims Francia: "It is shop-
keeping agriculture, and tends to prove fatal to
my shop. Who is this extraneous individual]
Artigas could not give him right to Entre Rios ;
Entre Rios is at least as much mine as Arti-
gas's ! Bring him to me !" Next night, or
next, Paraguay soldiers surround M. Bon-
pland's tea establishment; gallop M. Bonpland
over the frontiers, to his appointed village in
the interior; root out his tea-plants; scatter
his four hundred Indians, and — we know the
rest! Hard-hearted Monopoly refusing to
listen to the charmings of Public Opinion or
Royal-Society presidents, charm they never so
wisely ! M. Bonpland. at full liberty some
time since, resides still in South America, —
and is expected by the Robertsons, not alto-
gether by this Editor, to publish his Narrative,
with a due running shriek.
Francia's treatment of Artigas, his old enemy,
the bandit and firebrand, reduced now to beg
shelter of him, was good; humane, even dig-
nified. Francia refused to see or treat with
such a person, as he had ever done; but
readily granted him a place of residence in the
interior, and "thirty piastres a month till he
died." The bandit cultivated fields, did chari-
table deeds, and passed a life of penitence, for
his few remaining years. His bandit followers,
who took to plundering again, says M. Rengger,
"were instantly seized and shot."
On the other hand, that anecdote of Franc'a's
dying father — requires to be confirmed ! It
seems, the old man, who, as we saw, had long
since quarrelled with his son, was dying, and
wished to be reconciled. Francia " was busy ;
— what was in it 1 — could not come." A second
still more pressing message arrives: "The
old father dare not die unless he sees his son;
fears he shall never enter heaven, if they be not
reconciled." — " Then let him enter !" said
Francia; "I will not come!"* If this anec-
dote be true, it is certainly, of all that are in
circulation about Dr. Francia, by far the worst.
If Francia, in that death-hour, could not for-
give his poor old father, whatsoever he had, or
could in the murkiest, sultriest imagination be
conceived to have done against him, then let
no man forgive Dr. Francia ! But the accuracy
of public rumour, in regard to a Dictator who
has executed forty persons, is also a thing that
can be guessed at. To whom was it, by name
and surname, that Francia delivered this extra-
ordinary response! Did the man make, or
can he now be got to make, affidavit of it, to
credible articulate-speaking persons resident
on this earth? If so, let him do it — for the
sake of the psychological sciences.
One last fact more. Our lonesome Dictator,
living among Guachos, had the greatest plea-
sure, it would seem, in rational conversation,
— with Robertson, with Rengger, M'ith any
kind of intelligent human creature, when such
could be fallen in with,M'hich was rarely. He
would question you with eagerness about the
ways of men in foreign places, the properties
of things unknown to him ; all human interest
and insight was interesting to him. Only per-
sons of no understanding being near him for
most part, he had to content himself with
silence, a meditative cigar and cup of mate.
O Francia, though thou hadst to execute forty
persons, I am not without some pity for thee !
In this manner, all being yet dark and void
for European eyes, have we to imagine that
the man Rodriguez Francia passed, in a re-
mote, but highly remarkable, not unquestion-
able or inquestioned manner, across the
confused theatre of this world. For some
thirty years, he was all the government his
native Paraguay could be said to have. For
some six-and-twenty years he was express
Sovereign of it ; for some three, or some two
years, a Sovereign with bared sword, stern as
Rhadamanthus: through all his years, and
Rengger.
568
CARLYLE'S MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.
through all his days, since the beginning of
him, a Man or Sovereign of iron energy and
industry, of great and severe labour. So
lived Dictator Francia, and had no rest; and
only in Eternity any prospect of rest. A life
of terrible labour; — but for the last twenty
years, the Fulgencio plot being once torn in
pieces and all now quiet under him, it was a
more equable labour : severe but equable, as
that of a hardy draught-steed fitted in his har-
ness; no longer plunging and champing; but
pulling steadily, — till he do all his rough miles,
and get to his still home.
So dark were the Messrs. Robertson concern-
ing Francia, they had not been able to learn
in the least whether, when their book came
out, he was living or dead. He was living
then, he is dead now. He is dead, this re-
markable Francia ; there is no doubt about it :
have not we and our readers heard pieces of
his Funeral Sermon 1 He died on the 20th of
September, 1840, as the Rev. Perez informs
us ; the People crowding round his Govern-
ment House with much emotion, nay, " with
tears," as Perez will have it. Three Excel-
lencies succeeded him, as some "Directorate,"
"Junta Guhernativa," or whatever the name
of it is, before whom this reverend Perez
preaches. God preserve them many years.
