Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/88



58

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

The second, Venanncio,, was made a colonel in the army, and commanded the garrison of Asuncion. The youngest, Benigno, who was ever the father's favourite, became a major in the army, and admiral of the fleet ; but he pre- ferred idling and " woman -hunting " at home. The elder daughter, D. Ynocencia, was married to General Barrios, afterwards Minister of War, and the younger, D. Rafaela, became the wife of the treasurer, D. Saturnino Bedoya. The Presidentess and her daughters dressed in the usual imitation Parisian; they were fond of society, and they never neglected to make a little money. The Presidential salary was only $4000 per annum.

President Lopez had no light task before him. The Dictatorship had left only ruins : he had to create ; he was to be the organizer as Francia had been the founder of Paraguay; he was to assume the relation of Brigham Young to Joseph Smith. He wished to break the chains which his predecessor had forged, to draw Paraguay from her shell. Yet freedom was, he knew, dangerous after the slavery of ages, and an exaggerated liberalism might, it was feared, in due course of reaction take the place of conservative terrorism. He required to steer between the Scylla of iso- lation and popular lethargy, and the Charybdis of neology in religion and politics. And if he governed somewhat too much, assumed " Asiatic airs," and neglected the pre- cepts " laissez faire" and " laissez passer," still his intentions were apparently good, and his success was as great as could be expected.

The difficulties of the new ruler were increased by the hostility of Buenos Aires, which required him to create and to provide for the maintenance of an army. He began with 3000 soldiers, enlisted for only three years, and pre- sently he could muster a force of 8000 regulars, an effective militia of 30,000 men, and a levee en masse in their rear.