Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/90

 NTRODTJCTORY ESSAY.

again looked to liis army^ and created there camps of in- struction. The Juiz de Paz was ordered to register all the males between 18 and 30^ and to forward to head-quar- ters so many per district. Within three months were thus collected twelve infantry battalions of 700 rank and file^ six corps of cavalry^ each 100 sabres, and one corps of artiUery. The elder Lopez^ though charged with being an unscru- pulous diplomatist, was an active organizer, and though his temper was hot, he was not wanting in cool vigour. One of his first acts was to propose as Bishop of Asuncion his brother, D. Basilio Lopez, a Franciscan Monk, not well spoken of, and the nomination was accepted by Pope Gregory XVI. He deported in 1846 the two Jesuits who had taken charge of the Chairs of Latinity and Philosophy in the so- called Literary Academy, or new College. He shot the sergeant Espaiiola for the crime of tearing up stamped paper, and he deported a Frenchman who had practised mesmerism without his permission. To the National Congress which met in 1849 he could announce the creation of an army and a naval force, the establishment of Guardias and forts against the Indians of the Gran Chaco ; the foundation of an arsenal, of a manufactory of arms and gunpowder, and of the Ibicuy foundry (definitively worked in 1853) ; the organization of the clergy ; the construction throughout the country of churches, cemeteries, and schools for primary instruction ; the issue of an official newspaper ; the building of quays and other public works ; the opening of roads and canalizing of rivers ; the encouragement of agricultm'e and exportable industry, especially of Yerba and Tobacco, and finally, the guarantee of patents, the protection, the free admission, and the favourable nationalization of strangers. The latter, however, were not allowed to travel, to enjoy any international rights, to hold real property in the Re- public, or to marry Paraguayans without especial license ;