FRANCIA, JOSE GASPAR RODRIGUEZ (c. 1766 1840), "El Supremo," dictator of Paraguay, was born in Para guay, about 1766, probably the son of a Brazilian coffee grower. He studied at the university of Cordova de Tucuman, and ob tained there the degrees of master of philosophy and doctor of theology. Relinquishing his intention of taking orders, he studied law and practised in Asuncion, where he acquired a reputation for ability, energy and integrity. Under the colonial Government he filled several important posts, and when inde pendence was declared in 1811, he became secretary to the national junta, exerting an influence far out of proportion to his position. In 1813, when a duumvirate replaced the national congress, Francia and Gen. Yegros, a gaucho, were chosen to fill the office. In 1814 he secured his election as dictator for three years, and in 1817 obtained the dictatorship for life. In his administration we find a strange mixture of far-sighted states manship and petty despotism. Seeing his precarious position among powerful neighbours, he pursued a policy of strict isola tion; realizing that he must make the country self-supporting, he carefully fostered internal industries. He put a stop to foreign commerce ; usurped the national revenues ; organized and equipped an army, and imported modern methods of agriculture. Imbued with the principles of the French Revolution, he abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the college of theology, did away with the tithes, and deprived the aristocracy of their social and political privileges. While practising republican simplicity in his private life, he exacted imperial deference wherever he went, isolated himself in the most stringent manner, and punished with Draco nian severity the slightest violation of his assumed prerogatives or hint of conspiracy against him. On Sept. 20, 1840, he was seized with a fit in Asuncion, and died. Whatever may be the accusa tions brought against his rule, it is unlikely that except for him the country could have escaped incorporation in either Argentina or Brazil. (W. B. P.) The first and fullest account of Dr. Francia was given to the world by two Swiss surgeons, Rengger and Longchamp, whom he had detained from 1819 to 1825—Essai historique sur la revolution de Paraguay et la gouvernement dictatorial du docteur Francia (Paris, 1827) . Their work was almost immediately translated into English under the title of The Reign of Doctor Joseph G. R. De Francia in Paraguay (1827). About eleven years after there appeared at London Letters on Paraguay, by J. P. and W. P. Robertson, two young Scotsmen whose hopes of commercial success had been rudely destroyed by the dictator's interference. The account which they gave of his character and government was of the most unfavourable description, and they rehearsed and emphasized their accusations in Francia's Reign of Terror (1839) and Letters on South America (3 vols., 1843) . From the very pages of his detractors Thomas Carlyle succeeded in extracting materials for a brilliant defence of the dic tator "as a man or sovereign of iron energy and industry, of great and severe labour." It appeared in the Foreign Quarterly Review for 1843, and is reprinted in his Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. Sir Richard F. Burton gives a graphic sketch of Francia's life and a favourable notice of his character in his Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay (187o) , while C. A. Washburn takes up a hostile position in his History of Paraguay (1871).