FRANCIA, Dr. GASPAR RODRIGUEZ, Dictator of Paraguay, was the son of a small landed proprietor, of French or Portuguese origin, and was born near the town of Asuncion in 1757 or 1758. He was intended for the church, studied at the univer sity of Cordova de Tucuman, where he took his degree as a doctor of divinity or of canon law, and was for some time a theological professor. Subsequently he adopted the profession of law, to the practice of which be continued to devote himself for a period of thirty years, gaining much reputation for learning, skill, honesty, and inde pendence of character. When he had attained the age of 52 or 53, the revolution shattered the Spanish yoke in South America broke out in Buenos Ayres. Para guay at first offered active opposition to the revolutionists, but ultimately sought to obtain independence for itself. F. took a leading part in the movement, and was made secretary of the independent junta set up, but he soon resigned his post. The convic tion, however, being strong in the public mind that F. alone could properly direct the affairs of the new republic, he was, in 1813, appointed joint-consul along with gen. Yegros. The latter, however. was a man apparently without much intellect or energy, and F. was really sole ruler from the first. In 1814, he was appointed dictator for three years, at the expiry of which time the dictatorship was given him for life; and the abso lute control so conferred he exercised until his death in 1840. Under F., the condition
of Paraguay rapidly improved, and the system of non-intercourse, political or commer cial, with other nations, which he enforced, however much it may seem to prove him devoid of administrative sagacity, 'was undoubtedly attended with good results to his country. So strict were the regulations against foreign intercourse, that ingress to, or egress from, Paraguay was next to impossible; and F.'s treatment of some foreigners who did get in (among others the famous savant Bonpland), and of others who were prevented entering, savored of harshness, and even barbarism. Yet his administrative talent was of a high order. He.improved agriculture, making two crops of corn grow where only one had grown before. He introduced schools, promoted education, repressed superstition, and enforced strict justice between man and man in his law courts. His death was regretted by the people as a public calamity—the best proof that he was no vulgar tyrant. See Rengger and Lonchamp's Essaz flistorigue, etc. (Paris, 1827); Francia's Reign of terror (London, by J. P. and W. P. Robertson, two young Scotchmen whom F. turned out of the country; and T. Carlyle's essay in the Edinburgh, Review (1843).