When the Viceroy's power was overthrown in 1810, the province of Paraguay refused to acknowledge the central government set up at Buenos Ayres to succeed him, and an army was in consequence sent to reduce it to obedience; but the Paraguay troops defeated the Buenos Ayrean general, Belgrano, who was glad to capitulate, and be permitted to return whence he came. Emboldened by this success, which gave them an idea of their own consequence beyond any they had before entertained, they proceeded at once to assert their absolute independence, not only of Buenos Ayres, but of the mother country, and to declare Paraguay a free and sovereign state, a step beyond any at that time contemplated, perhaps even by the rulers of Buenos Ayres themselves, who, though self-elected, continued to act in the King's name up to 1816, the date of their declaration of independence at Tucuman. This proclamation of the independence of Paraguay was followed in the first instance by the setting up of a triumvirate government, of which Francia was the secretary, and soon became the secret mover of the whole machine. A sort of Mephistopheles, he was not long ere he set the members of the government by the ears, and by his intrigues brought about their resignation. Then came the convocation of a general assembly of deputies from all the towns and villages of the province, to consider what was to be done under the circumstances. By these poor ignorant people thus dragged from their homes, Francia, a person in authority, a lawyer, or learned man,--for the terms are synonymous in the language of Paraguay,--living like an ascetic, and affecting a sort of cabalistical knowledge, was looked upon with a kind of reverential awe, as a person of wonderful acquirements and sagacity, whose opinions were eagerly sought to guide them in the weighty matters they were called upon to discuss, whilst on his own part he was not behindhand in maturing his plans and securing his influence. When the Congress met he laid before it the following project for a government, which, as he anticipated, was regarded as the _ne plus ultra_ of wisdom, and was adopted by acclamation (_por acclamacion_). I give the document entire, not only because it has never before appeared in English, but as the best evidence of the low cunning of the projector, and of the extreme simplicity and subserviency of those who adopted it, believing all the time that they were a free and independent people. _Plan for a Constitution proposed by Dr. Francia to the General Congress of Paraguay, and adopted by acclamation._ "ARTICLE I.--The two citizens Don Fulencio Yegros and Don José Gaspar de Francia shall alone constitute the government, with the title of 'Consuls of the Republic of Paraguay.' They shall have the rank and honours of Brigadier-Generals, and their commissions as such shall be signed by the President of this Congress.