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Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
Chapter 08
Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
20178 Compliant
8-1
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
8-2
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
The excluded code can never be used at the same time as the code the exclude notation is by
as the two conditions cannot occur together.
8-3
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
8-4
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
7. What is the correct code for a mood disorder due to a known physiological condition with
depressive features?
A. F06.30
B. F06.31
C. F06.32
D. F06.33
The correct code for a mood disorder due to a known physiological condition with depressive
features is F06.31. F06.31: Index>disorder>mood>due to>physiological
condition>with>depressive features.
8. What is the correct code for vascular dementia without behavioral disturbance?
A. F01.50
B. F01.51
C. F02.80
D. F02.81
The correct code for vascular dementia without behavioral disturbance is F01.50. F01.50:
Index>dementia>vascular.
8-5
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
8-6
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
8-7
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
14. What is the correct code for alcohol abuse with intoxication delirium?
A. F10.120
B. F10.121
C. F10.129
D. F10.159
The correct code for alcohol abuse with intoxication delirium is F10.121. F10.121:
Index>abuse>alcohol>with>intoxication>with delirium.
8-8
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
15. What is the correct code for alcohol dependence with alcohol-induced anxiety disorder?
A. F10.280
B. F10.281
C. F10.282
D. F10.288
The correct code for alcohol dependence with alcohol-induced anxiety disorder is F10.280.
F10.280: Index>dependence>alcohol>with>anxiety.
16. What is the correct code for opioid use with withdrawal?
A. F11.90
B. F11.92
C. F11.920
D. F11.93
The correct code for opioid use with withdrawal is F11.93. F11.93:
Index>use>opioid>with>withdrawal.
8-9
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
17. What is the correct code for cannabis abuse with intoxication and perceptual disturbance?
A. F12.120
B. F12.121
C. F12.122
D. F12.129
The correct code for cannabis abuse with intoxication and perceptual disturbance is F12.122.
F12.122: Index>abuse>drug>cannabis>with>intoxication>perceptual disturbance.
18. What is the correct code for sedative hypnotic abuse with intoxication delirium?
A. F13.120
B. F13.121
C. F13.129
D. F13.150
The correct code for sedative hypnotic abuse with intoxication delirium is F13.121. F13.121:
Index>abuse>sedative>intoxication>with delirium.
8-10
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
19. What is the correct code for cocaine abuse with intoxication?
A. F14.10
B. F14.120
C. F14.121
D. F14.122
The correct code for cocaine abuse with intoxication is F14.120. F14.120:
Index>abuse>drug>cocaine>with>intoxication>uncomplicated.
8-11
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
21. What is the correct code for hallucinogen dependence with hallucinogen-induced
psychotic disorder with delusions?
A. F16.250
B. F16.251
C. F16.259
D. F16.280
The correct code for hallucinogen dependence with hallucinogen-induced psychotic disorder
with delusions is F16.250. F16.250:
Index>dependence>drug>hallucinogen>with>psychosis>delusions.
22. What is the correct code for withdrawal from chewing tobacco, nicotine dependence?
A. F17.210
B. F17.211
C. F17.221
D. F17.223
The correct code for withdrawal from chewing tobacco, nicotine dependence is F17.223.
F17.223: Index>dependence>drug>nicotine>chewing tobacco>withdrawal.
8-12
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
23. What is the correct code for withdrawal from inhalant abuse with inhalant-induced
anxiety disorder?
A. F18.18
B. F18.180
C. F18.188
D. F18.19
The correct code for withdrawal from inhalant abuse with inhalant-induced anxiety disorder
is F18.180. F18.180: Index>abuse>drug>inhalant>with>anxiety.
8-13
Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
26. People with a relative who has schizophrenia are how many times more likely to develop
schizophrenia themselves?
A. 5
B. 10
C. 20
D. 50
People with close relatives who have schizophrenia are 50 times more likely to develop the
condition.
8-14
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
8-15
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
29. How many groups of signs and symptoms does schizophrenia have?
A. 2
B. 3
C. 4
D. 5
There are three groups of signs and symptoms for schizophrenia: positive symptoms,
negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms.
30. Which of the following is not a sign and symptom category for schizophrenia?
A. Behavioral symptoms
B. Cognitive symptoms
C. Negative symptoms
D. Positive symptoms
The 3 groups of signs and symptoms for schizophrenia are cognitive, negative, and positive
symptoms.
8-16
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
8-17
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
8-18
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
There are two types of bipolar disorder: Type I bipolar disorder is identified as alternating
between manic episodes and depressive episodes, while type II bipolar patients deal with
recurring depressive episodes with occasional mania.
8-19
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
Mood stabilizers, atypical antipsychotics, and antidepressants are most commonly prescribed
in combination to treat bipolar disorder.
38. What is the correct code for bipolar disorder, current episode, manic without psychotic
features, moderate?
A. F31.10
B. F31.11
C. F31.12
D. F31.13
The correct code for bipolar disorder, current episode, manic without psychotic features,
moderate is F31.12. F31.12: Index>disorder>bipolar>current episode>manic> without
psychotic features>moderate.
8-20
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
The correct code for manic episode is F30.13 if psychotic features are not specified. F30.13:
Index>disorder>bipolar>manic>severe.
The correct code for type II bipolar disorder is F31.81. F31.81: Index>disorder>bipolar>type
II.
8-21
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
41. What is the correct code assigned for a patient with generalized anthropophobia?
A. F40.0
B. F40.11
C. F40.10
D. F40.21
The correct code for a patient with generalized anthropophobia is F40.11. F40.11:
Index>anthropophobia>generalized.
42. What is the correct code assigned for a patient with claustrophobia?
A. F40.240
B. F40.241
C. F40.242
D. F40.243
8-22
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
43. What is/are the correct code(s) assigned for a patient with a fear of blood, fear of
injections, and fear of injury?
A. F40.230, F40.231, F40.233
B. F40.231, F40.233
C. F40.232
D. F40.230, F40.232, F40.233
The correct codes for a patient with a fear of blood, fear of injections, and fear of injury are
F40.230, F40.231, and F40.233.
F40.230: Index>phobia>specific>blood.
F40.231: Index>phobia>specific>injections.
F40.233: Index>phobia>specific>injury.
44. What is the correct code assigned for a patient with a fear of women?
A. F40.290
B. F40.291
C. F40.298
D. F40.8
The correct code for a patient with a fear of women is F40.291. F40.291:
Index>phobia>specific>women.
8-23
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McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
45. What is the correct code assigned for a patient with hypochondriasis?
A. F45.20
B. F45.21
C. F45.22
D. F45.29
46. What is the correct code assigned for a patient with antisocial personality disorder?
A. F60.0
B. F60.1
C. F60.2
D. F60.3
8-24
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Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
47. What are the correct codes assigned for a patient with night terrors and hair plucking?
A. F51.3, F63.3
B. F51.4, F63.3
C. F51.5, F63.3
D. F51.6, F63.3
The correct codes for a patient with night terrors and hair plucking are F51.4 and F63.3.
F51.4: Index>terror>night.
F63.3: Index>hair>plucking.
48. How many adults are affected by PTSD in the United States?
A. 5 million
B. 7.5 million
C. 9 million
D. 12 million
There are 7.5 million adults in the United States affected by posttraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD).
8-25
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Chapter 08 - Coding Mental and Behavioral Disorders
49. What is the correct code assigned for a patient with acute PTSD?
A. F43.10
B. F43.11
C. F43.12
D. F43.2
The correct code for acute posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is F43.11.
F43.11: Index>disorder>posttraumatic stress>acute.
50. What are the correct codes assigned for a patient with chronic PTSD and social phobia?
A. F43.10, F40.10
B. F43.11, F40.11
C. F43.12, F40.10
D. F43.2, F40.11
The correct codes for chronic PTSD and social phobia are F43.12 and F40.10. F43.12:
Index>disorder> posttraumatic stress>chronic. F40.10: Index>phobia>social.
8-26
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finest countries of the globe. The great empire of the south,
extending through more than thirty degrees of latitude, and in its
widest part through thirty degrees of longitude, with a population
of about 5,000,000, and a portion of them slaves, is increasing in
people and wealth much faster than the countries on the Plate. It
is extending its trade year by year, and may in the end absorb
and incorporate the neighbouring republics; but it is yet far from
that consummation. Unless, therefore, some more European life
be infused into the countries on the Plate, unless spare hands
from England, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, each of which
has already supplied some of the scattered population on the
Plate, go thither, and bring those countries more into contact with
Europe, they are likely to remain only half tenanted for ages.
[107] When Rosas, in his protest, announced that he was
preparing great military and naval armaments, with a view of
invading and incorporating her in the Argentine Confederation,
Paraguay speedily raised an effective army of more than 30,000
men; and calculating that force at the moderate rate of two per
cent. on the entire population, the result is above a million,
which, as already stated, is more than double the population of
the Argentine provinces and the State of Uruguay united—a fact
which explains why it is that Paraguay imports more than all the
interior provinces of the Confederation, including the province,
though not the port, of Buenos Ayres itself.
The town of Conception has been resuscitated from its decay
by the government founding the town of St. Salvador, on the
Paraguay, and covering all the fords by a line of small fortified
posts. New works and branches of industry have been
commenced, and quarries of calcareous stone, an article which
Paraguay, before Francia’s time, imported, are now worked. The
Encyclopædia Britannica, now being published, puts down the
population of Assumption, the capital, at 12,000, which is
certainly considerably under the real number. With an activity and
zeal which would do honour to governments better furnished with
resources and auxiliary means, the consular government
undertook to open new roads, by cutting through the forests to
an extraordinary extent, in order to facilitate transit and the trade
to the exterior. The road which was opened across the mountain
called Caro is twelve leagues in length and fifty feet broad. That
which traverses Mount Palomares is thirteen leagues long, and of
the same breadth as the first; and Mount Caagazu has been cut
by a road six leagues long and thirty-six feet wide. There is also
now approaching completion a road which is passable for
carriages from Villa-Rica to the bank of the Parana. Bridges have
been constructed over several water-courses and dangerous
ravines, and where the breadth of the rivers has been too great,
commodious ferries have been established at the expense of the
government. In the district of Rosario, where there are many
grazing estates, the proprietors were frequently exposed to
excessive droughts, which occasioned the dispersion, mixture,
and loss of the herds. The government has had a canal opened
from five to six leagues long, and which, serving as a reservoir to
many brooks, will retain water even in the most terrible droughts.
A similar route has been carried out in the department of San
Estanislao. The government has resolved on founding other new
towns, and has overcome the obstacles opposed to the
development of others already existing, such as Villa Franca,
which, situated at the bottom of a plain, suffered much in the
rainy season. It opened drains for the stagnant waters, and the
soil has been much improved.
There is one arrangement which does the greatest honour to
the liberalism and equity of the consular government. We may,
properly speaking, say that there are no slaves in Paraguay; the
number is not quite certain, but, from the statement of a recent
traveller, there would not appear to be more than one thousand
in the whole of the territory of the Republic. The consular
government, in order to put a stop to slavery in a natural manner,
although it be on so small a scale, has declared every child born
of slaves to be free, and has prohibited, by a decree, all fresh
importations.
[108] The climate, which has so much influence on the
prosperity of a country, is salubrious, equable, and agreeable.
Although tropical, this region is exempt from the fevers which
commit such ravages at Havana and New Orleans, and from the
earthquakes and hurricanes of the West Indies and other tropical
countries. All epidemics are unknown: in fact, the climate of
Paraguay is proverbially salubrious, one proof of which is, that
there is an unusual proportionate number of octogenarians, and
even centenarians. The British and French war-steamers, Locust
and Flambart, were lately there for upwards of two months,
during the hottest season, without a single case of serious illness
occurring on board. Such, too, was the case when a French
steamer was sent up by the British and French Ministers in 1846.
Though the heat is great, it is infinitely more bearable than in
most parts of the Brazils; while all experience goes to show that
Europeans become speedily acclimated.
[109] Prolific as are so many portions of South America, there
is no one area of anything like the same magnitude to be
compared for a moment with Paraguay. Here are cultivated, with
an easy success to which the wants of the inhabitants are the
only limit, cotton, sugar, indigo, cochineal, and the finest tobacco
in the world; dyes of great value abound, as also various wild
plants of the hemp kind, capable of being converted to the
greatest utility; resinous trees, amongst them several producing
the Indian-rubber and gutta-percha gums; copaiba, rhubarb, and
medicinal plants of equal virtue, its sarsaparilla being superior to
all others, and its bark having still as high a repute among
pharmaceutical savants as when first introduced thence into
Europe by the Jesuits towards the middle of the seventeenth
century. Plantations of coffee have lately been commenced, and
answer excellently. Fruits and grain embrace nearly all that are
indigenous to the temperate and the torrid zone; and the cattle
may be multiplied to an indefinite extent if advantage be taken
for that purpose of the illimitable pasturage—an important
consideration just now, bearing in mind the sources of our supply
of hides and tallow, whether from the North of Europe or South
America itself. Direct European intercourse, by means of the
Malmesbury treaty, not only promises to be productive of the
utmost good to Paraguay proper, but, through Paraguay, to the
remotest provinces of the Confederation, and beyond, to the
spurs of the Andes. The Vermejo, already twice explored, puts
Paraguay in communication with the vast provinces of Salta,
Jujui, and Tucuman; and if, as there is good reason to believe,
the Pilcomayo is navigable considerably above Paraguay, her
commerce would go straight to the heart of Bolivia. By the river
Paraguay itself ships of 200 tons can ascend to Cuiaba, the
capital of the Brazilian province of Matto-Grosso; while the
interior of Paraguay is interlaced all over with navigable streams
emptying themselves into the great fluvial artery after which the
province is named—thus facilitating the transport, in the manner
of the Chinese canals, of its produce to the markets of
Assumption and the thriving town of Pilar.
[110] The natives of Paraguay are docile to their superiors,
vigorous, inured to hardship, and intelligent; at the same time
that they are sober, phlegmatic, and not likely to be carried away
by enthusiasm. They do not appear to be endowed with that
impetuous and exalted valour which seeks to confront danger and
death; they would, therefore, not be well adapted for offensive
warfare. But they possess, without any doubt, that severe and
immovable intrepidity which sees danger and death without being
shaken by them, an invaluable quality for defensive war, and
which, developed by exercise and arms, may in its turn serve for
the attack. The Paraguayan is firm and tenacious in his projects:
in whatever he undertakes, if he meets with resistance, he grows
obstinate, and dies rather than yield or desist. He is insensible to
stimulants, and the seduction of immoderate desires. His family,
his valley, his country, the government which he idolizes, are all
the world to him. He is, however, notwithstanding his apparent
phlegm, most susceptible in whatsoever he considers to be
foreign domination, superiority, or influence, and attributes to
contempt the most indifferent act which is repugnant to his
habits, his customs, or his interests. He does not, however, evince
his resentment by words or cries—he is too concentrated for that;
but still he allows no opportunity to escape of expressing by
monosyllables, gestures, or actions, more energetic than words,
what is passing at the bottom of his heart.
[111] The first consul, Don Carlos Antonio Lopez, is a rich
landed proprietor. He received in his youth, at the College of
Assumption, such education as during the first years of this
century could be met with in the American colleges. When his
studies were concluded, he gave lessons in theology at the same
college, and was installed in a chair of, what at that time was
termed, philosophy. He afterwards devoted himself particularly to
the study of jurisprudence, and to the profession of an advocate,
and exercised it, according to general report, with zeal,
impartiality, and disinterestedness, which acquired him credit,
friends, and a select number of clients. When it became
dangerous, under the tyranny of the Dictator, to exercise a
profession so independent as that of advocate, M. Lopez retired
to his estate, 40 leagues from Assumption, and gave himself up
entirely to agriculture, and to the perusal of the few books which
he had been able to procure. He very rarely went to the capital,
and then only for a few days. His retired life, the description of
seclusion to which he had condemned himself, providentially
saved him from the distrust and terrors of the Dictator, and from
imprisonment or death, which were their usual consequences. M.
Lopez has never quitted his country, and previously he had not
taken the smallest share in public affairs. He was unable to make
acquaintance with the excellent works published on numerous
branches of public administration and political economy, or to
obtain the least intelligence of the events which had occurred in
Europe and America during the preceding twenty years, for the
Dictator persecuted, with more rigour than the Inquisition itself,
men of learning and their books, and neither one nor the other
had been able to penetrate Paraguay. Nevertheless, the acts and
writings of M. Lopez have shown that he was no stranger to
sound doctrines of administration, and that he had meditated in
his retreat on the situation of his country, its necessities, the evils
it suffered, and their causes, as well as on the remedies which it
would be possible to apply to them. Such qualities would naturally
acquire for him an ascendancy and preponderance in the
management of affairs; and, thus acquired, he has exercised
them discreetly and vigorously.
The second consul, Don Mariano Roque Alonzo, was a soldier
who reckoned many years service in barracks and garrisons. He
commanded a corps or battalion of the troops which occupied the
capital, when his companions in arms appointed him
Commandant-General in the interval between the death of the
Dictator and the assembly of Congress. During this short period
he maintained public order, and protected the tranquillity of the
citizens with zeal and moderation. Like a man of good sense and
honour, and of docile character, he at once acknowledged the
superiority of his colleague, which of itself is a merit, and always
deferred to it, in which he rendered a great service to his country.
In 1844, Congress again assembled, and elected M. Lopez
president, a renewal of confidence which his excellent conduct in
the interval of years that had elapsed since his first election fully
justified; and the same may, of course, be said of his subsequent
re-election.
[112] In 1849, when the army of Paraguay gave signs of life by
occupying a part of the province of Corrientes, to protect the
introduction of a large convoy of military equipments purchased
from Brazil by the president, General Rosas, who had laughed at
the army of Paraguay, found nothing to oppose to it when it
appeared but a defensive attitude. At the present time that army,
from its acquirements and discipline, is the envy of the armies of
the different nations of South America. A treaty of alliance,
offensive and defensive, entered into somewhat later with the
Brazils, and ratified by the Emperor, revealed the existence of
Paraguay to the political world, since this treaty had for its basis
the preservation of the nationality of the Oriental State.
The Dictator had a great number of men under arms; but there
was no army or any military organization of any kind, and the
soldiery was allowed to oppress the other classes. On the other
hand, it happened with the military service, as with all other
branches of the administration, that there were no other laws nor
rules than the capricious will of the Dictator: there was no law to
fix the term of service; the private soldiers had already served a
long time, and had a right to their discharge. Detachment and
garrison duty, even in the remotest parts of the frontiers, was
performed without any turn of service or regularity. The troops
remained there sometimes as long as fifteen years without being
relieved, and without receiving any other assistance or pay than a
meagre ration of meat. The consular government gradually
allowed these officers and soldiers to retire, and replaced them
with 3,000 men, obtained by recruiting. The officers who had
served for long periods had small pensions awarded them, and
the longest term for the most distant detachments was reduced
to three years.
[113] The Dictator died in 1840, at the age of 85, of apoplexy,
leaving the country in the most dangerous crisis in which a nation
can find itself, that of complete ‘acephalousness’ (being without a
head). Exclusively occupied with himself, the Dictator had neither
foreseen nor prepared anything for cases so easy to anticipate as
illness or death. Nevertheless, there were no parties in Paraguay;
neither violent reactions nor disorders have been seen there,
which has, with reason, surprised all the world. Nor did the
country return to the subjection of Buenos Ayres, which, however,
is sufficiently explained by the character of the inhabitants. The
moment the Dictator was dead, his ‘actuario,’ (the person through
whom all business with Francia was transacted,) who doubtless
desired to follow out his system, and succeed him under the
name and shadow of some military chiefs, suggested to the four
commandants of four of the ‘corps d’armée’ which occupied the
capital the idea of self-electing themselves into authority and
forming a government. The advice pleased these officers; they
added an alcalde to their number, elected the president, and
composed a governmental junta, of which the ‘actuario’ made
himself secretary. But neither the junta nor the secretary knew
how to, or were able to, maintain their footing. The junta itself
had been installed but a few days when it decreed the arrest of
its own secretary, who knowing well, doubtless, what he
deserved, hung himself in prison. The other military chiefs soon
made those who formed the junta imperatively feel the necessity
of convoking a congress, and of doing so by an authority not
confined to theirs. After some hesitation, the natural consequence
of the acephalous state of the country, these military chiefs
named a ‘Commandant General of Arms,’ without any
administrative authority, and with no other attribute than that of
convoking a congress within a given time, and of watching in the
interval over the maintenance of public order. This new personage
did not fail to execute the orders he had received, and convoked
a congress in March, 1841, six months after the death of the
Dictator. This congress, composed of 500 members, elected
directly by universal suffrage, hastened to satisfy the first
necessity of Paraguay, that of an authority to take the cause of
the country and its administration in hand; and the void, so full of
danger to the public weal, was filled up. A government,
composed of two consuls, was immediately appointed, and no
other obligation was imposed on it than that of ‘maintaining and
defending the independence and integrity of the Republic,’ and
which it was to swear before being formally inducted into office.
Finally, the congress had the wisdom to consider its task to be
thus terminated, and it added nothing to the duties of the consuls
thus elected than a recommendation to encourage public
education, relying for the rest on the conscience and knowledge
of these magistrates.
A consular government, composed of two individuals, with
identical rights and attributes, but who unavoidably differed in
character, ideas, and education, was eminently defective, and
carried within itself the germs of great inconveniences and
dangers to the State. But, happily, it produced none, thanks to
the deference and docility of one magistrate, the prudence and
superiority of the other, and the short duration of their term of
office, which was but for three years.
During the Dictatorship education had been altogether
abandoned; the establishments devoted to instruction had been
closed, and their resources diverted to other purposes. Lopez
established primary schools, and laid the foundation for a college;
and two Jesuits arriving about 1844, one of them took charge of
a school for mathematics; but they left the country in 1846.
Religion and public worship, which exercise so much influence
on the morality of a people, were suffering much from the want
of spiritual advisers. At the death of the Dictator there were only
fifty priests in Paraguay, all old, and several verging on
decrepitude. Many churches in the country, even in populous
parishes, were closed for want of pastors. The consular
government hastened to remedy so great an evil: it commenced
negotiations with the Holy See, and presented two priests for
consecration as bishops; one, as diocesan, and the other as
coadjutor. In the meantime it pressed the head of the bishopric to
extend to those parishes which were destitute of pastors the
jurisdiction of the nearest rectors.
[114] The revenue of Paraguay is derived principally from the
duties levied on goods imported and exported, (the former of
which ought to be considerably modified, and the latter reduced
to almost nothing,) stamped paper, shopkeepers’ licences, the
tithe of the produce of the soil, and the ‘half-annaata’ tax (half
the value of the waste lands granted by government); but we are,
as yet, ignorant of the details, no statistical documents being yet
published in the Republic.
There is also, however, another and not inconsiderable branch
of revenue, viz.: the monopoly enjoyed by government of the sale
of ‘maté,’ or Paraguay tea. It purchases this herb as prepared in
the forests of the state, and when well packed and in good
condition, at a given price, and disposes of it to the merchants for
exportation, as well as to the consumers, at the rate of seven
rials per arrobe.
What will at a later period constitute incalculable wealth for
Paraguay are its lands and forests: it will derive a very
considerable revenue from them. More than half of the surface of
the territory is public property, comprising immense forests of
timber, of the most varied and valued kinds, within reach of
navigable rivers. These lands at present are of little value; but
they will speedily acquire a much greater, for the president has
adopted a very wise system of disposing of them, viz., granting
them to applicants at a perpetual ground-rent of five per cent. on
the amount at which they are valued by competent persons. This
plan will greatly facilitate their sale.
[115] The consular government opened the world to men who
had been separated from it for thirty years, through the complete
isolation in which Francia kept the country; internal
communications and relations, which were limited to the most
indispensable acts of material life, were relieved from the dangers
and obstacles which tended to restrict and paralyse them. Access
to Stapua was permitted to every one who desired to betake
himself to that market, and navigation to all who desired to
export the produce of the country. The idea and the hope of
seeing commerce spring up anew, alone sufficed to reanimate the
spirits and awaken the minds of men long benumbed under an
oppressive yoke.
This renewal of hope and labour was, in a great measure, due
to the encouragement given to the consular government. There
were families fallen into a state of poverty bordering on utter
destitution; the government came to their assistance by causing
to be distributed amongst them more than three thousand head
of cattle; and in goods, instruments, and tools, to the value of
more than twenty-two thousand dollars. They were thus set up
again, and enabled to resume their labours.
[116] The administration of justice at Paraguay is as simple as
it naturally ought to be with a people whose civil relations are few
in number and little complicated; but the increase of property and
the complication of relations will require tribunals more learnedly
organized. What the consular government did sufficed to create
legal order, and put an end to the reign of force and arbitrary
sway, which the Dictator had substituted for the rule of justice;
but in criminal trials an innovation was introduced, which,
although imperfect, will be perfected in time, when education has
made greater advance, and which will incontestably serve as a
basis for the institution of the jury, the source of so many
benefits. It was ordained, that in order to pronounce criminal
sentences, the judge should associate with himself two
individuals, drawn by lot out of a list previously made. The
confiscations under the Dictator, the enormous fines which he
imposed, and which were equivalent to confiscation, had reduced
a great number of families to misery; the consular government
restored such property as yet existed, and adjudged some
indemnities for those which had been disposed of; the rural
estates which had been applied to the public service, and which it
would not have been convenient to withdraw, were purchased
from the former and legitimate possessors. This striking act of
equity alone completed a revolution in the social and
administrative order of Paraguay.
[117] The government which succeeded Francia’s despotism,
and of which M. Lopez was the head, did not allow the least sign
of blame or disapprobation of the Dictator’s conduct to transpire.
It would indeed have been useless, and have set a bad example,
to abuse his memory and awaken a remembrance of irreparable
evils.
From the death of the Dictator to the installation of the
consulate, all persecution, as well as the sanguinary executions
and fusillades, so common during Francia’s tyrannical sway, had
ceased. But the political prisoners, to the number of more than
600, had not been released, with four or five exceptions, and
suffered the same evils in the dungeons and casemates. When
the consuls, however, were elected, they released all these
political prisoners, and sent them to their families. It was a
significant act. It showed to all that the reign of cruelty and terror
had given place in the counsels of the government to principles of
mildness and sound policy. It was natural that the agents and
employés of the Dictator should have inspired resentments and
profound hatred by the pitiless way in which they had executed
the orders they had received; and complaints did begin to be
heard against some of the officials for the abuse they had made
of their authority.
[118] From the crowd of rank and fashion, I had a good
opportunity of observing the costumes. The limited intercourse
between this part of South America and other lands has, of late
years, degenerated to almost entire seclusion. It would,
therefore, be unreasonable to expect the inhabitants could
procure dresses of equal beauty to those of more favoured
nations. But the country manufactures of which the garments
were principally formed, though comparatively coarse, were very
elaborately worked by hand, and, consequently, infinitely dearer
than female attire of the same quality in Europe. For example, a
small coarse towel, or napkin, embroidered or worked all round
by hand, was worth a doubloon, or ounce of gold, equal, nearly,
to four pounds sterling.—Robertson.
[119] The Pacific Steam Navigation Company under contract
with Her Majesty’s Government for the conveyance of the mails
semi-monthly between Panama and Valparaiso, in connection
with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, have now on the
West Coast of South America the following steam-ships, viz:—
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