Part 816

"Bolivar reassembled the deputies of the Congress of Lower Peru, February 10, 1825, and in his message to that body resigned the dictatorship, adding, 'I felicitate Peru on her being delivered from whatever is most dreadful on earth; from war by the victory of Ayacucho, and from despotism by my resignation. Proscribe for ever, I entreat you, this tremendous authority, which was the sepulchre of Rome.' On the same occasion he also said; 'My continuance in this republic is an absurd and monstrous phenomenon; it is the approbrium of Peru;' with other expressions equally strong; while at the same time, at the pressing solicitation of the Congress, he consented, notwithstanding his many declarations of reluctance, to remain at the head of the republic. Nothing could exceed the blind submissiveness of this Congress to Bolivar. After investing him with dictatorial authority for another year, they voted him a grant of a million of dollars, which he twice refused, with a disinterestedness that does him the greatest honor. … Liberality of feeling, and entire freedom from rapacity of spirit, must be admitted as prominent traits in his character. After continuing in session about a month, the Congress came to a resolution, that as they had granted absolute and unconditional power to Bolivar, in regard to all subjects, whether legislative or executive, it was unnecessary, and incompatible with his authority, that they should continue to exercise their functions; and they accordingly separated. Bolivar, being left without check or control in the government, after issuing a decree for installing a new Congress at Lima the ensuing year, departed from Lima in April, for the purpose of visiting the interior provinces of Upper and Lower Peru. … There is reason to believe, that the flattering reception, with which he was greeted on this tour, largely contributed to foster those views of ambition respecting Peru, which he betrayed in the sequel. Certain it is, at least, that the extravagant gratitude of the inhabitants of Peru, gave him occasion to assume the task of a legislator, and thus to bring his political principles more directly before the world. When the victory of Ayacucho left the provinces of Upper Peru free to act, the great question presented to their consideration was, whether Upper Peru should be united to Lower Peru, or reannexed to Buenos Ayres, or constitute an independent state. Under the auspices of the Liberator and of Sucre [Bolivar's chief of staff], a general assembly was convened at Chuquisaco in August, 1825, which declared the will of the people to be, that Upper Peru should become a separate republic, and decreed that it should be called Bolivia in honor of the Liberator. Here their functions should properly have ceased, with the fulfilment of the object for which they met. Regardless, however, of the limited extent of their powers, they proceeded to exercise the authority of a general Congress. They conferred the supreme executive powers on Bolivar, so long as he should reside within the territory of the republic. Sucre was made captain-general of the army, with the title of Grand Marshal of Ayacucho, and his name was bestowed upon the capital. Medals, statues, and pictures were bountifully and profusely decreed, in honor of both Sucre and Bolivar. To the latter was voted a million of dollars, as an acknowledgment of his preeminent services to the country. With the same characteristic magnanimity, which he displayed on a like occasion in Lower Peru, he refused to accept the grant for his own benefit, but desired that it might be appropriated to purchasing the emancipation of about a thousand negroes held in servitude in Bolivia. Finally, they solicited Bolivar to prepare for the new republic a fundamental code, that should perpetuate his political principles in the very frame and constitution of the state. {2525} Captivated by the idea of creating a nation, from its very foundation, Bolivar consented to undertake the task, if, indeed, which has been confidently asserted to be the case, he did not himself procure the request to be made. The Liberator left Chuquisaca in January, 1826, and returned to Lima, to assist at the installation of the Congress summoned to meet there in February. He transmitted the form of a constitution for Bolivia from Lima, accompanied with an address, bearing date May 25, 1826. Of this extraordinary instrument, we feel at a loss to decide in what terms to speak. Bolivar has again and again declared, that it contains his confession of political faith. He gave all the powers of his mind to its preparation; he proclaimed it as the well-weighed result of his anxious meditations. … This constitution proposes a consolidated or central, not a federal, form of government; and thus far it is unobjectionable. Every ten citizens are to name an elector, whose tenure of office is four years. The Legislative power is to be vested in three branches, called tribunes, senators, and censors. Tribunes are to be elected for four years, senators for eight, and censors for life. So complicated is the arrangement proposed for the enactment of laws by means of this novel legislature, and so arbitrary and unnatural the distribution of powers among the several branches, that it would be impracticable for any people, having just notions of legislative proceedings, to conduct public business in the projected mode; and much more impracticable for men, like the South Americans, not at all familiar with the business of orderly legislation. But the most odious feature in the constitution relates to the nature and appointment of the executive authority. It is placed in the hands of a president, elected in the first instance by the legislative body, holding his office for life, without responsibility for the acts of his administration, and having the appointment of his successor. The whole patronage of the state, every appointment of any importance, from the vice-president and secretaries of state down to the officers of the revenue, belongs to him; in him is placed the absolute control of all the military force of the nation, it being at the same time specially provided, that a permanent armed force shall be constantly maintained. For the mighty power, the irresistible influence, which this plan imparts to the executive, the only corresponding security, assured to the people, is the inviolability of persons and property. The constituent Congress of Bolivia assembled at Chuquisaca, May 25, 1826, and passively adopted the proposed constitution to the letter, as if it had been a charter granted by a sovereign prince to his subjects, instead of a plan of government submitted to a deliberative assembly for their consideration. It took effect accordingly, as the constitution of Bolivia, and was sworn to by the people; and General Sucre was elected president for life under it, although one of its provisions expressly required, that the president should be a native of Bolivia."

_C. Cushing, Bolivar and the Bolivian Constitution (N. A. Rev., January 1830)._

PERU: A. D. 1826-1876. Retirement of Bolivar. Attempted confederation with Bolivia and war with Chile. The succession of military presidents. Abolition of Slavery. War with Spain.

"As Bolivar … was again prevailed upon [1826] by the Peruvians to accept the dictatorship of the northern republic, and was at the same time President of the United States of Colombia, he was by far the most powerful man on the continent of America. For a time it was supposed that the balance of power on the southern continent was falling into Colombian hands. … But the power of Bolivar, even in his own country, rested on a tottering basis. Much more was this the case in the greater Vice-royalty. The Peruvian generals, who ruled the opinion of the country, were incurably jealous of him and his army, and got rid of the latter as soon as they could clear off the arrears of pay. They looked upon the Code Bolivar itself as a badge of servitude, and were not sorry when the domestic disturbances of Colombia summoned the Dictator from among them [September, 1826]. The Peruvians, who owed a heavy debt, both in money and gratitude, to Colombia, now altogether repudiated Bolivar, his code, and his government; and the Bolivians followed their example by expelling Sucre and his Colombian troops (1828). The revolution which expelled the Colombian element was mainly a national and military one: but it was no doubt assisted by whatever of liberalism existed in the country. Bolivar had now shown himself in Colombia to be the apostle of military tyranny, and he was not likely to assume another character in Peru. The ascendeney of Colombia in the Perus was thus of short duration; but the people of the two Perus only exchanged Colombian dictatorship for that of the generals of their own nation."

_E. J. Payne, History of European Colonies, pages 290-291._

"A Peruvian Congress met in 1827, after General Bolivar had returned to Colombia, and elected Don José Lamar, the leader of the Peruvian infantry at Ayacucho, as President of the Republic; but his defeat in an attempt to wrest Guayaquil from Colombia led to his fall, and Agustin Gamarra, an Ynca Indian of Cuzco, succeeded him in 1829. Although successful soldiers secured the presidential chair, the administration in the early days of the Republic contained men of rank, and others of integrity and talent. … General Gamarra served his regular term of office, and after a discreditable display of sedition he was succeeded in 1834 by Don Luis José Orbegoso. Then followed an attempt to unite Peru and Bolivia in a confederation. The plan was conceived by Don Andres Santa Cruz, an Ynca Indian of high descent, who had been President of Bolivia since 1829. Orbegoso concurred, and the scheme, which had in it some elements of hopefulness and success, was carried out, but not without deplorable bloodshed. The Peru-Bolivian Confederation was divided into three States—North Peru, South Peru, and Bolivia. During the ascendancy of Santa Cruz, Peru enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity. But his power excited the jealousy of Chile, and that Republic united with Peruvian malcontents, headed by General Gamarra, to destroy it. A Chilian army landed, and Santa Cruz was hopelessly defeated in the battle of Yungay, which was fought in the Callejon de Huaylas, on the banks of the river Santa, on January 20th, 1839. A Congress assembled at the little town of Huancayo, in the Sierra, which acknowledged Gamarra as President of the Republic, and proclaimed a new Constitution on November 16th, 1839. But the new state of things was of short duration. {2526} On the pretext of danger from the party of Santa Cruz, war was declared upon Bolivia, which resulted in the defeat of the Peruvians at the battle of Yngavi, near the banks of Lake Titicaca, on November 20th, 1841, and the death of Gamarra. A very discreditable period of anarchy ensued, during which Gamarra's generals fought with each other for supremacy, which was ended by the success of another Indian, and on April 19th, 1845, General Don Ramon Castilla was proclaimed Constitutional President of Peru. … Uneducated and ignorant, his administrative merits were small, but his firm and vigorous grasp of power secured for Peru long periods of peace. … At the end of Castilla's term of office General Echenique succeeded him; but in 1854 Castilla placed himself at the head of a revolution, and again found himself in power. A new Constitution was promulgated in 1856; the tribute of the Indians and negro slavery were abolished, and a grant of $1,710,000 was voted as compensation to the owners of slaves. The mass of the people ceased to be taxed. The revenue was entirely derived from sales of guano, customs duties, licences, and stamps. … When Castilla retired from office in 1862, he was succeeded by General San Roman, an old Ynca Indian of Puno, whose father had fought under Pumacagua. The Republic had then existed for 40 years, during which time it had been torn by civil or external wars for nine years and had enjoyed 81 years of peace and order. Very great advances had been made in prosperity during the years of peace. … General San Roman died in 1863, his Vice President, General Pezet, was replaced [through a revolution] by Colonel Don Mariano Ignacio Prado, and a war with Spain practically ended with the repulse of the Spanish fleet from Callao au May 2nd, 1866. The war was unjust, the pretext being the alleged ill-treatment of some Spanish immigrants at an estate called Talambo, in the coast valley of Jequetepeque, which might easily have been arranged by arbitration. But the success at Callao aroused the enthusiasm of the people and excited strong patriotic feelings. Colonel Don Jose Balta was elected President of Peru on August 2nd, 1868, the present Constitution having been proclaimed on August 31st, 1867. The Senate is composed of Deputies of the Provinces, with a property qualification, and the House of Representatives of members nominated by electoral colleges of provinces and districts, one member for every 20,000 inhabitants. The district colleges choose deputies to the provincial colleges, who elect the representatives to Congress. There are 44 senators and 110 representatives. Executive power is in the hands of a President and Vice–President, elected for four years, with a Cabinet of five Ministers. … The government of Colonel Balta entered upon a career of wild extravagance, and pushed forward the execution of railways and other public works with feverish haste, bringing ruin upon the country. … It is sad that a wretched military outbreak, in which the President was killed on July 26th, 1872, should have given it a tragic termination. … On August 2nd, 1872, Don Manuel Pardo became Constitutional President of Peru. He was the first civilian that had been elected. … He came to the helm at a period of great financial difficulty, and he undertook a thankless but patriotic task. … He was the best President that Peru has ever known. When his term of office came to an end, he was peacefully succeeded, on August 2nd, 1876, by General Don Mariano Ignacio Prado."

_C. R. Markham, Peru, chapter 8._

PERU: A. D. 1879-1884. The disastrous war with Chile.

See CHILE: A. D. 1833-1884.

PERU: A. D. 1886-1894. Slow recovery.

Since the close of the war with Chile, Peru has been slowly recovering from its destructive effects. General Caceres became President in 1886, and was succeeded in 1890 by General Remigio Morales Bermudez, whose term expires in 1894.

PERU: End--------

PERUGIA, Early history of.

See PERUSIA.

PERUGIA, Under the domination of the Baglioni.

See BAGLIONI.

PERUS, The Two.

Upper Peru and Lower Peru of the older Spanish viceroyalty are represented, at the present time, the former by the Republic of Bolivia, the latter by the Republic of Peru.

PERUSIA, The war of.

In the second year of the triumvirate of Octavius, Antony and Lepidus, Antony being in the east, his wife Fulvia and his brother fomented a revolt in Italy against Octavius, which forced the latter for a time to quit Rome. But his coolness, with the energy and ability of his friend Agrippa, overcame the conspiracy. The army of the insurgents was blockaded in Perusia (modern Perugia) and sustained a siege of several months, so obstinate that the whole affair came to be called the war of Perusia. The siege was distinguished by a peculiar horror; for the slaves of the city were deliberately starved to death, being denied food and also denied escape, lest the besiegers should learn of the scarcity within the walls.

_C. Merivale, History of Rome, chapter 27._

PERUVIAN BARK, Introduction of.

See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17TH CENTURY.

PERUVIAN QUIPU.

See QUIPU.

PES, The.

See FOOT, THE ROMAN.

PESHWA OF THE MAHRATTAS, The.

See INDIA: A. D. 1662-1748; 1798-1805; and 1816-1819.

PESO DE ORO.

See SPANISH COINS.

PESTALOZZI, and educational reform.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS, &c.: A. D. 1798-1827.

PESTH: A. D. 1241. Destruction by the Mongols.

See MONGOLS: A. D. 1229-1294.

PESTH: A. D. 1872. Union with Buda.

See BUDAPESTH.

PESTILENCE.

See PLAGUE.

PETALISM.

A vote of banishment which the ancient Syracusans brought into practice for a time, in imitation of the Ostracism of the Athenians,—(see OSTRACISM). The name of the citizen to be banished was written, at Syracuse, on olive-leaves, instead of on shells, as at Athens. Hence the name, petalism.

_Diodorus, Historical Library, book 11, chapter 26._

PETER, Latin Emperor at Constantinople (Romania), A. D. 1217-1219. Peter I. (called The Great), Czar of Russia, 1689-1725.

Peter I., King of Aragon and Navarre, 1094-1104.

Peter I., King of Hungary, 1088-1046.

Peter II., Czar of Russia, 1727-1780.

Peter II., King of Aragon, 1196-1213.

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Peter II., King of Sicily, 1337-1342.

Peter III., Czar of Russia, 1762.

Peter III., King of Aragon, 1276-1285; King of Sicily, 1283-1285.

Peter IV., King of Aragon, 1336-1387.

Peter the Hermit's Crusade.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1094-1095; and 1096-1099.

Peter.

See, also, PEDRO.

PETERBOROUGH, Earl of, and the siege of Barcelona.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1705.

PETERLOO, Massacre of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1816-1820.

PETER'S PENCE.

King Offa, of the old English kingdom of Mercia, procured, by a liberal tribute to Rome, a new archbishopric for Lichfield, thus dividing the province of Canterbury. "This payment … is probably the origin of the Rom-feoh, or Peter's pence, a tax of a penny on every hearth, which was collected [in England] and sent to Rome from the beginning of the tenth century, and was a subject of frequent legislation. But the archiepiscopate of Lichfield scarcely survived its founder."

_W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, chapter 8, section 86 (volume 1)._

PETERSBURG, Siege and evacuation of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (JUNE: VIRGINIA), (JULY: VIRGINIA), (AUGUST: VIRGINIA); 1865 (MARCH-APRIL: VIRGINIA).

PETERSHAM, Rout of Shays' rebels at.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1786-1787.

PETERVARDEIN, Battle of (1716).

See HUNGARY: A. D. 1600-1718.

PETILIA, Battle at.

See SPARTACUS, RISING OF.

PETIT SERJEANTY.

See FEUDAL TENURES.

PETITION OF RIGHT, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1625–1628; and 1628.

PETITS MAÍTRES, Les.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1650-1651.

PETRA, Arabia. The rock-city of the Nabatheans.

See NABATHEANS.

PETRA, Illyricum: Cæsar's blockade of Pompeius.

See ROME B. C. 48.

PETRA, Lazica.

See LAZICA.

PETROBRUSIANS. HENRICIANS.

"The heretic who, for above twenty years, attempted a restoration of a simple religion in Southern France, the well-known Pierre de Bruys, a native of Gap or Embrun, … warred against images and all other visible emblems of worship; he questioned the expediency of infant baptism, the soundness of the doctrine of transubstantiation, and opposed prayers for the dead; but he professed poverty for himself, and would have equally enforced it upon all the ministers of the altar. He protested against the payment of tithes; and it was, most probably, owing to this last, the most heinous of all offences, that he was, towards 1130, burnt with slow fire by a populace maddened by the priests, at St. Gilles, on the Rhone. … His followers rallied … and changed their name of Petrobrusians into that of Henricians, when the mantle of their first master rested on the shoulders of Henry, supposed by Mosheim [Eccles. History, volume 2] to have been an Italian Eremite monk."

_L. Mariotti (A. Gallenga), Frà Dolcina and his Times, chapter 1._

PETROCORII, The.

A Gallic tribe established in the ancient Périgord, the modern French department of the Dordogne.

_Napoleon III., History of Cæsar, book 3, chapter 2, footnote._

PETRONILLA, Queen of Aragon, A. D. 1137-1163.

PETRONIUS MAXIMUS, Roman Emperor (Western), A. D. 455.

PEUCINI, The.

"The Peucini derived their name from the little island Peuce (Piczino) at the mouth of the Danube. Pliny (iv. 14) speaks of them as a German people bordering on the Daci. They would thus stretch through Moldavia from the Carpathian Mountains to the Black Sea. Under the name Bastarnæ they are mentioned by Livy (xl. 57, 58) as a powerful people, who helped Philip, king of Macedonia, in his wars with the Romans. Plutarch ('Life of Paullus Æmilius,' ch. ix.) says they were the same as the Galatæ, who dwelt round the Ister (Danube). If so, they were Gauls, which Livy also implies."

_Church and Brodribb, Geographical Notes to The Germany of Tacitus._

PEUKETIANS, The.

See ŒNOTRIANS.

PEUTINGERIAN TABLE, The.

This is the name given to the only copy which has survived of a Roman official road-chart. "Tables of this kind were not maps in the proper sense of the term, but were rather diagrams drawn purposely out of proportion, on which the public roads were projected in a panoramic view. The latitude and longitude and the positions of rivers and mountains were disregarded so far as they might interfere with the display of the provinces, the outlines being flattened out to suit the shape of a roll of parchment; but the distances between the stations were inserted in numerals, so that an extract from the record might be used as a supplement to the table of mileage in the road-book. The copy now remaining derives its name from Conrad Peutinger of Augsburg, in whose library it was found on his death in 1547. It is supposed to have been brought to Europe from a monastery in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, and to have been a copy taken by some thirteenth century scribe from an original assigned to the beginning of the fourth century or the end of the third.'

_C. Elton, Origins of English History, chapter 11 and plate 7._

ALSO IN: _W. M. Ramsay, Historical Geography of Asia Minor, part 1, chapter 6._

PEVENSEY.

The landing-place of William the Conqueror, September 28, A. D. 1066, when he came to win the crown of England.

See, also, ANDERIDA.

PFALZ. PFALZGRAF.

In German, the term signifying Palatine and Palatine Count.

See PALATINE COUNT.

PHACUSEH.

See JEWS: THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.

PHÆACIANS, The.

"We are wholly at a loss to explain the reasons that led the Greeks in early times … to treat the Phæacians [of Homer's Odyssey] as a historical people, and to identify the Homeric Scheria with the island of Corcyra [modern Corfu]. … We must … be content to banish the kindly and hospitable Phæacians, as well as the barbarous Cyclopes and Læstrygones, to that outer zone of the Homeric world, in which everything was still shrouded in a veil of marvel and mystery."

_E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 3, section 3 volume 1)._

PHALANGITES, The.

The soldiers of the Macedonian phalanx.

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PHALANX, The Macedonian.