oversy. In 1841 the
coronation ceremony was performed, and Pedro II. assumed actual rule
over Brazil.

He was in almost every sense an efficient ruler. His personality was
viewed with confidence in Europe, and so long as he occupied the throne
the very important question of foreign loans presented few difficulties.
The influence of the Emperor was especially notable at the conclusion of
the Paraguayan War, when the finances of Brazil were in an exhausted
condition. Pedro II. was no autocrat; of a gentle and exceptionally
unselfish character, he governed in a simple and most painstaking
fashion, manifesting his patriotism in every possible direction.

Exterior events were of little importance during the first years of
Pedro's reign. The chief happenings were a certain amount of civil war
in the Rio Grande, and the partaking of the Brazilian forces in the
battles between Uruguay and Rosas, the tyrant of Argentina, varied with
occasional fights with Uruguay itself. In 1842 revolts broke out in the
provinces of Sao Paulo and Minas Geraes, but these, together with
similar insurrections in Rio Grande in 1845, and in Pernambuco in 1849,
were suppressed. In 1851 Brazil espoused the cause of Urquiza, the
Governor of Entre Rios, against that of Rosas, and the aid of the
Brazilian troops was largely instrumental in bringing about the fall of
the tyrant.

Dom Pedro's administration, moreover, was conducted with tact and good
judgment. His presence acted as a check upon the experimental tendencies
of the more effervescent of his subjects. He believed in slow and sure
progress, and undoubtedly during his reign Brazil responded to the care
and thought expended on her. Indeed, the policy of the Emperor was
liberal to a degree, and as such very welcome to a populace whose ideas,
if not instincts, had grown more or less democratic.

In 1865 the Five Years' War with Paraguay was commenced, a struggle in
which, under the tyrant Lopez, the tiny Republic held at bay the armies
of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, to the utter ruin of Paraguay itself,
and the virtual destruction of its male population. The struggle
terminated with the death of Lopez at the Battle of Cerro Cora in 1870,
after exhausting the resources of Brazilian finance. Meanwhile, in 1867,
Dom Pedro opened the Amazon to the commerce of all nations, and in 1871
passed a law for the gradual abolition of slavery.

Had Pedro been gifted with a child of a character resembling