The striking and universal success which crowned his work on the Suez Cknal gave him an absoluteness of thought which brooked no contradiction, a despotic temper before which every one must bow, and against which, when he had once taken a resolution, nothing could prevail, not even the most authoritative opposition or the most legitimate entreaties.
It was not so much the value of Tacna and Arica that put difficulties in the way of a settlement as the fact that the national pride of the Peruvians ill brooked the idea of permanently losing all claim to this section of country.
He claimed autocracy, suffered no rival near his throne, brooked no contradiction, demanded unconditional submission to his will and judgment.
It flattered his vanity to pose before the world as the dispenser of benefits; but his theoretical liberalism was mated with an autocratic will which brooked no contradiction.