As regards the social condition of the Brazilian empire, there is doubtless still much room for improvement. Where is there not? But when we recollect that until 1808 there was not a printing-press in the whole country—and now behold no large town without its journal, generally very admirably managed, and when we see educational establishments, many on a very large and highly efficient scale, in nearly every province of the empire—certainly we cannot say her progress has been slow. Previously to that time the only instruction imparted was through the convents, and consequently it was tinctured with all the old monastic and narrow-minded leaven attached to those institutions, whose downfall in Spain and Portugal was soon followed by similar measures in Brazil. Secular education became extended; seminaries and schools were established, both under the patronage of government and by private individuals; newspapers increased, and are now multiplied to the number of upwards of 50, including scientific and literary; and the whole course of things was changed; but without so far resulting in any general plan by which instruction is communicated to the masses of the people. French being the principal medium of intercommunication between the better classes and all foreigners, and being very generally spoken, publications in that language are necessarily most in request; and an assortment of French reading of the latest Parisian stamp may be had in Rio equal to what is procurable in any second-rate town in the country it comes from. It is needless to say that French fashions, in other than strictly intellectual items, prevail among all the educated classes in the Brazilian capital; and by ministering to such tastes a large number of native French derive considerable profit. In addition to the educational advantages already enumerated, and the list might be greatly extended were we to include the libraries, &c., some excellent institutions of a charitable nature abound, as well as hospitals; the one last founded of this class at Rio is on a most magnificent scale, in a small bay near the entrance of the port, where an admirably executed marble statue of the Emperor has also been most fittingly placed.[53] As it is under his auspices it has been commenced, and by his munificence and example, and that of his estimable consort, it has become one of the noblest edifices of the kind in existence on either side of the Atlantic.
Another of the social evils of Brazil is the difficulty of obtaining a labouring population, a necessity consequent on the importation of slaves having ceased. It is one which, unless seriously and promptly dealt with, must entail very momentous consequences: a continuous immigration of free labourers appears to be the only solution of the question. But whence are they to come in anything like the required numbers? It is quite clear that European labourers cannot work with slaves, nor will the hardy islanders of the Atlantic consent to do so; people, moreover, are needed who can bear the climate, and will put up with hardships which only those acclimated can be expected to endure—that is, the climate of the more torrid parts of the Brazils; for there are vast regions, larger than the whole United Kingdom, where out-door labour is perfectly practicable to natives of Great Britain, and where some of such natives have settled and prospered as agriculturists, as we shall have occasion to refer to in speaking of the Banda Oriental, in respect to the adjoining Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul. The only alternative seems to be coolies from China; and with the present propensities of that class, no doubt numbers would flock to Brazil, if the needful encouragement and facilities were given. At all events the experiment might easily be tried, and the sooner it is done the better.[54] Some parties are sanguine enough to believe that the aborigines of the country, the remnants of the Indian tribes, might be brought under civilized rule, and instructed so as eventually to be rendered capable of replacing slaves; but this plan seems very problematical, unless in those districts where they have already been accustomed to mingle and work with the other inhabitants, as in the northern provinces of Bahia and Pernambuco. In the latter province especially, there is a very fine race of men called Sertanejos, who make good labourers, and are very useful in bringing produce to market by means of horses. The number of men so employed may be imagined when, by the law of Pernambuco, one man must accompany every horse; and in the busy season 2,000 horses have been known to pass the toll-bar inwards, and the same number outwards, making altogether 4,000, although the edict alluded to is not very strictly enforced, the distance travelled by these horses being from 50 to 300 miles. It is literally impossible to form a proximate conjecture as to the number of Indians in Brazil, the estimates of various authorities ranging from one-fourth of a million to a million and a half, divided into Indios, Mansos, and Tapirios; the former partially civilized and speaking some Portuguese, the latter still savage. Nearly all the tribes are of large stature; and though exceedingly low in the scale of civilization, possess many of the virtues of the barbarian, especially when uncontaminated by the vices of the white man, or proximity to him. For the most part they are warlike, the climate by no means enervating their bodies or subduing their spirit; and though in some respects ferocious when excited, the practice of cannibalism towards prisoners taken in battle is quite extinct, if indeed it ever really existed. Some of the tribes exhibit an extraordinary antipathy to the negroes, which is the more remarkable as the marriages of people of colour with whites are very common, and degrees of black that would throw a citizen of the United States into a fever of indignation are looked upon with philosophic indifference, both by Brazilians and natives of Portugal in Brazil. Probably this is one reason why slaves in Brazil are treated with a kindness and humanity altogether unexampled in any other part of the world, a fact upon which all authorities are agreed, notwithstanding some shocking exceptions that were wont to be practised towards newly-imported unfortunates from the coast of Africa, a custom now fortunately at an end. No doubt a wise and conciliatory policy exercised towards those Indian tribes who still occupy large districts of Brazil would be attended with beneficial results; but this is a work of time. What the country now wants is immediate labour, and for a supply of this, emigration of some kind is the only available source. The towns are already beginning to feel the effects of the diminution, and wages have consequently risen considerably; whilst in the interior the value of slaves has greatly increased, a preliminary perhaps to their future emancipation.
Before quitting the subject of Rio improvements, I may note an interesting excursion made over a short line of railway, and the first ever attempted in this country, which is to connect the city with Petropolis (the mountain and summer residence of the court and upper classes), and which was recorded as below in the ‘Journal do Commercio’ of the 6th September, 1853, the day on which we left Rio for the River Plate.[55]
Respecting the mercantile position of Brazil generally, I turned with some considerable curiosity to the edition published in the course of the present year, 1854, of ‘M’Culloch’s Commercial Dictionary,’ a work of deserved authority and influence, as every business man is aware, though, I regret to be obliged to add, the article on the country I am now treating of does not sustain the character to which the volume is in so many other respects entitled. I had expected, as the result of recent events in Brazil, some marked modification in the writer’s opinions as expressed under this head in former editions, but could find none; and indeed the whole of his remarks, which I annex, would appear, from internal evidence, to be as emphatic as in previous editions, notwithstanding the date on his title-page, and his assertion in the preface that the latest information had been brought to bear on every point. He says:—
‘The imports into Brazil, which are chiefly from Great Britain, consist principally of our cottons, woollens, linen, iron and steel, hardware, butter, and other articles, amounting in all, in ordinary years, to about £2,500,000. It is frequently, no doubt, said that our exports to Brazil amount to double that sum, or to more than £5,000,000. But there is no room or ground for any such statement. The return is not derived from Brazil, but from our own Custom-house; and there is no reason why the merchants should undervalue the exports to Brazil more than to any other country. The commercial policy of Brazil has, on the whole, been characterised by considerable liberality. The duties on imports and exports have been mostly moderate, and have been imposed more for the sake of revenue than of protection. In October, 1847, the legislature of Brazil issued a decree, imposing 33⅓ per cent. higher duties on the ships and produce of those nations which did not admit the ships and produce of Brazil into their ports on a fair footing of reciprocity. This decree was, in part, provoked by our policy in regard to the slave trade, and was in avowed retaliation of the high discriminating duties we had imposed on Brazilian and other slave-grown sugar. But the modified views of the Brazilian government in regard to the slave-trade, and the admission of slave-grown sugars into our markets under reasonable duties, which are to be equalised with those on British colonial sugars in 1854, occasioned, in 1849, the revocation of the discriminating duties referred to. A provincial duty of 15 per cent., imposed in some of the provinces on hides and other articles, has also been repealed. Great Britain enjoys the largest share of the trade of Brazil; and that share will, it is probable, be a good deal increased, when the duties on foreign and colonial sugars are equalised in 1854. The abolition of the discriminating duty on foreign coffee in the course of the year 1851 has occasioned a considerable increase in the imports of Brazilian coffee. The commerce of Brazil has sustained great injury from the wretched state of the currency and of the finances; the value of the former, which consists almost wholly of paper, being excessively depreciated and liable to extreme fluctuations, and the revenue being inadequate to meet the expenditure. Latterly, however, vigorous efforts have been made to increase the revenue; and it is hoped that, in the event of the finances being placed on a better footing, measures may also be taken to improve the currency.’
The concluding passage, as to the inadequacy of the income to the expenditure, is altogether questionable; and the admission of such an assertion into a work of the character just quoted from, betrays a determination altogether inexplicable, for of course it is impossible to put it down to the score of ignorance. The rapid and progressive liquidation of the national debt, and the unfailing punctuality of the dividends, added to the price Brazilian stocks command in the British market, sufficiently bespeak the healthiness of Brazilian finance. I have not been able to discover upon what data it is that Mr. M’Culloch fixes the annual imports of British produce into Brazil at so low a figure as he mentions in the foregoing extract, and which figure has appeared in successive editions of his work for many years back. But it is quite incorrect; and, at least, as much below the actual amount as the one he condemns as too high. A witness before the committee on Slave Trade Treaties last year, a gentleman officially connected with the Brazilian embassy, and having the best means of knowing the accuracy of what he said, declared the amount of trade during the year 1852 between Great Britain and the Brazils to be about three millions and a half sterling per annum of imports, entirely from England. Those imports[56] are sold there on one year’s credit; so that every year there are £7,000,000 of English goods in Brazil. There is always a deposit of British goods equal to one year’s consumption, and one year’s consumption due. Besides that, there is a national debt to England of £6,000,000 sterling; Brazil has to pay interest for that. Then there is the internal debt, where £600,000 of bonds belong to Englishmen; which makes a total of £13,600,000 of British property engaged in Brazil.
Hence, then, the magnitude of the interests in this country as affected by our relations with Brazil. Nor are the interests of humanity at large on a less extensive scale. The witness last adverted to—and I can state of my own knowledge that the authority he adduces is a most competent one—an Englishman long resident in Brazil, in the public service of that country, says:—
‘Allow me to cite from the writings of an Englishman who appears to be very well acquainted with the affairs of the Brazils: it is an article about a book published by Sir Woodbine Parish, from the British Quarterly Review for February, 1853. The book is about the River Plate, but there are in the article of the Review two or three little passages to which I will beg the attention of the Committee; beginning about the attack of Caseros, where Rosas had been put down. He says, “On this occasion, however, the Brazilian alliance introduced a regular, well disciplined, and properly commanded army into the contest, and in the hour of Buenos Ayrean defeat, it was to its humanity, order, discipline, and obedience that the troops of Rosas appealed; Surrender to the blue pants (so the Brazilian infantry was termed), they do not kill! was their cry.” This is to prove that Brazilians are not so blackened in civilization as they generally think in Europe, and not so inhuman; “and thus a body not exceeding 3,000 men had upwards of 5,000 prisoners, not one of whom was injured; on the contrary, a contingent of Rosas’ army refused to surrender to the Oriental forces of Urquiza; but on the appearance of a Brazilian officer (Captain Petra) at once laid down their arms; nor was this example of humanity lost on the Argentines themselves, in the subsequent occurrences at Buenos Ayres.” I have read that to show that the Brazilian people are ill judged of, and that they are more desirous to put an end to slavery than they have had credit for, on account of the point of civilization they have come to, and on account of the circumstance of its being to their interest. The article of the Review contains still the following observations: “Nor ought the events we have narrated to be uninstructive to Europe; for they teach the impolicy of England and France attempting to precipitate, either by diplomatic or military agency, events in distant countries, whose circumstances they are so imperfectly acquainted with; and the shortsightedness of prohibiting the intervention of a nation materially and geographically, as well as politically, concerned. They teach us also the dignity and office of the Empire of Brazil in the political system of the world; and how much more that state may be made to contribute its share to the great mass of human happiness, by promoting its welfare, than, as has been done, by wounding its pride.” Thus by promoting its welfare, and coming to an amicable understanding with it, there would have been a much fairer result, perhaps much quicker, than by wounding its pride, and by much stronger measures.’