 Section 41 of the South American Republics, volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This slip-revox recording is in the public domain. Part 4, Brazil. Chapter 18, events of 1849 to 1864. After the final pacification of the country, prosperity came with a rush. In the six years from 1849 to 1856, foreign commerce more than doubled. The circulating medium was brought to a sound basis. Coffee had doubled in value by 1850, and its culture was rapidly extended. The profits of sugar-raising had not risen in the same proportion, and rio, Sao Paulo, and minas drew slaves from the northern provinces. The decline of mining in the late years of the 18th century and the profitableness of sugar and tobacco during the Great Wars had made Maranhão, Pernambuco, and Bahia overshadow the south for a time. But now the tide turned the other way. Brazil's drift has ever since been to the south. The emperor and government followed an enlightened and vigorous progressive commercial policy. The subjects of internal communication, of colonization, of better steamship facilities, of the opening of public lands to settlement, of public instruction, of liberal treatment of foreigners, and of administrative and financial reforms were taken up intelligently. So far as the government was concerned, the suspicion and jealous exclusive policy was abandoned, and large amounts of foreign capital began to be invested in commercial houses, preparing the way for the great government loans and railroad buildings soon to come. The British had the lion's share of the importing, and the Americans of the carrying trade. The history of Brazil for the next few decades contains examples of devotion, of high-mindedness, and of great capacities, well-vully employed, of which any country might well be proud. The higher officials as a rule left office poorer than they had entered it. However, in the lower ranks of the magistracy and the government departments, there was much to be desired. The public service became more and more the one career sought by young men of ability. The mercantile and property-owning classes in general kept out of politics. Only land-owning and slave-holding aristocracy owed a nominal allegiance to the two parties whose active members were the office holders, or those who hoped to become office holders. The most promising and prominent young men were selected from the graduates of the universities, placed in the magistracy, thence to be promoted to chamber of deputies, and to be governors of provinces. The final goal was a nomination to the senate, where, from the dignified security of a life position, the successful Brazilian politician watched the struggles of those below him. The bright young magistrates were preoccupied with their own ambitions, and were not responsible for the people of the localities they happened to be governing for the moment. Real local interests were not studied. Those who reached the highest positions applied their well-trained minds to larger problems, but their work was too much from above down. They produced admirable reports and framed admirable laws, but among the lazy magistracy and indifferent people, the energy to put them into effect was too often wanting. But the level of political well-being rose noticeably, though fitfully. The Brazil of 1850 had progressed far beyond the Brazil of colonial times. Liberty of speech was unquestioned and unquestionable. Arbitrary imprisonment had died out. The grosser forms of tyranny had vanished. Property rights and the administration of civil justice had much improved. Judges no longer openly received presents from litigants. Though the nation had not risen to the conception of a judiciary independent from the executive. In 1850 the emperor chose a new conservative cabinet, which proved the most efficient the country had known. Its first great act was to abolish the slave trade. The year 1850 is also memorable as that in which the yellow fever began those terrible ravages on the Brazilian coast which have never since entirely ceased. The first epidemic is said to have been the worst which ever visited Rio. 200 persons fell sick daily, and the wealthier classes were especially attacked. Among the victims was the great statesman Bernardo de Vasconceos, and many deputies, senators and diplomatic representatives. Congress adjourned in terror. In the earlier epidemics the citizens of Rio were just as susceptible as foreigners. Later however they acquired a relative immunity, an immunity which is not shared by Brazilians who have lived in non-infected districts. Brazil and Argentina had agreed in 1828 that Uruguay should be an independent and neutral buffer state between them. But the Buenos Aires never forgot that for geographical and historical reasons Uruguay naturally belonged to them. Rosas, the Argentine dictator, assisted the Oriba faction which openly advocated entering the confederation, while the Rio Grande Brazilians who owned much property on the Uruguayan side of the border aided the Rivera faction. To protect the property interests of its citizens and prevent Rosas from conquering Uruguay the Brazilian government quietly made military preparations and formed an alliance with the Rivera party and with Urquiza, the ruler of the province of Entre Rios, to which the dictator of Paraguay and the president of Bolivia gave a passive adhesion. It amounted to a coalition to forestall Rosas' plan of uniting the whole of the old vice-royalty and the plate valley under his rule. Brazil was virtually the instigator of a combination of the weaker Spanish-American states against the strongest one. Urquiza crossed the Uruguay and with the aid of the Brazilian troops made short work of Oriba's army which was besieging Rivera in Montevideo. Rosas responded with a declaration of war and began collecting a formidable army. Urquiza resolved to carry the war to the gates of Buenos Aires. The allies gathered in camp on the left bank of the Paraná, a hundred miles above Rosario, a great army which numbered 4,000 Brazilians, 18,000 Argentines, mostly from the half-Indian provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes, and the contingent of Uruguayans. A Brazilian fleet under Admiral Grenfell had penetrated up the Paraná and protected their crossing of the Great River. On the 17th of December they got safely over the Paraná and out of the low country of Entre Rios onto the dry pampas of the right bank. Thence they marched down on Buenos Aires where Rosas was awaiting them. On the 3rd of February 1852 he gave them battle in the suburbs of that city. He was completely defeated and fled to England. Brazil found herself in a peculiarly advantageous position. The war had cost her little in money or man. Buenos Aires might no longer hope to dominate the other Argentine provinces and seemed likely to offer small resistance to the unified and centralized empire. Uruguay's independence of Buenos Aires and Brazil's preponderance in Montevideo were assured. The Rio Grande denses flocked over the border, bought large amounts of property and enjoyed peculiar privileges, while the Uruguayan government accepted subsidies from that of Brazil. The country's commercial development continued even more rapidly after the war. In 1853 the Bank of Brazil was authorized to issue circulating notes and the expansion of credit stimulated business. The same year the conservative ministry, which had so brilliantly governed the nation since 1848, was forced to resign on account of the constant interference by the emperor. It was replaced by the, quote, conciliation cabinets, and, quote, whose chief, the Marquis of Parana, adopted a policy of admitting liberals to administrative positions. He remained in power until 1858, and his name will always be associated with one of the most prosperous epochs in Brazilian history. The first railway systems were inaugurated, the receipts of the treasury grew 50%, European immigration amounted to 20,000 a year, private wealth and luxury increased, and numerous theaters, bowls and social reunions furnished an indication of the rise of the level of culture. One of Brazil's reasons for entering on the war against Rosas was to open up the navigation of the Paraguay, Parana, and Uruguay, upon which she depended for access to a large part of her territory. The treaties made at the conclusion of the war assured, against her protest, free navigation to all nations. Brazil has intermittently attempted to confine their navigation of the international rivers of South America to the nations having territory on their banks. Parana's conciliation policy seems to have suited the emperor very well, although it tended to hamper the development of two great parties in clearly defined opposition to each other. The elections came more and more under the control of the bureaucracy and were mere ratifications of the selections made by the ministers. Congress lost rather than gained in influence, and the whole system became steadily more centripetal. From 1849 the country had been having prosperous times, but in 1856 the inevitable commercial crisis came. Prosperity had brought about extravagances in governmental administration. The budgets showed deficits. Foreign loans were resorted to. The currency fluctuated violently. Brazil entered upon seven lean years, during which foreign trade remained stationary. The revenues increased only at the coast of heavy impositions, and the public debt grew. With the death of the Marquis of Parana in 1858, the regular conservatives returned to power. He had been the dominant figure in politics since the regency, and his personal prestige and the confidence the emperor reposed in him had had much to do with holding the government together during the panic. But the new ministry could not make headway against the difficulties. A new currency law was necessary, but the mercantile and speculating classes bitterly opposed the rigid measures proposed by successive cabinets. Paranas' neutral policy had given the opposition a hold in some of the most important provinces, and the following elections showed a vast increase in the number of liberals and of dissident conservatives. Conservative cabinets succeeded each other rapidly from 1858 to 1862. The opposition to a contraction of the currency grew in force, and the dissidents and liberals finally obtained a majority. The emperor had last called upon the leaders of the dissident conservatives, Zacarias, to form a government. But he was as powerless as his predecessors, and as a last resort the emperor temporarily gave up the effort to govern after the English system and selected a cabinet outside of the chamber of deputies. The elections of 1863 resulted in a complete defeat of the conservatives, but the victorious liberals did not need to pass any radical currency legislation. Hard times had disappeared by the operation of natural law. The banknotes approached Par and the budgets nearly balanced. With 1864 the country entered upon a new era of prosperity. The production of coffee had doubled from 1840 to 1851, and then had remained stationary. But with the cessation of the Civil War in the United States, an era of high prices was inaugurated, which coincided with Brazil's financial rehabilitation and stimulated planting. Although real activity in the building of railroads did not begin until after the Paraguayan War, four short lines had been started before 1862. The years of peace and order had disaccustomed the people to the thought of violence, and a steady advance had been made toward government by law. The highly educated statesmen, placed by the emperor at the head of affairs, understood the most important principles of good government, and tried conscientiously to put them in practice. In transportation, banking, posts and telegraphs, commercial methods, etc., the improvements of modern civilization were easily introduced, though in agriculture the indolence of proprietors and the apathetic ignorance of the slaves prevented any rapid advance. On the whole, Brazil had made greater political and industrial progress when the Paraguayan War broke out than any other South American country, though grave vices remained to hamper her further development. The mass of the people were apathetic and ignorant, slavery tended to discredit industrious habits at best so difficult to maintain in the tropics. The upper classes showed little interest in, or aptitude for, commercial matters. Commerce, banking, railroads, mining, and engineering prospered only when foreigners personally engaged in them. The people themselves, in spite of the enlightenment of the educated classes, showed little initiative or energy. End of section 41 Section 42 of the South American Republics, volume 1, by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Piotr Natter, part 4, Brazil, chapter 19, the Paraguayan War. Brazilian statesmen might well have been pardoned if, in 1865, they had claimed for their country the hegemony of South America. The result of the war against Rosas had been brilliant. The Argentine had only just emerged from half a century of civil war. Uruguay was almost a Brazilian protectorate. Brazil's internal condition was settled. In concentration of power, as well as in wealth, population, and extent, she was at the head of the continent. With the republics on the west, she maintained good relations, while all the time she was firmly pressing her territorial claims on toward the foot of the Andes. She even attempted to control the navigation of the great waterways of South America. In 1863 Flores, a defeated chief, returned from Buenos Aires and set up the standard of revolt in Uruguay. Penetrating as far as the Brazilian border, he received assistance, and Aguirre, the Montevidian president, protested. At the same time, the latter ruler refused to settle certain claims on behalf of Brazilian citizens, which the Rio government had been pressing. The emperor decided to intervene and help Flores, and thereupon sent a man of war up the Uruguay River, which blockaded a port, and destroyed Uruguayan public property. Aguirre declared war, and Brazil and Flores, in alliance, besieged and took the principal towns in western Uruguay. The Argentine received satisfactory assurances and remained neutral. This high-handed adjustment of Uruguayan affairs furnished a pretext to the Paraguayan dictator, Francisco Lopez, to intervene in his turn. Under a line of vigorous dictators who concentrated all the forces of the nation into their own hands, that country had become menacing to the loosely organized Argentine Republic. Lopez even thought he was strong enough to bid defiance to Brazil. The tyrant was, in fact, an impossible neighbor for the two more progressive and civilized powers. For years he had been preparing for war, and at the moment was stronger in the military way than either of his bulky neighbors. He hated both Argentines and Brazilians, and his people had been taught to despise the courage of the latter. Though Brazil's intervention in Uruguay was a matter in which he had an interest, a dignified protest would have obtained ample assurances that the latter's independence would be respected, for there is no evidence that the imperial government intended to do anything more than to replace its enemy Aguirre with the friendly Flores. But the arrogant tyrant wanted to draw the world's attention to himself. He appreciated how difficult it would be for Brazil to send an army against him, and how much more difficult it would be to maintain one, and he also knew that she was unprepared to take a serious war on foreign soil. Without any declaration of war, in the fall of 1864 he seized a Brazilian steamer, which was making its regular trip up the Paraguay River to Matugrossu. The crew were imprisoned, and only the intervention of the American minister saved the lives of the Brazilian minister and his family. This outrage left Brazil no alternative. Lopez followed up the seizure of the boat by an expedition up the Paraguay River against Matugrossu, and easily conquered the principal southern settlements in that province. The geographical position of the Argentine made her attitude of decisive importance to both belligerents. Uruguay and the southern provinces of Brazil were separated from Paraguay by the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and de Misiones. Argentina had favored Flores's pretensions, and Lopez was so obnoxious that the secret sympathies of Buenos Aires were with Brazil. Further than neutrality, Mitre, then president of Argentina, would not go. He declared that no permission would be given either belligerent to cross Argentine territory with troops. Lopez was made desperately angry at this refusal. He thought he could count on the alliance and support of Urquiza, the virtually independent ruler of the province of Entre Rios and Mitre's enemy, and seems to have believed that he might as well finish up with both Argentina and Brazil at one sitting. In March 1865 he deliberately declared war on the Argentine, and 18,000 Paraguayan troops crossed the Parana and began offensive operations against Corrientes, Uruguay and Brazil. Instead of rising against Mitre, Urquiza declared himself against the Paraguayan dictator, and as his province of Entre Rios controlled access to Paraguay by water, Lopez found that the only result of his rush act was to open up the way by which his enemies could most conveniently reach him. On the first of May 1865 a formal alliance was made between Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Mitre was agreed upon as commander-in-chief. The allies promised not to lay down their arms until Lopez should be overthrown and expelled from Paraguay, and pledges were given to respect Paraguay's independence. Of the three allies, Brazil was the only one which could be expected to give its whole force. Flores could only answer for the Colorado faction of Uruguay, Argentina did not represent much more than Buenos Aires, Entre Rios was Urquiza's, and the other outside provinces had no great interest in the result. Nevertheless, the alliance was very advantageous to Brazil. It would have been well-nigh impossible to wage a successful war against an enemy shut up in the middle of the continent, and accessible only by a three-month march across nearly impossible country, or by tedious navigation up a single river running through a third country, and where an army would have to be disembarked direct from ships on the enemy's soil. The adhesion of Argentina made an aggressive war possible, and the event proved how hopeless would have been a campaign by Brazil alone. The story of the military operations belongs to the history of Paraguay, and only those events which bore a direct relation to internal affairs in Brazil will be mentioned here. The successful naval battle of Riachuelo on the Parana, just below the southern end of the Paraguayan territory in June 1865, aroused great enthusiasm in Brazil. National feeling was hardly cooled by the news which soon followed of a Paraguayan invasion of Rio Grande, and rose again with the defeat of that invasion. Brazil's regular army numbered less than 15,000 men before the war, but at the emperor's call 57 battalions of volunteers were organized in the fall of 1865. A loan of five million pounds was arranged in London, and no expense was spared in fitting out the army and in strengthening the fleet. By the end of the war Brazil had 85 ships, not counting transports, of which 13 were iron clads. The voyage from Rio de Janeiro to Paraguay takes a month, and the transportation of man and material was tedious and extremely expensive. The government resorted to the issue of paper money, and outraged the feelings of the financial world by compelling the Bank of Brazil to give up the reserve it was maintaining for the redemption of its note issue. The premium on gold rose, and the currency fluctuated wildly, although general trade continued to boom. In September 1865 the Paraguayan army, which had invaded Rio Grande, was captured in a body, and peace was confidently expected. Lopeth, however, decided to fight it out to the bitter end, and it was April 1866 before the Allies could gain a foothold on Paraguayan soil. For the next six months Brazil was sickened with accounts of desperately bloody and indecisive battles, of which the last was an awful repose before Curupaiti. For more than a year thereafter, the Allies lay motionless in their camps in the southwestern corner of Paraguay, while the cholera carried off thousands. Though his favorite general, Marshal Cassias, was a conservative, and not on good terms with the liberal cabinet, the emperor insisted that he be sent to take command. Reinforcements were vigorously recruited from all over the empire, and in July 1867 the cautious Cassias began a slow advance. The expenses were mounting up to sixty millions a year, the country chafed at the delays, Cassias quarreled with the ministers. In July 1868 the emperor dismissed them on his own responsibility, and though the liberals had still a large majority in the chamber, called in a conservative cabinet. On this occasion the emperor's pressure was not influential enough to change a minority into a majority, and the chamber preferred the solution to submission. Meanwhile Cassias had at last begun to win victories. The very month of the fall of the liberals he took the great fortress of Umaita, which guarded the passage up the Paraguay, and Lopez retreated to the neighborhood of his capital, accompanied by almost all the surviving Paraguayans. In November Cassias cleverly outflanked him, and taking him in the rear compelled him to fight outside of his trenches until hardly any Paraguayans were left. By the beginning of 1869 Lopez was a fugitive, the Brazilians were in possession of Asuncion, and the war was over, except for pursuing Lopez and the few starving soldiers who followed him through the woods. Elections were held in March, but it was not worthwhile for the liberals to make even the show of a contest. The liberal leaders issued a manifesto declining to take any part, and censoring the emperor for calling the conservatives to power against the known wishes of the majority of a legally elected chamber, announced that they would respect the laws and would confine themselves to non-parliamentary propagation of the doctrines of anti-absolutism, liberalism and emancipation. From this time dates the systematic propaganda for the republic. The war ended with the emperor's son-in-law hunting down the Paraguayan bands. In March 1870 Lopez was caught with the last few hundred men who remained faithful and speared by a common soldier, as he tried to escape through the woods. The war had cost Brazil 300 million dollars and over 50 000 lives. She had gained no substantial result except assuring the safety of Matugrosso and securing the free navigation of the Paraguay. The emperor did not attempt to use his victory by establishing a hegemony over South America. Rather did the end of the Paraguayan war mark the beginning of a policy of systematic abstention from inter-meddling with outside matters. Paraguay and Uruguay were left in full enjoyment of their independence, and the Argentine then began her marvellous industrial progress and political consolidation. The plate republics reaped the benefits of the war, while Brazil bore its heaviest burdens. Most of the Argentine provinces had taken little part except to furnish provisions and horses at high prices, and the opening up of Paraguay redounded to the benefit of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, not that of Rio. No spirit of imperialism spread among the Brazilian people, though they are still proud of the record their soldiers and sailors then made. Their bravery in field fighting and the assault of fortified places was proved beyond question, no matter how poorly they may have been commanded, and how deficient their organization. The history of no war contains more examples of heroic and hopeless charges, or stories of more desperate hand-to-hand fighting. But a successful battle was followed by torpor. Brazilian tenacity was shown in the patience with which defeats were sustained, and in holding on month after month in camp, rotting in the miosomatic swamps, rather than in pursuing advantages obtained in the field. End of Section 42. Section 43 of the South American Republics, Volume 1, by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Piotr Natter, Part 4, Brazil, Chapter 20, Republicanism and Emancipation. From 1808 to 1837, the tendency had been in the direction of democracy and decentralization. Then the tide turned, and from 1837 to the Paraguayan War, the central government grew stronger and federalism weaker. The power of the emperor reached its apogee in 1870. The senators had been personally selected by him, and he could count on their gratitude and friendship. Deputies were elected indirectly by electors chosen by a suffrage nominally universal, but the elections, primary and secondary, were mere farces, absolutely controlled by the ministry, which happened to be in power. The local governors and magistrates, the officers of the National Guard and the police, all depended on the central government for their positions, formed a machine against which opposition was useless. If intimidation was not sufficient, the boldest frauds were shamelessly resorted to, false polling lists, manufactured returns, and the seething of contestants by the majority in the chamber or the returning boards. Of this system, the emperor was the real beneficiary for the cabinets held at his pleasure, and if the majority of a chamber did not sustain a ministry which he desired to keep in power, all he had to do was to order a dissolution. But this hybrid system contained in itself the elements of sure decay. The emperor was no arbitrary despot, and neither wished nor would he have been able to govern in complete defiance of public opinion. On the other hand, the system afforded no sure method of ascertaining public opinion, nor of throwing a proper responsibility upon well-organized political parties. With the close of the Paraguayan War, a series of movements began, which ended twenty years later with the overthrow of the empire. Brazil's history during those twenty years is an account of the republican propaganda, the abolition movement, the attempt to reform the elections, the religious agitation, the growth of positivist doctrines, the demand for economic independence by the great provinces, and finally the infiltration of liberalism and insubordination into the army. This evolution, however, affected principally the educated classes, the masses of the people were, and still remain, largely indifferent to the march of public events. Commerce and industry continued to expand throughout the Paraguayan War. From 1864 to 1872, the annual revenues doubled, and though in 1868 the emissions of paper money had reduced its value one half, it steadily rose thereafter, until in 1873 it again reached par. Just after the war the budget balanced, and the production of coffee rose one half. But with relief from financial pressure the conservative ministers became extravagant, and when the great world panic of 1873 came, both governments and country were badly caught. A foreign loan of five million sterling made in 1875 was not enough to meet the mounting deficits. In 1878 new issues of paper money were resorted to, and exchange dropped, remaining below par for ten years in spite of a subsequent doubling of coffee production and a great increase in the value of exports. Population, however, which had increased from five to ten millions from 1840 to 1870, in the next twenty years mounted to fifteen millions. The suppression of the slave trade by the Aberdeen Act and the Keroslaw made it probable that the institution itself would ultimately disappear. Brazilian character and customs had always stimulated voluntary emancipation, and in Brazil the Negro does not reproduce as rapidly as the white. In 1856 the slaves numbered two millions and a half, being nearly forty percent of the population. But in 1873 their number had fallen to one million five hundred and eighty four thousand, or only sixteen percent. The institution was, however, socially and politically very strong. Slaves furnished nearly all the labor employed in the production of staple exports, and it was believed that emancipation would be followed by agricultural collapse. But the emperor was too enlightened a Christian, and too susceptible to the good opinion of the civilized world, not to be at heart an abolitionist. However, it was only at the height of his influence that he deemed it wise to force the consideration of abolition on the reluctant nation. Agitation had begun modestly in 1864. In 1866 gradual emancipation was seriously proposed, but the breaking out of the war caused the matter to be adjourned. In 1869 Joaquim Nabucco, father of the present Brazilian minister to Great Britain, succeeded in virtually committing the liberal party to emancipation. With the return of peace the question was taken up vigorously. The reactionary conservative cabinet resigned rather than be an instrument of the emperor's wishes as to emancipation, and Pimenta Bueno was appointed prime minister for the special purpose of getting a law through Congress declaring all children born thereafter free. This statesman failed, but Joaquim Nabucco, father of the present minister for foreign affairs, was more successful. After a bitter and prolonged parliamentary struggle, in which Joaquim Nabucco used every weapon that his position gave him in gaining and holding doubtful congressional votes, the law was passed in 1871. Thereafter all children born of slave mothers were free, though they remained bound to service until 21. The proprietors were also required to register all their slaves. Under the influence of these measures the number of slaves decreased with astonishing rapidity, falling from 1,584,000 in 1873 to 743,000 in 1887. Rio Branco's victory disrupted the conservative party, and after achieving it he was unable to hold his majority together. The chamber was dissolved, and though the new one supported him halfheartedly, the old line conservatives had become deeply dissatisfied with the radical tendencies of the governments and the emperor. Public men of all parties awoke to realization of the inconsistency between the constitution and the emperor's personal power. Not much was said in the chamber, but outside the republican propaganda assumed an active form and the conviction fast-crystallized that the empire could not last for many years. A republican press came into existence, and a republican party was organized under the leadership of Saldania Marinho, an able lawyer of Rio. Republican societies were formed in all the centers of population, but there was no thought of armed revolution. There is indeed no evidence that the emperor ever opposed the republican propaganda, though occasionally he detached some of its abled members by promotions to office. In 1873, 1874 and 1875 the question which most absorbed public attention was the imprisonment of the bishops of Pará and Pernambuco by the civil authorities. The lower ranks of the priesthood were uneducated, and real interest in religion had largely been confined to women and the lower classes. With the growth of liberal ideas among the laity, the church awoke to the necessity of a reformation. These two bishops were leaders in this counter movement, and they selected the Masonic lodges as a point of attack. In spite of the nominal prohibition of the church, Freemasonry had been permitted in Brazil since 1821, and the lodges had become mere social clubs and philanthropic societies. Freemasons were members of those semi-religious brotherhoods which take charge of local church feasts and constitute the most important link between the lay and spiritual worlds in Brazilian communities. The two militant bishops ordered that the brotherhoods should expel their Masonic members or suffer the penalty of losing their rights to use the church edifices. Where these orders were not obeyed interdicts were laid. The progressive elements and the magistracy took the side of the masons, but the bishops were not without their supporters. The government insisted that the obnoxious interdicts be withdrawn. The bishops refused to yield and were prosecuted in the civil courts and sent to prison. The Princess Isabel was believed to be on the priest's side, and while the excitement gradually died out and things went on as before, a wider breach than ever had been created between the progressive and conservative classes. Like the slave owners, devout Catholics now felt that they could no longer depend on the imperial system to protect them against the rising tide of radicalism. The financial difficulties growing out of the great panic drove Rio Branco from power in 1875, and a succession of conservative cabinets struggled along until 1878. The question of electoral reform came to the front, for everyone was sick of the absurd system in vogue, and the leaders of both the historic parties hoped for great things from a radical change. The emperor was opposed to giving up the indirect method of voting, but was anxious to try some lesser reforms. On his return from the United States and Europe in 1877 he virtually instructed the cabinet to put through a bill drawn after his suggestions, but the prime minister resigned because the emperor insisted that the change could not be made by an ordinary statute but must go through the tedious process of an amendment to the constitution. The emperor called in a liberal cabinet and a new chamber was elected. The liberal ministry continued in power until 1880 and then fell, partly because it had lost its hold with the liberal majority and partly because of the riots in Rio over the street car tax. A law had been passed compelling each passenger to pay a cent in addition to the regular fare. The people refused, burned the cars, cut the harness in pieces, threw the conductors off, and fought the police until the business of the city was brought to a standstill. The emperor called upon a cool and experienced politician, José Antonio Sarajeva, but the latter refused to take office until he should be allowed to push through the election bill in the form of an ordinary law. Right here the emperor suffered a great defeat. He thought himself obliged to yield, and the vigorous minister at once secured the passage of a radical law which completely transformed the electoral system. Suffrage was confined to the educated and property-holding classes, but the electors voted directly for deputies, and the country was divided into districts, each of which chose a single deputy. The electoral body was now permanent, and each deputy was responsible to a definite constituency. Sarajeva resigned the moment his bill was enacted into law, and every precaution was taken to ensure that the election of 1881 should be free from any suspicion of official pressure. The result was a revelation to a small-bore politicians of the older regime. 150,000 voters registered out of an adult male population of about 3 millions, and 96,000 voted. The new members were divided nearly equally between the two historical parties, the liberals getting 68, and the conservatives 54. The ministers were defeated for re-election, and many of the contests were decided by small majorities. In subsequent elections the Sarajeva law proved not to be so effective, and since it is not in the Latin nature to be satisfied with gradual improvement, the liberal movement, of which the electoral law was a symptom, swept on with increasing violence, until the beneficent law was uprooted, along with the mistaken system on which it had been painfully grafted. As soon as electoral reform was out of the way, abolition became once more the dominant question in Brazilian politics, though the majority of liberals were abolitionists, and the doctrine was one of the official principles of the party. The various liberal cabinets, which succeeded each other from 1881 to 1884, managed to dodge the dangerous issue. Finally the Dantas ministry faced it squarely. A bill was introduced prohibiting the sale of slaves, establishing an emancipation fund, and freeing slaves as fast as they reached the age of 60. A terrific parliamentary battle followed, and the project was defeated by only seven votes, 48 liberals and four conservatives voting for it, and 17 liberals and 42 conservatives against. The emperor dissolved the chamber, and the excitement over abolition became national. The abolitionists subsidized newspapers, held public meetings, and marched through the streets in processions, carrying pictures representing the torturing of slaves. No means were spared which might aid to rouse the national conscience. The Negroes were advised to revolt, and assistance was openly promised to them. The elections of 1884 were violently contested, instead of being free from fraud and protest, like those of 1881. Nor did the government so conscientiously abstain from interference. Nevertheless, the chamber elected did not differ materially in its composition from that which had preceded it. 65 of the 120 members of the new house were liberals, but of these 15 were opposed to abolition. For the first time avowed republican members were elected, three being returned, and two of them came from Sao Paulo, Prudente Moraes, and Campos Salis, the first two Brazilians to hold office, avowedly as republicans, who reaped their reward by becoming two decades later the first two civil presidents of the republic. No election was ever held in Brazil, which was so earnestly contested, and which constituted so genuine an expression of the wishes of the people. Nevertheless, on the main question, that of abolition, the result was apparently a drawn battle. With the meeting of the chamber in 1885 the agitation broke out afresh. The crowds on the Rio streets hissed anti-emancipation deputies, and there was a bitter fight for the control of the organization of the chamber. It was soon evident that the Dantas ministry could not force abolition through, and it resigned. Sarayva was called in, and his skillfully arranged a compromise. With the aid of conservative votes he passed a bill for gradual and compensated emancipation. This done, he resigned. The liberal party was disorganized and dissatisfied with him, and he did not deem it worth his while to try and hold it together. The quarrelling liberal majority was aghast when it was announced that a conservative cabinet would take the reins of the government. The emperor had begun to show decided symptoms of a failure of his mental powers, and was ceasing to be a controlling factor in parliamentary affairs. Sarayva's resignation further exacerbated the liberal leaders against the imperial system, and at the same time continued to lose ground with the slaveholders. In the election the liberals had no chance and largely refrained from voting. The governing classes shrank from the probable consequences of abolition. The temper of the country seemed to have cooled. The election reform of 1881 had not proven in practice to be of much value. Though not so absolute as before, the provincial governors resumed their control of the result, and returns were made according to the wishes of the ministry in power. 103 conservatives received certificates, and only 22 liberals, and most of the latter came from the interior where official pressure could least easily be applied. Not a republican was returned, and the declared abolitionists had almost disappeared, although everyone knew that the final blow to slavery could not long be deferred. The new administration devoted itself to the finances. Since 1871 the deficits had been continuous. One sarcastic statesman said amid applause that, quote, the empire is the deficit. End quote, the issue of paper money had been excessive. Better times began in 1886. A loan of six million sterling was contracted for on favorable terms. From 40 percent below par, the currency rose to par in the succeeding three years. Imports and exports increased by leaps and pounds, and the revenue grew 75 percent in a single year. The production of coffee in Sao Paolo and of rubber in Pará and Amazonas reached unprecedented figures. Foreign immigration was subsidized, and a systematic propaganda to secure it undertaken. From 30,000 it ran up to 100,000 a year, and the apprehensions that emancipation would cause a dearth of labor were largely quieted. Government subsidies had kept up the building of railroads during the years when the treasury was most embarrassed, and naturally went on more rapidly when prosperity came. When the Paraguayan War ended, there were only 450 miles of railroad in the country. In the decade that followed, 1,450 were built, while from 180 to 189, 500 miles a year were constructed. The conservative prime minister, Baran Cotteripi, struggled hard through 1886 and 1887 to save the remnants of slavery, but intelligent and unprejudiced opinion was nearly unanimous for the entire abolition of the disgraceful and barbarous institution. Project after project was presented, each one more radical than the last. The slaves began to flee from the plantations. The army refused to aid the police in capturing them. The poor old emperor had gone abroad, sick and failing, leaving Isabel as regent. Her advisors, mostly priests and foreigners, told her that the delay was endangering the dynasty. Cotteripi resigned, and John Alfredo was made prime minister for the special purpose of passing an emancipation law. When Congress met in May 1888, the speech from the throne announced that the imperial program was absolute, immediate and uncompensated emancipation. The prestige of the crown was sufficient to hush nearly all opposition. Within eight days the law had passed both houses and been signed by the princess. The votes against it were hardly numerous enough to be worth counting. Only Cotteripi and a few devoted monarchists stood in their places and read aloud the handwriting on the wall, prophesizing the sure and speedy overthrow of a monarchy which had thus cast off its surest and most natural supporters. Section 44 of the South American Republics, Volume 1 by Thomas Clelland Dawson. This liperfox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Piotr Natter. Part 4, Brazil. Chapter 21, The Revolution, The Dictatorship, The Establishment of the Republic. Every intelligent man in Brazil had long recognized the force of the permanently working causes which were undermining the empire. Afonso Celso, in 1902, considered the ablest advocate of restoration and the son of the last prime minister of the empire, said in 1886 from his place as national deputy that the empire maintained itself only through the tolerance of its enemies. Neither one of the two great parties of office holders was really monarchical, although the members of both cooperated with the emperor for the sake of the patronage. But the Brazilian masses were too apathetic to take any violent measures for the overthrow of the worn-out institution without some definite stimulus. This was furnished by the quote-unquote military question in 1889. The teachings of Benjamin Constant, a professor of the military school at Rio, had thoroughly impregnated the younger officers of the army with republican doctrine. The officers were extremely sensitive about their professional rights, and the spirit of disaffection and insubordination was rife among them. In 1886 there was great indignation in the army, because an officer who had engaged in an undignified newspaper controversy with a deputy was reprimanded by the secretary of war. A little later another officer insisted on attacking through the press a pension law advocated by the War Department, and his cause was taken up by the highest generals with the Marshal de Odoro de Fonseca at their head. This general was transferred from his post to a less desirable one, and a new outburst of indignation among the officers agitated army circles. The ministry thought it best not to push the matter. In 1888 the bad feeling was further exacerbated by the police arresting some officers for disorderly conduct in the streets. Again the army demanded satisfaction, and again it was given. The favorite champion of military dignity, de Odoro, was sent off to Matugrossu in the spring of 1889, and this was taken as equivalent to a punishment for his activity in maintaining the privileges of his profession. Again the government thought it prudent to yield, and he was allowed to return. In the meantime the emperor's health had grown more feeble, and the princess Isabel was in power. Herself unpopular, her parsimonious husband, the Count Deux, was bitterly disliked by most Brazilians. The rumor gained credence that there was a plan to have the sick emperor resign in her favor, though the general feeling was that so long as the old man lived and reigned he ought not to be disturbed. The hot-headed republican officers were in no humor to allow the princess to succeed to enthrone. The conservative cabinet had been met with a flat refusal from the army when they ordered it to assist in capturing fugitive slaves. The government's hand was thus forced on the slavery question. John Alfreda's cabinet succeeded to Cotegipis, but was no happier in its dealings with the military question. The princess determined to call in the liberals, and their hard-headed leader Urupretu was made prime minister. By many this was believed to be a part of the plot for an abdication, that the princess's friends wanted a strong man at the head of affairs when the coup d'etat came. Urupretu took charge of the government in June 1889, and shortly dissolved the chamber after some bitter debates, in which for the first time in Brazil the cry of quote-unquote viva a república was heard on the floor of parliament. The new ministry had no trouble in controlling the elections, and the new chamber that met in August was liberal. Urupretu felt strong enough to undertake to reduce the malcontents to submission. He began by strengthening the police force and the National Guard, and removing certain regiments from the capital. But in September the Odoro returned from the remote wilds of Matugrosso and was received with great demonstrations by his comrades. Secret meetings of officers were held, and they pledged themselves to sustain at all hazards the prestige of the military class. Professor Constant, whose influence with the younger officers was predominant, openly threatened the ministry. Early in November, still another battalion was ordered off from the capital to the north of Brazil, and this was the immediate occasion for the formation of a military conspiracy in which Professor Constant and the Odoro were the original chiefs. They determined to make an alliance with the republicans, and invited the co-operation of Quintino Bocajuva, the chief of the militant republicans, of Aristides Lobo, a republican editor of Rio, of Glicerio, one of the republican chiefs in Sao Paulo, of Rui Barbosa, a great lawyer and editor whose attacks on the government had been very effective, though he had not yet declared himself a republican, and of Admiral Vanden Kog, who was expected to secure the help of the navy. The Odoro and Constant could absolutely count upon one brigade, the second, and were well assured of the sympathy of all the regular forces in Rio. Of course the plan could not be kept secret from the government police, though the public seems to have known nothing of the gravity of what was going on. On the 14th of November the rumor spread that the Odoro and Constant would be arrested. Orders had in fact been given for the transfer of the disaffected brigade, and the ministers were warned that it was preparing to resist. That night the members of the cabinet did not sleep, and the morning found them still in anxious counsel at the ward apartment which faces the great square of Rio. Constant had ridden out to the quarters of the second brigade, and early in the morning led it to the square, and drew up in front of the ward apartment. The Odoro took command of the insurgent troops, sending an officer to demand the surrender of the ministers. Urupretu called upon the adjutant general Floriano Peixoto to lead against the revoltors the troops which were in the general barracks. Floriano, after a little hesitation, refused, and it is doubtful whether the troops would have followed him had he consented. There was no one to raise a hand for the ministers. They surrendered and sent their resignation by telegraph to the emperor at Petropolis, 25 miles away in the mountains. Their impression seems to have been that the insurrection was simply a military mutiny, and that its object was solely to secure their own downfall. But the fact that Constant, Bokayuva, and others had been led into the inside enabled these republicans to direct the movement so that a permanent change in the form of government was possible. The troops in the barracks joined the second brigade, and altogether marched through the center of the city cheering for the army for the Odoro and the republic amid the astonishment of the people most of whom knew nothing of any trouble until they saw the parade. No resistance was offered, and when the emperor reached the city at three o'clock in the afternoon, the revolution was an accomplished fact. The chiefs of the revolt had met and organized a provisional government naming themselves ministers. They at once took possession of their different departments and the public buildings. A decree was issued announcing that henceforth Brazil was to be a federal republic. The feeble old emperor was visited by a few friends, but there was no one to raise a hand or strike a blow for him or the dynasty. He himself would have shrunk from being the occasion for the shedding of the blood of any of his people. When night fell the provisional government formally announced to the emperor his deposition, and that he and his family would be compelled to leave the country, though their lives would be guaranteed and ample pecuniary provisions be made for them. The palace was guarded and no one allowed to enter, though there were no indications of any counter-revolution. The municipal council of the city promptly gave its adherence to the new order of things, and telegrams were coming in hourly from the provinces to the effect that the latter were universally satisfied, and that republicans sympathizers were taking possession of the local governments without opposition. During the night of the 16th the emperor and his family were placed on board ship and sent off to Lisbon. The new government was in fact a centralized military dictatorship, but the names of most of its members were guarantees that the promises of the establishment of a republic would be carried out. In all the provinces the new situation was accepted peacefully. The real government named new governors by telegraph and the imperial authorities turned things over to them without resistance. Persons known to have been advocates of republican principles were preferred, and a rapid displacement of the old governing classes ensued. The provincial government continued in power for fourteen months, and in that time promulgated a series of laws touching almost every subject of social or political interest. The provinces were organized into states after the model of the members of the North American Union, universal suffrage was established, church and state were entirely separated, a new and humane criminal code was adopted, the judicial system was reorganized after the American fashion, and in general monarchical characteristics were removed from the statutes, and the most modern reforms enacted. A project for the constitution was carefully framed, and this was submitted to a congress which had been summoned to meet early in 1891. This congress was composed of 205 deputies elected by states and not by the districts, and of three senators from each state. Acting as a constituent assembly it adopted with few modifications the constitution proposed. The members of the constituent congress had been almost universally selected from among those who had been prominent in connection with the new government, or had given it the enthusiastic adhesion. With few exceptions the new constitution is a copy of that of the United States. The only important difference is that in Brazil the enactment of the general and criminal law is a federal and not a state attribute. The revenues of the newly created states were made much larger than those of the imperial provinces, principally by transferring to them the duties on exports. Though the constitution of February 24, 1891 nominally went into effect at once, as a matter of fact the government continued military. The odoro was elected president, and Marshal Floriano Peixoto, vice president, and the dictatorship was effective, except so far as it was managed and controlled by a few leaders who had power in the army, navy, or financial world. The provisional government had conceded to banks in every important center of the country the right to issue circulating notes. The markets were flooded with money, credit was easy, and extraordinary speculative boom set in, values rose tremendously. The last years of the empire had been prosperous, and exchange had gone to par. Within three years after the empire was overthrown the amount of paper money in circulation was more than tripled, but though exchange had fallen tremendously, no ill effects were yet apparent. The nation was drunk with suddenly acquired wealth. Companies of all sorts were granted government concessions, railroad companies, mining companies, harbor improvement companies, banks, factories, and even sugar and coffee plantations companies. The price of coffee and rubber was rising in gold, while the cost of production was falling with the depreciation of the currency. The flood of Italian immigration, which had been going to the Argentine, was largely diverted to Brazil. Rio, Pará, and Sao Paulo were the centers of the prosperity. Businessmen from the provinces swarmed into these cities, and the fortunate owners of plantations emigrated to Paris to spend their easy acquired wealth. During 1891 and 1892 the Odoro became involved in disputes with republican leaders. To these political difficulties were added quarrels over the government concessions, which were expected to make everyone rich. The Odoro offended the moneyed powers by not granting such concessions as freely as was desired by many influential persons. Finally, the Odoro found that he could no longer count on a majority in Congress, so he arbitrarily dissolved it. But revolutions broke out in the different states against the governors who stood by the dictator, and he also found that he could not rely upon the unquestioning support of the army. The navy was decently disaffected. After some hesitation he yielded to the signed demand of a powerful junta and resigned in favor of the vice president, whom the speculators and promoters thought they could easily control. They were grievously disappointed in Floriano. The radical republicans found him more to their liking than did the wealthier classes and the bureaucrats. The navy had always been recruited among the aristocrats and looked down upon the army, and soon developed a dislike for the plebeian and illiterate president. An effort was made to pass and put into effect a law expelling Floriano from office before the expiration of the four years term for which the Odoro and he had been elected, but he flatly announced that he would serve out the term to which he believed himself constitutionally entitled. In the meantime a rebellion had broke out in Rio Grande do Sul against Giuliano de Casteos, the radical republican governor. Gaspar Silveira Martins, the local leader of the old liberal party, had been banished, but from Montevideo he organized the insurrection. The adherents of the two historical imperial parties and the gauchos of the southern part of the state joined the movement enthusiastically. Presently the Pampas were swept from one end to the other by bands of federalists under dreaded leaders like Gomersinto Sarajevo, a ranchman from near the Uruguayan border. The republicans stood firm and Pinedo Machado and other gaucho chiefs showed that they too possessed the fighting qualities which have always distinguished the hard-riding meat-eating Rio Grande denses. With the aid of federal troops the republicans had decidedly the upper hand, but the federalists kept the field for three years, while the country was hurried and the most frightful destruction of life and property took place. Meanwhile the intrigues against Floriano et Río took advantage of this formidable complication. The mercantile classes, the conservatives, the moderate republicans, and those who regretted the empire were opposed to him. The navy was ready to revolt at any time. A number of powerful men had bluffed the Odoro into resigning, and they thought that they could easily do the same with Floriano. A majority in Congress was against him and he seemed to be almost isolated, but he had no thought of yielding or withdrawing. His subsequent actions showed that he certainly was not actuated by any vaulting personal ambition. His was rather the instinct of a soldier who stands where he is and fights to the last without reasoning why. The real crisis in the establishment of the republic had in fact arrived. Floriano's overthrow would have meant anarchy and disintegration, government by pronunciamento, short-lived administrations established and overthrown by military force. Early in September 1893 the entire navy under the lead of Admiral Meo revolted. The guns of the fleet commanded the harbor and seemed to make the city untainable. Floriano acted with great energy. The army stood by him and he recruited vigorously. The fleet would not seriously bombard the city, full of sympathizers with the revolt, and Floriano held the fortifications around the bay so that it was difficult for Meo to obtain supplies. Though the European naval forces, which quickly assembled, sympathized with the insurgents, they could hardly give any efficient help so long as Floriano held the capital. Meo hesitated about attempting to establish a blockade. At first the insurgents disclaimed any intention of re-establishing the empire, but soon the revolt began to take on a frankly monarchical character. The friends of the old regime, however, nowhere showed the same energy and conviction as the republicans who stood by Floriano. In Rio Harbour matters came to a stand. Neither side could deal a decisive blow to the other, but in the end Floriano and the land forces were sure to win, because without a base of supplies the fleet could not maintain itself indefinitely. It was necessary for Meo to start a fire in the rear and to open communication with the Rio Grande Federalists. He escaped through the Harbour entrance with one of his iron clads, and went to Santa Catarina, where he established the seat of the revolutionary government. Comersindo Sarraiva, the able Federalist chief, eluded the superior republican forces in the north of Rio Grande, and attempted an invasion of Santa Catarina, Parana, and Sao Paolo, where it was hoped that the monarchical plantation owners would rise. But he was vigorously pursued, and his forces defeated and scattered. The failure of this daring expedition was the death knell of the revolt. Meo returned to Rio, and there his position fast became untenable. The final crisis came with the refusal of the American admiral to permit him to establish commercial blockade. This took away his last hope of being able to coerce Floriano to terms. The naval revolt collapsed in March, 1894. Some of the iron clads escaped from Rio Harbour, and fled to Santa Catarina, where they were captured by the republicans. The Rio Grande Federalists kept up a partisan warfare for a few months longer, but by 1895 they were completely stumped out. Floriano was supreme, but instead of establishing a permanent military dictatorship, he declined to be a candidate for re-election, and selected Prudente Morais as his successor for the term beginning in 1894. Prudente had been one of the two republican deputies elected from Sao Paolo in 1886, and had acted as president of the Constitutional Assembly, which framed the new constitution. Moderate and conservative in his opinions and methods, his selection was a recognition of the advisability of civil government, and an abandonment of the system of military dictatorship. With his assumption of office, the republic may be said to have been at last definitely established. The state governments were now functioning regularly, and their governors soon began to assume a great importance in the political system. These executives are selected by local cliques, instead of by central government, as in the imperial times. Their command of the police and state patronage enables them to control elections, name their own successors, and exercise a predominant influence in the choice of deputies and senators to the National Congress. They are the chief instruments through which the President's control of politics is exercised. The majority in Congress, composed of the leaders of the republican movements, and known as the Federal Republican Party, supported Prudente in the early part of his administration, but he was too liberal to suit the radicals in drawing into participation in public affairs capable Brazilians of other antecedents. This policy and the jealousies that always arise in a dominant party brought about a rupture between them and the leader of the House majority. In the trial of strength which followed, the Federal Republican Party was split, and though the President was victorious by a small margin, his position became very precarious. The Republic had started out on a scale of unprecedented extravagance. The old provincial governments had been given only the fragments from the imperial table, but the Republican Constitution multiplied the revenues of the new state's manifold. The issues of paper money, the high prices of coffee and rubber, and the speculative boom gave both state and federal government, for a while, plenty of money to spend. The Union and the states vied with each other in multiplying employees, in making loans, in spending money on public edifices, and in building and guaranteeing railroads. The larger the deficits grew, the more paper money was issued, and exchange fell with sickening rapidity. A larger and larger proportion of the paper revenue had to be devoted to the purchase of gold bills for the payment of the interest on the foreign debt. The deficits increased in geometrical progression. By 1895, signs of the coming trouble were apparent, though the business of the country was still prosperous. In 1896 came an outbreak of religious fanaticism in the interior of Bahia, which grew into an armed revolt, small it is true, but which cost much money to suppress. The necessity for retrenchment was evident, railroad building was interrupted, schemes to rehabilitate the currency were brought forward and discussed. The governments of the poorer states looked for help to the impoverished federal treasury, and some of the stronger states showed impatience at being hampered by an unprofitable connection with their weak sisters. The president was not on sympathetic terms with the victorious radicals in Rio Grande, and the uncompromising Republicans all over the union felt that they were not sufficiently favored. In the fall of 1897 an attempt was made in broad daylight to assassinate Prudente and prominent opposition politicians were strongly suspected of complicity in the plot. A state of siege was declared, but the country remained quiet and no serious opposition was apparent when Prudente announced that his support would be given to Campos Salis as his successor in office and presumably the continuer of his policies. A great drop in the prices of coffee began, and the financial situation of the government grew worse and worse. Brazil grows about two-thirds of the world's coffee, and her crop was enormously increasing. Consequently the production of coffee was outrunning the world's consuming capacity. The enormous profits of preceding years, and the abundant supply of good Italian labor had stimulated planting beyond all reason. New and fertile districts were opened up in the interior of Sao Paolo, with which the older plantations of Rio and the coast regions could not compete. The poorer districts were reduced to poverty, while even the more fertile could not hold their own. In government finances the lowest point was reached in 1898. The paper money had fallen to 79% below par, and it had become clearly impossible to continue payments on the foreign debt. The last act of Prudente's administration was to make an agreement by which the foreign creditors consented to waive the receipt of their interest for three years, and the government pledged itself to reduce the volume of paper currency and to accumulate a fund for the resumption of interest payments. No contest was made against Campus Sey's election in the spring of 1898. He took office finding an empty treasury, a government without financial credit, and the country in the midst of a severe commercial crisis. He showed great shrewdness in maintaining an ascendancy over the politicians and controlling a majority in both branches of Congress, and through his ministers of finance relentlessly followed the policy of contracting the currency and increasing taxes. In 1901 the payment of interest on the foreign debt was resumed, and though that debt had been increased 50 million dollars, the currency had doubled in value and become relatively stable. The state governments are more dependent on the union than in the days of their wealth. There is little present danger of disintegration, no real sentiment for the re-establishment of the empire exists. The same habits of political subordination, which have kept Brazil together so long, are increasing rather than diminishing in force. The commercial crisis and the high taxes have created great discontent among merchants. Coffee planters and rubber gatherers have still further suffered by the rise of the currency. Immigration has practically ceased, and there is little water left in speculative enterprises. The Great Bank of the Republic failed in 1900, dragging down many industrial concerns and ruining thousands of small investors, and the government's connection with the bank caused much scandal. Other banks, which had too much extended their agricultural and industrial credits, have also failed, and there is great want of confidence among investors. However capital is slowly accumulating, and a healthful tendency towards industrious habits and the employment of reasonable and moderate methods in exploiting the great untouched natural resources of the country is evident. Rodríguez Alves, the third civil president of the Republic, was peaceably elected in the spring of 1902, and took his seat on the November the 15th, the 13th anniversary of the Republic. Like both his predecessors, he is from São Paulo and was virtually named by his immediate predecessor. His policy is expected to be the same as Campos says, that is, to keep expenses within revenue and to maintain the political status quo. Leaving out immigration, the Brazilian people have shown a steady natural increase of nearly 2% per annum during this century. The total population has multiplied from less than 3 to more than 18 millions. Not a 50th part of the territory is cultivated. Its resources have never been studied, much less developed. The positive checks hardly exist. The preventive checks are yet indefinitely remote. Modern altruism makes wars of extermination unthinkable. The colonial experiences of the last century have demonstrated that races possessing a reasonably efficient industrial organization do not tend to disappear, even though nations whose physical force is greater may reduce them to political subordination. The Brazilians have the additional advantage of inheriting directly a European civilization. They are too firmly established, too numerous and prolific, and possess a too highly organized and deeply rooted civilization to be in danger of expulsion or political absorption. Immense immigration into South America is inevitable, as soon as the pressure of population is strongly felt in Western Europe and North America. This may transform Brazil economically, but the new conditions will have to fit themselves into the political and social framework already in existence. End of section 44. End of The South American Republics, Volume 1 by Thomas Cleland Dawson