Let

children learning hereafter of our selfishness and our moral and physical degradation? In this deplorable state of things, let us renew our efforts to arouse the slumbering spirit of our countrymen to reconstruct Bolivia, prepare for the national defense, and gain the victory over Chili, cost what it may. To that end the National Convention should, we think, continue for at least six months longer its labor of reconstructing our demoralized national administration. the representatives be paid, for no labor is more worthy of remuneration than theirs. Exactions can lead to no practical or useful end. The members of the Convention have hitherto manifested an unusual degree of self-denial in the service of their country. Many of them will continue to do so; but such can not be expected to constitute the rule. It is but fair that those who devote their time and energy to the cause of Bolivia, and thereby neglect their own private concerns, should be remunerated. In the trying times through which we are now passing, it is not prudent to expect everything of the Executive. Chili, in making war against us, has had the counsel and guidance of her people's representatives, while we intrusted everything to the Government. What has been the result? Daza's Government plunged us in ruin; and the present Government, spite of all its patriotism, will at no distant day lose its prestige, for of professional malcontents there is, unfortunately, no lack in Bolivia. The wise direction of public affairs requires the energetic coöperation of the Parliament with an honest Government like that of the illustrious General Campero. Our country's wounds need the firm hand and determined treatment of a National Convention, and a National Convention alone. Lastly, Bolivia, like the phoenix, must find within her own breast the secret of her regeneration. The Assembly, by the light of their understanding, the Executive by patriotic action, and the people by unceasing labor in the cultivation of the fruits of the earth, must raise up the nation from the depths to which she has fallen, and carry our arms to the retrieval of honor lost and soil usurped." A confederation between Peru and Bolivia, accepted by the people of the first country in June, and to be decided upon by a plebiscitum in the second, appears to have been favorably considered by the National Convention at La Paz, and the question even submitted to the President for Executive sanction in October. (The leading incidents of the war will be narrated in the article PERU.)

BRAZIL (IMPERIO DO BRAZIL). (Statistics concerning area, territorial divisions, population, etc., will be found in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1878.) The commissioners appointed to determine the limits of the empire with the neighboring republic of Venezuela were reported to have made satisfactory progress. At latest accounts the Brazilian section had advanced as far as Maroa, a Venezuelan village

situated on the Rio Negro and above San Cárlos; while the Venezuelan commissioners were at Javita, one day's journey beyond that point. According to the latest official returns, the number of slaves in Brazil was 1,368,254; but as these figures were taken from registers reaching only to the end of 1878, the number must at present be several thousand less, allowing for deaths, and for public and private emancipation. The distribution of the accumulated emancipation fund (about $2,204,940) was, however, based on the same returns; and the following table shows the number of slaves in, and the share of said fund allotted to each of the provinces at the close of the year above referred to:

It is stated that, in virtue of a recent revenue law, the emancipation fund will be doubled in the fiscal years 1881-'82, and be probably about $1,000,000.

In the matter of immigration, Brazil has been particularly unfortunate, notwithstanding the many sacrifices she has made with a view to attracting useful colonists to her shores. Recent experiments with Russians have been attended with results so unfavorable as to discourage the Government from further attempts of the kind. Indeed, it would appear that the abandonment of state immigration has been resolved upon, and that recourse will hereafter be had to the more practical plan of reforming the land laws so as to facilitate grants, sales on credit, and leases, thus affording to small holders easy terms and security from former trammels. Notice is stated to have been transmitted to Europe that the "assisted passage" system would be discontinued, except in the case of already existing contracts; and on the 7th of May all Government lodginghouses were to be closed. Frequent allusion has been made in the British and in the Brazilian press to the disadvantage of allowing large tracts of land to be held on a nominal tenure, yet lying neglected and uncultivated; and it is hoped that the remedial measures just mentioned, together with others in con

templation, will not only remove old evils, but afford a free scope to labor, encouraging useful industry, and offering to settlers the incentive of being enabled to benefit their future condition by terms of equality. The subject of Chinese immigration has been mooted, with the assurance that experiments in that direction might prove eminently successful. examples of the efficiency of Chinese labor, California and Australia have been alluded to; but in both of these the prevailing conditions were different from those characterizing Brazil, where the only desideratum is not competition for labor but hands to cultivate the soil.

As

The Emperor is Dom Pedro II, born December 2, 1825; proclaimed April 7, 1831; regency until July 23, 1840; crowned July 18, 1841; married September 4, 1843, to Theresa Christina Maria, daughter of the late King Francis I of the Two Sicilies.

A change of Ministry occurred early in the year, but did not result in a change of party, the Liberals continuing in power. The new Cabinet was made up as follows: Minister of the Interior, Baron Homem de Mello; of Justice, Councilor M. P. S. Dantas, Senator; of Foreign Affairs, Councilor P. L. Pereira de Souza, Deputy; of Finance, Councilor J. A. Saraiva, Senator, and President of the Council of State; of War, Viscount de Pelotas, Senator; of the Navy, Councilor J. R. Lima Duarte, Deputy; of Public Works, Commerce, and Agriculture, Councilor M. Buarque de Macedo, Deputy.

The Council of State was composed of the following members in ordinary: the Princess Imperial Donna Isabel; Prince Gaston d'Orléans, Count d'Eu; the Senators-Viscount d'Abaeté, Viscount de Muritiba, Viscount de Bom Retiro, Viscount de Jaguary, Viscount de Nictheroy, Viscount de Araxá, J. P. Dias de Carvacho, and J. J. Teixeira; Vice-Admiral J. R. de Lamare; Dr. P. J. Soares de Souza; and of six members extraordinary: Senators-J. L. C. Paranaguá and M. P. S. Dantas; CouncilorsMartin Francisco and B. A. de M. Taques; Viscount de Prados, and Dr. J. C. de Andrade. The President of the Senate, which comprises fifty-eight members elected for life, is Viscount de Jaguary; and the Vice-President, Count de Baependy.

The President of the Chamber of Deputies, with one hundred and twenty-two members elected for four years, is Viscount de Prados; and the Vice-President, F. de Almeida.

The Presidents of the several provinces were as follows:

is Pri

The Archbishop of Bahia, N mate of all Brazil, and there are eleven bishops: those of Pará, São Luiz, Fortaleza, Olinda, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Marianna, Diamantina, Goyaz, and Cuyabá.

The Brazilian Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the United States is Councilor A. P. de Carvalho Borges, accredited October 9, 1871; and the Brazilian ConsulGeneral (for the Union) at New York is Senhor Salvador de Mendonça.

According to the law of February 27, 1875, military service is obligatory for all Brazilian citizens; but numerous exceptions are admitted, and substitution is allowable. The period of service is six years in the regular army, and three in the reserve. The regulation strength of the army in time of peace is fixed at 13,000 men; though the actual strength in 1880 was 15,304, of whom 1,743 were officers. The strength in time of war was to be fixed at 32,000. The arms were distributed as follows: Infantry, twenty-one battalions, eight garrison companies, and one dépôt company for drilling recruits; cavalry, five regiments, one squadron, and five garrison companies; artillery, three mounted regiments, and five foot-battalions; sappers and miners, one battalion; gendarmes, 8,340 men, of whom 931 were at Rio de Janeiro. The National Guard had been disbanded, and was to be reorganized on completion of the new census.

The navy, in 1880, consisted of nine ironclad steamers, six steam-corvettes, sixteen steam-gunboats, and six steam-transports; and three sail of the line (one corvette and two smaller craft); with an aggregate of 3,758 men, and a total armament of 166 guns. There were, besides, five iron-clad ships, one gunboat, one school-ship, and one brig for midshipmen, all without armament; and there was a gunboat in process of building. There were in the navy 14 general staff-officers, 340 first-class officers, a sanitary corps 73 strong, 17 almoners, 88 accountants, 57 guardians, and 185 engineers; an imperial marine corps 2,695 strong: a naval battalion, 286, and 1,229 apprentices; total, 4,984 men.

The financial position of the empire may in general be considered to have improved, owing mainly to increased productions, the coffeecrop alone promising to fall little short of 300,000 tons (or 672,000,000 pounds)! issue of gold bonds has proved a financial suc cess-these obligations being largely held in England and in Brazil, and regarded as a favorite investment.

The

In a non-official report published in July, 1880, the revenue for the fiscal year 1878-'79

450,000

Payable in gold, ut six per cent....

37,058,500

205,812,050

FLOATING DEBT.

$58,479,000

Debt prior to 1827..

$160,365

Orphans' and other funds..

25,485,529

$4,001,107

Treasury notes (at two, four, and six months)..

6,166,350

431,652

Paper money (Government notes *)

94,599,795

29,785,877

126,365,339

3,360,148

9,538,860

6,806,578

Later returns, however, published in Sep tember, 1880; gave the estimated revenue at $57,129,000, and the expenditure at $57,073,-. 423, whereby, instead of a deficit, as above, there would be a surplus of $55,577.

The total amount of the customs receipts at Rio de Janeiro, for 1879, was $20,877,663, against $20,339,380 for 1878, as follows: Import duties for 1879, $15,977,499, against $16,072,746 for 1878; export duties for 1879, $4,900,164, against $4,266,634 for 1878. The receipts at the same custom-house bid fair to show a still further increase for 1880, having amounted in the first three quarters of that year to $15,772,151, against $15,718,395 for the corresponding period in 1879.

A report was current in July, 1880, that the Brazilian customs tariff was again to be revised, and that the Minister of Finance had appointed a committee for that purpose. Such intelligence is far from gratifying, observes a Rio journal, as tariff revisions in Brazil have become synonymous with "tariff elevations." As stated in a previous volume,* the merchants of Rio de Janeiro, on the occasion of the last revision, were invited to take part in the work. After bestowing nuch time and labor on the question, they found that their suggestions had been uniformly acted upon when favoring an increase of duty, and disregarded when urging the necessity of a reduction. The tariff went into operation on January 1, 1880, and the short period of six months was sufficient to demonstrate that it was based on wrong principles: continual conflicts between the mercantile community and the custom-house officials, diminished importation and sale of certain kinds of commodities, enhanced cost of all means of living for the working-classes, new difficulties in the collection of duties, multiplied complaints of the people, and a general decrease of receipts (spite of the promising state of things at the Rio custom-house, as above

*See "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1878.

The following extract from a British financial journal will be found to contain interesting remarks on the Brazilian home debt, and Brazilian credit generally:

1865 issue had a medium quotation of 93: in the third In September, 1879, Brazilian five per cents. of the week of September, 1880, the corresponding price of these bonds was 96. Some allowance must be made for the fact that all securities have been gradually hardening in price of late in consequence of the cheapit must be admitted that Brazilian credit has improved ness of money; but, even allowing for this, we think during the past twelve months. When foreign bonds fell into general discredit, four or five years since, on the collapse of Paraguay, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Turkey, Peru, etc. (to say nothing of the parfound her credit seriously weakened, and she became tial defaults of Spain, Egypt, and Uruguay), Brazil unable to negotiate further loans in London. Under these circumstances, she adopted probably the best the mised a considerable loan at home. Although the and most sensible course which she could pursuc

rate of interest attached to this internal loan did not exceed 4 per cent. per annum, the operation proved completely successful, and while it placed the Brazilian Treasury in funds, it had the further advantage of showing that Brazil possessed such ample resources at English assistance. The 44 per cent. internal loan home that she really could afford to dispense with concluded by Brazil in 1879 marked, indeed, a new era in Brazilian finance, and reëstablished Brazilian credit. The result has been an advance of three per cent. in Brazilian five per cents. of 1865, and a still anteed by Brazil. There certainly appear to be order, greater hardening in the securities of railways guarregularity, and good faith in the financial administration of Brazil. In the bonds of Brazil issued in London the Emperor of Brazil pledges his "imperial and sacred word" that the conditions of the various Brazilian loans shall be scrupulously adhered to; and thus far his Majesty's "imperial and sacred word" has certainly been found to be thoroughly reliable. In her present Emperor Brazil is blessed with a wise and beneficent ruler, distinguished by tendencies at once to Dom Pedro Segundo. conservative and liberal. Brazil is deeply indebted

The long-pending British claims against Brazil have again come to the surface, and hopes are entertained of their settlement through the mediation of Mr. Ford, now accredited as Brit

ish Minister to Brazil, and whose name was associated with the famous fishery question between England and the United States.

*Exclusive of the notes of the Bank of Brazil and of the banks of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Maranhão, the aggregate amount of which in circulation in 1879 was about $18,500,000.

is in a great measure due to the development of the railway system of the empire. A seven per cent. imperial guarantee is now given in the case of all lines having a Government sanction. Most of the lines have been constructed with British capital and by British contractors, and the main offices of some are situated in London. Some concessions have, however, been obtained and the necessary capital raised by local contractors; and a new line from the port of Paranaguá to Coritiba, the capital of the province of Paraná, and inaugurated in April last by his Majesty Dom Pedro II, is due to the enterprise of a French company, who also provided the required capital. Many of the civil engineers engaged on the native railways, and some of those on the English-built lines, are Brazilians, engineering being a profession high in favor at present in Brazil.

An important event in Brazilian submarine telegraphy was the concession, in October last, to the Western and Brazilian Telegraph Company, to extend their cable from Pará to Cayenne, their intention being to establish communication at the latter point with the United States cable.

Among the more important improvements during the past year may be mentioned the construction of water-works for supplying the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Here follows the Emperor's speech on the occasion of closing the legislative session ordinary of 1880, and opening the session extraordinary, on October 5th:

AUGUST AND MOST WORTHY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NATION: The meeting of the General Assembly is always an event productive of lively satisfaction.

It is pleasant to me to inform you that good relations of friendship continue between Brazil and the foreign powers; but I am unable as yet to have the pleasure of announcing to you the cessation of the war between the Republic of Chili and those of Peru and Bolivia. Public order has suffered no alteration. Thanks to Divine Providence, copious rains have terminated the drought which devastated some of the northern provinces.

I thank you for the solicitude with which, while diminishing the burdens of the nation, you have adopted adequate measures for the production of an equilibrium of the public expenditure and revenue. The imperative need of giving a definite solution to electoral reform has induced the convocation of the extraordinary session.

nation:

August and most trustworthy representatives of the I expect from your patriotism the decretal of a law securing freedom of voting.

The ordinary legislative session is closed, and the session extraordinary is open.

The first clause of the long-discussed electoral bill was adopted by the Senate in the month above alluded to; it was regarded as the most important, as being pregnant with elements of much-needed reform, such as direct election, instead of the obsolescent system of indirect election; but, unfortunately, it was sent to the Senate shorn of its brightest adornments-provision for the admission to ParliaVOL. XX.-5 A

ment of naturalized citizens and citizens of all creeds.

BRIGHT, JOHN, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the new Cabinet of Mr. Gladstone, was born November 16, 1811, at Greenbank, near Rochdale. His father, Jacob Bright, was a cotton-spinner and manufacturer of Rochdale, and belonged to the Society of Friends. John entered his father's business at the age of fifteen, and devoted his leisure hours with great zeal to the study of the best works on history, politics, and national economy. After his return from a journey on the Continent of Europe, he made his first appearance in 1831 as a political speaker in the agitation against Church rates. He became widely known by the prominent part he took in the Anti-CornLaw League, which grew out of an association formed in 1838 to obtain the repeal of the cornlaws. He won so great distinction as a political speaker, that the League, which extended its operations over all England, appointed him, in 1839, one of its official agitators. In April, 1843, he was the candidate of the League for the city of Durham, but was defeated. In July, 1844, he was, however, returned for the same city, which he represented until 1847. In union with Cobden, Milner Gibson, Fox, and others, he was one of the foremost speakers of the League until its victory was decided in 1846. In 1847 he was returned for Manchester, and was now regarded in every respect as one of the leaders of the Manchester party. He particularly coöperated with Mr. Cobden in the movement which the latter sought to create in favor of financial reform. He demanded efficient relief measures for Ireland, an investigation of the condition of India, and a reduction of the naval and military establishment of the kingdom. He opposed, in 1850, Lord Russell's Ecclesiastical Title Bill and Lord Palmerston's Continental policy. When, two years later, the Derby-Disraeli Cabinet threatened a restoration uted to its overthrow. Thus far, Mr. Bright's of the protective system, he actively contribreputation and influence had steadily grown, but the decided opposition which he made to England's participation in the Eastern War alienated many of his former friends, and in the general election following Lord Palmerston's appeal to the country, in 1857, both he and Mr. Milner Gibson were rejected by a large majority. When, a few months later, a vacancy occurred at Birmingham, Mr. Bright was invited to become a candidate, and he was elected in August, 1857. He has continued to represent Birmingham ever since. Mr. Bright's name, during the last twenty years, has been prominently identified with the extension of the right of suffrage and the reform of the electoral laws of England. During the civil war in the United States, he warmly sympathized with the North. He visited Ireland in 1866, and was entertained in Dublin at a public banquet; but, on the whole, his reception was not as enthusiastic as his English friends