424 The Diamond District of the Serro do Frio. [_ APRIL, 



administrador of the custom house himself, who shared in the immense 

 profits of the transaction. And yet the words honour and patriotism are 

 constantly in the mouths of these people. 



After sojourning upwards of three weeks in the Commarca, I re- 

 turned to Villa Rica,, where I dismissed Francisco, who, I believe, had 

 found an opportunity of indulging in his old vocation. Notwithstand- 

 ing his notorious reputation as a smuggler, I was surprised at the terms 

 of easy familiarity with which he treated even the intendente himself. 

 I believe they perfectly understood each other. Francisco was a 

 gipsy; his people are numerous in Brazil, and carry on the whole 

 commerce of the interior. The epoch at which this singular people, 

 whose origin has occupied so much of the labours of the learned world, 

 migrated to the wilds of South America, I could never ascertain from 

 any Brazilian, who are singularly ignorant of every thing connected 

 with the early settlement of their country. I once questioned Fran- 

 cisco on this interesting subject, in the hope that some old tradition of 

 the event might be preserved among his tribe; but I received the 

 universal answer given to every other such question, " Quern sabe." 



The character of the Brazilian people, who pompously style them- 

 selves a nation of demi-gods, may be briefly sketched : their numerous 

 vices are scarcely redeemed by a single good quality. In cunning 

 they surpass all people all must yield to the Brazilian. No check is 

 imposed on his rapacity and fraud by the fear of detection, the con- 

 sciousness of shame, the sense of justice, the love of honour ; specious- 

 ness, craft, dishonesty, swindling, lying, gasconade, and cowardice, form 

 the grand features of their character, coupled with every other vice that 

 can degrade human nature. 



ON WHAT PRINCIPLES IS THE IRISH CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT 



FOUNDED ? 



WE think we can answer this important question. 



1st. A congregation is non-essential to the existence of a church. 

 The common idea that clergy is a relative term having laity for its cor- 

 relative is erroneous. 



2d. Supposing that by any accident there is a laity, its numbers are 

 never for a moment to be considered in fixing the numbers or incomes 

 of the clergy. The former may be counted by hundreds, and the 

 latter by thousands, without the slightest impropriety. 



3d. The same disproportion may lawfully exist between the wealth 

 of the church and the resources of the country. A people vegetating 

 upon potatoes and sea-weed, and a priesthood dining on venison and 

 drinking claret, is no anomaly, but the most reasonable state of things 

 imaginable. 



4th. The interests of the flock are to be taken into account only when 

 they are not opposed to the affluence and ease of the minister. 



5th. The chief part of the pastoral office is the sheep- shearing. 



6th. The laity should concern themselves about one thing only, 

 namely, that the clergy be well provided with the good things of this 

 world : the clergy should be left to take care of every thing else. 



7th. The text " You cannot serve God and Mammon/' is an inter- 

 polation, and of no authority whatever. 



