202 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP DOM PEDRO II. 



times ill annual pensions to certain meritorious persons, and frequently 

 in sums of money gi^^en for the education of promising youth, often 

 large enough to allow them to prosecute their studies in Europe. 



It is an edifying proof of his religious feelings and of his Christian 

 humility, that every year on holy Friday he washes publicly the feet of 

 the poor in the imperial chajiel, and that duriag the procession of the 

 Cor^nis Christi he assists in carrying the dais throughout the ceremony. 



The qualities we have noticed are sufficiently indicative of what Dom 

 Pedro is in private; it is hardly necessary to say that he is an excellent 

 husband and model father. The Empress, his faithful companion since 

 1843, is an admirable woman, a providence to the poor and the orphan; 

 to know her many virtues and not love her is impossible. The heiress 

 X)resumptive to the throne, the only child left him, has received a care- 

 ful education, befitting her rank and the office she will assume in the 

 empire. Her political instruction, promoted by several European tours, 

 especially in England, where she seemed to seek in Queen Victoria an 

 example for future imitation, is the exclusive charge of her august father. 

 Her first essay in the art of government, four years ago, gave great 

 satisfaction and promised well for the future. As she is now again in 

 charge of the empire, Dom Pedro can travel without care, as he knows 

 the love of the Brazilian people for their future Empress is as great and 

 as sincere as that for their present Emperor. 



CONCLUSION. 



When we look back over the reign of Dom Pedro, and compare the 

 Brazil of 1831, the time of the ascension to the throne by the present 

 Emperor, when the national wealth was, so to say, insignificant, when 

 the existence even of society was menaced by anarchy, when there 

 were almost no means of communication with the interior, with the Bra- 

 zil of to-day, taking into consideration its commerce and agricultural 

 prosperity,* its numerous coast and river steamboats, its railroads and 

 telegraph lines, passing through regions of country then occupied by 

 virginal forests ; its educational institutions of every degree, and its 

 powerful means of defense — when we remember that these two periods 

 are separated only by an interval of forty years, and reflect upon the 

 immense progress which has been made in this comparatively short 

 space of time, represented by the words riches, tranquility, respect, 

 happiness — we have cause to be astonished, and to ask if all this is the 

 work of a single man. 



he learned confidentially that his host was in a bad liuaucial condition, and that he 

 knew not how to obtain the means to meet a large debt soon requiring payment. 

 Dom Pedro, having assured himself secretly that he had been correctly informed, said 

 to his host when the moment came to take leave of him, " You have forgotten to put 

 away an important paper I have seen in the drawer of the bureau of the room I 

 have occupied." It was +he receipt of the creditor of his host. 



* In 1831 the revenue of Brazil was hardly forty millions of francs ; now it is over ten 

 hundred millions. 



