144 ^oi/a(/c of the Novara. 



the cost of Government, and from which, if the experi- 

 ment had proved successful, the most important results 

 might have been anticipated, stood there uncared-for and 

 untended, a melancholy witness of how things are inaugurated 

 in Brazil, and then suffered to fall through. When we 

 enquired how long the garden had been laid out, our guide, 

 a witty Portuguese, replied with a sarcastic smile, " Since 

 the beginning of the world ! " In that part of the garden 

 which adjoins the Lagune, called Rodrigo das Freitas, stands 

 a common mud hovel, with broken windows, and doors hanging 

 by the hinges. This was pointed out to us by a labourer as 

 the spot at which the Emperor alights and reposes when he 

 visits the Botanical Garden. 



Singular to say, Brazil possesses no regular university ! 

 The jealousy with which any one city invested with certain 

 privileges and prerogatives is regarded by the rest, is the 

 reason that induced the Government to separate the medical 

 and juridical classes, so that each of the four chief cities of the 

 Empire benefits by the presence of a certain portion of the 

 students. Thus the medical schools are in Rio Janeiro and 

 Bahia, while those of jurisprudence are held in St. Paul and 

 Pernambuco. The entire number of students attending these 

 establishments amounted of late years, on an average, to 

 upwards of a thousand. Great prominence has been assigned 

 by Government, especially of late, to the extension of public 

 instruction. In March, 1857) there were throughout Brazil, 

 2452 schools, (765 private, and IG87 public,) in which 



