BRAZIL. 



77 



corvettes, nine screw gunboats, eight side-wheel 

 gunboats, and two transports. 



Finances. The revenue for the eighteen 

 months ending Dec. 31, 1887, was 201,425,000 

 milreis and the expenditure 229,663,800 milreis. 

 In that year the fiscal year, which used to end 

 on June 30, was made to correspond with the 

 calendar year. Dr. Barbosa, who adopted the 

 budget for the last year of the empire as the 

 basis of that of 1890, estimates the annual reve- 

 nue and expenditure at 150,000,000 milreis. The 

 budget voted for 1889 fixes the expenditure at 

 153,000,000 milreis. The total national debt on 

 Nov. 14, 1889, was 1,072,092 contos or thousands 

 of milreis, of which 270,396 contos represent the 

 funded foreign debt, 543,585 contos the domes- 

 tic funded debt, and 258,111 contos the floating 

 debt, inclusive of paper money, savings-bank 

 funds, etc. 



Decrees of the Provisional Government. 

 The revolution was accomplished without 

 bloodshed or disturbance. Business was inter- 

 rupted only for a day. The republican form of 

 government was hailed with enthusiasm by a 

 large part of the population, especially by the 

 youth of the country. Students and clerks 

 formed military companies and armed and 

 drilled themselves for the defense of the repub- 

 lic. The new rulers kept a sharp watch on all 

 telegraphic intercourse and news agencies, but 

 otherwise betrayed no repressive tendencies. 

 Their policy in its earliest manifestations was 

 to reverse the most unpopular characteristics of 

 the imperial regime, which were ecclesiastical in- 

 fluences and centralization of power. From all 

 parts of the country came addresses expressing 

 gratified recognition of the new order of things. 

 The emblems of monarchy disappeared, and 

 after a few days nothing was seen or heard to 

 indicate that the people had ever lived under an 

 empire. No hostile party showed itself, and the 

 early acts of the Government were received with- 

 out murmurs when not with approval. Only in 

 Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia were there signs 

 of disaffection, and even these provinces were 

 brought into line, Gen. Visconde de Pelotas en- 

 tering on his office as Governor of Rio Grande 

 with a patriotic proclamation. The navy, the 

 sentiments of which were doubtful, declared for 

 the new Government. The ministers devoted 

 themselves diligently and earnestly to reorgan- 

 izing their departments. Officials who adhered 

 to the monarchy were allowed to retire, and a 

 few were discharged. The majority remained in 

 their places. 



The empire was converted into a confedera- 

 tion of twenty States, consisting of the former 

 provinces, the capital, with its 400.000 inhabit- 

 ants, being declared a neutral district. A de- 

 cree was issued on Nov. 19, 1889, declaring every 

 Brazilian citizen who can read and write to be 

 a voter, unless he has been deprived of his civil 

 or political rights, the electoral process being 

 left to the Minister of the Interior to determine. 

 By the decree of Nov. 20 the provincial assem- 

 blies were dissolved, and for the interval that 

 must elapse before the adoption of a republican 

 system most extensive powers were confided to 

 the governors, who were authorized to fix the 

 civil, judicial, and ecclesiastical divisions, to se- 

 lect a place for the capital, to supervise the pub- 



lic and private schools, to expropriate private 

 property for public purposes, to fix the expendi- 

 tures of the state and to impose and collect 

 taxes, to create offices and appoint civil func- 

 tionaries, to plan and make contracts for public 

 works, to organize and discipline the police, and 

 to suspend judges appointed for life and dismiss 

 other officials. The dangers of decentralization 

 began immediately to impress themselves on the 

 Provisional Government, for only three days 

 later a decree was issued reserving to the federal 

 authorities the appointment of governors, chiefs 

 of police, State secretaries, judges, and post- 

 masters. The assumption of powers never pos- 

 sessed by the Emperor caused the cry of " mili- 

 tary dictatorship to be raised by old repub- 

 licans as well as monarchists, and before the 

 new Government was two weeks old it began to 

 arrest obnoxious citiz.ens, one of the first being 

 Silveira Martins, who headed the opposition in 

 the southernmost province. In Maranhao and 

 in several smaller places the negroes rose in in- 

 surrection, fearing that they would be reduced 

 to slavery again. The Emperor, whose debts 

 were said to amount to 2,000 contos, refused to 

 accept 5,000 contos that the Government offered 

 to him in addition to the civil-list dotations that 

 were continued during his life and that of the 

 Empress. Perceiving in his rejection of money 

 not voted by Parliament a denial of its authority 

 and the assertion of a claim to the throne, the 

 Government canceled the gifts, declared the 

 civil list extinguished, pronounced a decree of 

 banishment against the Emperor and all his 

 family, and ordered the liquidation of his estate 

 in Brazil within two years. On Dec. 7 the Mu- 

 nicipal Chamber of Rio de Janeiro, a nest of po- 

 litical corruption and fraud, was dissolved and 

 superseded by a committee. On Dec. 15 a natu- 

 ralization law was promulgated declaring every 

 foreigner residing in Brazil at the time of the 

 revolution to be a Brazilian citizen possessing 

 equal civil and political rights with native-born 

 citizens, except eligibility to the office of chief 

 executive of a State, provided he did not within 

 six months from the date of the decree record 

 his intention of preserving his allegiance to his 

 native country; also every future foreign immi- 

 grant after a residence of two years in Brazil. 

 This measure was very acceptable to Germans 

 and other foreigners who desired a voice in the 

 conduct of public affairs, and especially so on 

 account of its novel form, relieving them of the 

 necessity of renouncing their native country. 

 The British Government instructed its consular 

 agents to give public notice to British subjects 

 in Brazil that they would lose their civil rights 

 in Great Britain if they submitted to tacit natu- 

 ralization. The German Government took no 

 steps because Germans can exercise the rights of 

 citizenship in a foreign country without forfeit- 

 ing any of their rights as born German subjects 

 other than that of the protection of the diplo- 

 matic authorities, unless by an act of formal ab- 

 juration provided for in treaties. Between sev- 

 eral governments an exchange of views took 

 place in reference to a protest against the novel 

 and sweeping 'method of naturalization intro- 

 duced in Brazil. The law was modified in June 

 by a new decree to the effect that foreigners 

 neglecting to register their intention still remain 



