BRAZIL. 



79 



stringent. On Jan. 15 Marshal Deodoro da Fon- 

 seca 'assumed the rank of generalissimo on the 

 invitation of the officers of the army and navy. 

 The police in Rio were increased, and whenever 

 capmiras collected in gangs they were arrested 

 and scattered by deporting them to distant parts 

 of the country. 



Separation of Church and State. On Jan. 

 7 the decree of the Provisional Government was 

 issued proclaiming the separation of Church and 

 state and guaranteeing religious equality. The 

 interference of public officers with the formation 

 of a religious society is forbidden. To stir up 

 religious dissensions between the inhabitants of 

 the country is an offense against the law. Every 

 confession can worship according to its own rites, 

 and every person is at liberty to live according 

 to his individual faith and without interference 

 of the authorities to unite in a society with others 

 and build churches. Each church and religious 

 society is regarded as a legal person. The sti- 

 pends of teachers in the seminaries and of per- 

 sons in the service of the churches were continued, 

 but only for one year. Existing churchyards 

 were secularized, and the establishment of new 

 cemeteries is the affair of the communes, though 

 religious bodies can select separate burial places, 

 subject to the regulations ordained by law. By 

 another decree, all religious holidays, except Sun- 

 days, were deprived of their legal sanction, and 

 nine holidays commemorative of secular events 

 were legalized. This was followed by a civil- 

 marriage law based on the American and French 

 laws. The decree also introduced divorce, al- 

 though in a form bearing marks of a popular 

 sentiment derived from religious teachings, inas- 

 much as neither party is permitted to marry 

 again during the life of the other. 



Boundary Settlement. Senhor Bocayuva 

 met plenipotentiaries of the Argentine Republic, 

 Uruguay, and Paraguay in January at Monte- 

 video, where the long-standing boundary dis- 

 putes concerning the territory called the Mis- 

 sioe's were settled on the basis of arrangements 

 already made during the ministry of Viscount 

 Ouro Preto. 



Financial Difficulties. Although Roths- 

 child, who has been for many years the financial 

 agent of Brazil in Europe, continued his rela- 

 tions with the Government and endeavored to 

 sustain values, other financiers in Paris, London, 

 and Lisbon canceled contracts and withdrew 

 capital from Brazil. The result was a great fall 

 in exchange that the Minister of Finance tried 

 to stop by sacrificing 10,000 contos of the public 

 money, which had only a temporary effect. The 

 cadets of the Military Academy, indignant that 

 the repugnance of Europeans to free institu- 

 tions should act as an impediment to the estab- 

 lishment of a republic in Brazil, proposed that 

 voluntary subscriptions should be taken for the 

 purpose of paying off the foreign debt. As such 

 a foolish operation was more likely to impair 

 than to help the credit of the Government in 

 Europe, Dr. Barbosa, not wishing to check a 

 patriotic impulse, suggested that the collections, 

 which in the end were insignificant in amount, 

 should be applied to the reduction of the inter- 

 nal debt. The countenance that he gave to this 

 quixotic project spread abroad an impression of 

 the minister's inexperience that he fully bore 



out by his own projects. Increasing the salaries 

 of the ministers and all the expenses of govern- 

 ment and doubling the army made the position 

 of the Government easier and safer for the mo- 

 ment, but added immensely to the troubles and 

 dangers it would have to encounter later on. 

 The Government could draw on London and 

 Paris for 34,554 contos, the unexpended balance 

 of Ouro Preto's last loan of 100,000 contos, arid 

 the available amount was reduced by 7.840 con- 

 tos of outstanding obligations. On Jan. 18 he 

 announced a project that was expected to enable 

 the Government to get rid of the internal debt 

 and at the same time to promote enormously the 

 prosperity and material development of the coun- 

 try and rally to the. support of the republic 

 powerful financial interests. His plan was to 

 establish four banks of issue in Rio de Janeiro, 

 Bahia, San Paulo, and Porto Alegre, with a 

 capital of from 100,000 to 200,000 contos of reis 

 each, with authority to emit notes to the amount 

 of the Government bonds held by them ; with 

 provision for extinguishing the bonds by a sink- 

 ing fund composed of a certain proportion of the 

 profits of the banks. Besides carrying on the 

 regular banking business, the banks were author- 

 ized to lend on mortgages, to engage in agri- 

 cultural and industrial enterprises, undertake 

 public and private contracts, and participate in 

 trading operations and innovations of all kinds. 

 The state agreed to allow them to import all their 

 materials free of duty, to grantthem the preference 

 in giving out railroad and other contracts and 

 concessions, and to grant them land without pay- 

 ment for founding colonies and industrial estab- 

 lishments. These extensive privileges alarmed 

 not only the existing credit institutions, but the 

 whole commercial community, foreign and na- 

 tive, and created intense distrust where the Gov- 

 ernment had hitherto met with praise and satis- 

 faction. On Jan. 17 foreign banking institutions 

 were notified that they would not be allowed to 

 do business unless two thirds of their capital 

 was in Brazil. Dr. Demetrio Nunez Ribeiro, 

 who disapproved of the scheme of the Minister 

 of Finance, resigned on Feb. 1, and was suc- 

 ceeded as Minister of Agriculture by Francisco 

 Glycerio. His resignation was followed in a few 

 days by that of the Minister of the Interior, in 

 consequence of complaints against his adminis- 

 tration. He was succeeded by Dr. Cesario Alvin. 

 The opposition in financial circles led Dr. Bar- 

 bosa to modify his plan by fixing the capital and 

 circulation of the new banks at less than one 

 quarter of the sum originally intended and to 

 grant existing banks the right to issue nctes se- 

 cured by a gold reserve. In Rio Grande do Sul 

 the monopoly of the new bank was opposed on 

 political grounds as an outrage on the rights of 

 the States. The discontent culminated on May 

 13 in a rising at Porto Alegre, where the popu- 

 lace attacked the new bank building, and the 

 troops, after firing a volley and killing or wound- 

 ing sixty-seven persons, joined the insurgents in 

 deposing the Governor. In the two northern 

 States, where imperialism and separatism are 

 prevailing sentiments, there were likewise dis- 

 turbances. The people of Bahia drove away the 

 republican Governor. The disturbances in Rio 

 Grande resulted from a breach between the Old 

 Republicans and Barbosa regarding the bank, 



