68 



BRAZIL. 



Councilor Lopes Netto (transferred from Monte- 

 video in July, 1881) ; and the Brazilian Consul- 

 General at Baltimore (for the Union) is Senhor 

 Salvador de Mendonca. 



The United States Minister to Brazil is Hon. 

 James Monroe (1881) ; and the United States 

 Consul-General at Rio de Janeiro is Mr. 

 Thomas Adamson. " We learn, with the 

 greatest pleasure," writes a Rio journalist, re- 

 ferring to the appointment of Minister Mon- 

 roe, and to the continuance of Mr. Adamson 

 in the consulate-general, " that the Honorable 

 James Monroe has been nominated by the 

 President of the United States as representa- 

 tive of that great republic at the court of 

 Brazil. Mr. Monroe will be no stranger in 

 Brazil ; he is already known here as a consul 

 who discharged his important duties with zeal 

 and integrity ; and his precedents here afford 

 the certainty that the United States will find 

 in him a resident Minister in Brazil who will 

 reflect honor on his native country. As re- 

 gards the present United States consulate- 

 general at Rio de Janeiro, we are rejoiced to 

 find that no change is contemplated in its oc- 

 cupancy by the gentleman who has so wor- 

 thily discharged the duties thereof, and re- 

 formed it. As the New York correspondence 

 says, Mr. Adamson is not popular among a 

 certain class of American citizens here; but 

 consuls, like ministers of state, who initiate 

 and enforce necessary reforms, must count on 

 having to endure much obloquy from the small 

 but noisy class whose interests the reforms 

 traverse. Still, every important American and 

 other house, having business with the United 

 States consulate-general here, will freely ac- 

 knowledge that, in Mr. Adamson, we have had 

 the best American Consul-General Rio has 

 seen since the days of ' Honest James Mon- 

 roe.' " 



The actual strength of the army in 1880 was 

 15,304, of whom 1,743 were officers. The dis- 

 tribution of the several arms was as follows : 

 Infantry twenty-one battalions, eight garrison 

 companies, and one depot company for drill- 

 service; cavalry five regiments, one squad- 

 ron, and five garrison companies; artillery 

 three mounted regiments and five foot-battal- 

 ions ; sappers and miners, one battalion ; gen- 

 darmes, 8,340, of whom 931 were at Rio de 

 Janeiro. The National Guard had been dis- 

 banded, with a view to reorganization after the 

 taking of the new census. Pursuant to the law 

 of February 27, 1875, military service is obli- 

 gatory for all Brazilian citizens ; but numerous 

 exemptions are admitted, and substitution is al- 

 lowable. The period of service in the regular 

 army is six years, and in the reserve three 

 years. The regulation war strength was to be 

 fixed at 32,000; and the strength in time of 

 peace, although fixed at 13,000, is commonly 

 in excess of that number. The navy, in 1880, 

 consisted of nine steam ironclads, "six steam 

 corvettes, sixteen steam gunboats, six steam 

 transports, and three sail of the line (one cor- 



vette and two smaller craft) ; with an aggre- 

 gate of 3,758 men, and a total armament of 

 166 guns. The aggregate steam-power was 

 8,660 horses. Besides the vessels above enu- 

 merated, there were five iron-clad ships, one 

 gunboat, one school-ship, and one brig for 

 midshipmen, all without armament. The per- 

 sonnel of the navy consisted of 14 general staff- 

 officers, 340 first-class officers, a sanitary corps 

 73 strong, 17 almoners, 88 accountants, 57 

 guardians, and 185 engineers; an imperial ma- 

 rine corps, 2,695 strong, a naval battalion of 

 286 men, and 1,229 apprentices; total, 4,984 

 men. An additional gunboat has been report- 

 ed " in course of construction " for some years 

 past; but mention must here be made of two 

 important craft, officially described as follows : 

 One of these, an ironclad of novel construc- 

 tion, contracted for in London in 1881, is to 

 be 300 feet in length with 52 feet beam, and 

 to carry four Armstrong twenty-ton, new pat- 

 tern, breech-loading guns, mounted on two 

 turrets arranged en echelon, and sufficiently 

 far apart to avoid injury to one turret by the 

 flash of the guns in the other. The lighter 

 armament is to consist of six 4f -inch guns and 

 a signal-gun. The armor is to be steel-faced 

 throughout; the armor-belt, of two strakcs, 7 

 feet deep and varying in thickness from 10 to 

 1 1 inches ; and the breastwork and turrets each 

 10 inches thick. The main-deck will be faced 

 with 1^-inch compound armor on a steel back- 

 ing ^ inch thick. The stem, stern, rudder, 

 brackets, and tubes will be constructed of brass, 

 while the hull will be double sheathed with 

 wood and covered with Muntz-metal. Promi- 

 nent among the advantages anticipated in this 

 ironclad are: the protection of the magazines 

 and the spaces beneath the breastwork, fore 

 and aft of which the armor-belt will pass inside 

 and take the form of oblique armor ; the dimi- 

 nution of weight consequent upon that arrange- 

 ment, and the security against water lodging 

 upon the inner protective deck in the event of 

 piercing of the thin ends of the armor; and 

 the use of the forced blast, with a horse-power 

 readily increased from 6,000 to 8,000, and a 

 speed of not less than 15 but susceptible of be- 

 ing accelerated to 16f knots an hour. Should 

 the ship, on trial, fail by one quarter of a knot 

 to make 15 knots, the builders will, by the 

 terms of their contract, be held to forfeit 

 2,000; if by one half knot, 4,000; if by 

 three fourths, 8,000 ; if by one knot, 16,000 ; 

 if by li knot, 32,000 : and should the speed 

 fall short of 13 knots, the whole of the final 

 installment, amounting to one sixth of the en- 

 tire price, will be forfeited. Should the ex- 

 treme draught of the ship, with 400 tons of 

 coal and sea-going stores on board, exceed 20 

 feet, the forfeitures will be as follows : for an 

 excess of 1 inch, 1,000; of 2 inches, 2,000; 

 of 3 inches, 4,000 ; of 4 inches, 8,000 ; of 5 

 inches, 16,000 ; of 6 inches, 25,000 ; and of 

 more than 6 inches, the entire final install- 

 ment. Likewise, for an excess of one tenth 



