OUR LIFE AT RIO DE JANEIRO. 189 



some four months since, the Government, not knowing 

 where to turn for money, determined to sequestrate this 

 property. One of the ministers issued a Commission, the 

 members of which went round the next morning to about 

 a hundred and eighty houses belonging to certain convents 

 in Rio. These houses are let to various people, natives 

 and foreigners ; and one of the tenants, a Scotchman, told 

 me the history. The Commission visited his house, and 

 ordered him to pay the rent for the month then due, and 

 all rent in future to the Government, and not to the 

 " fratres." He refused to do this, but was given a day or 

 two to decide. His lawyer said the proceedings were quite 

 illegal, and he then assembled a few others Brazilians, 

 Portuguese, and Germans who were placed in the same 

 position. They determined not to be in a hurry. But 

 meanwhile the convent folk had procured an order from 

 one of the judges, and directed all their tenants to pay the 

 rents to them on pain of having the bailiffs put in ; and 

 the Government Commission had said, "Pay up to us within 

 twenty-four hours, or we will send in soldiers to take 

 possession." The tenants then went to the judges, pre- 

 sented their grievance, and asked for a power to pay their 

 rents into the Treasury in their own names, but, as the 

 property of those to whom they might be adjudged, leaving 

 the money there till the affair was settled. This was 

 granted, and the money deposited. Then came the fight. 

 The Commission said that the judges were wrong and 

 incompetent ; the judges and lawyers, that the act of the 

 Government was illegal and unconstitutional. A test case 

 was tried, and the judges gave sentence for the convents ; 

 and yet, after this, the minister went to the Treasury and 

 carried off all the rents which had been placed there, and 

 that had been declared in court to belong to the religious 

 orders. 



