308 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



" The state of the estimates, therefore, becomes worthy of the 

 attention of statesmen, when one knows that, of the amount 

 spent, the country has not a capital of over 300,000,000 milreis 

 employed on productive works, its expenditure having been on 

 administration or unproductive expenses. 



" The necessity of sacrifices for developing a new country is 

 ignored by no one. It is allowed, and should be ; but it is better 

 to execute the development in the orbit of its faculties than to 

 compromise a future which, capable of being prosperous, is em- 

 barrassed. He who runs grows weary, he who walks obtains his 

 end. 



" To show that this duty has not been forgotten, it is sufficient 

 to note the progressive allowance to the Minister of Agriculture, 

 whose expenditure shows public works either belonging to the 

 State or auxiliary to its operations, which represent the pro- 

 gress of the country. . . . The guaranteed interests to industrial 

 undertakings amount annually to 1,763,420 milreis ; that of grants 

 to navigation companies is estimated at 3,299,600 milreis. Tele- 

 graphs, railways, and other improvements show anxiety and en- 

 deavour to accompany the progress of other nations; but one should 

 not lose sight of the fact that one quarter of the receipts of the Budget 

 is destined for the payment of the State debt. 



" The ease of having recourse to a loan constitutes the sore point 

 fchaga) in the finances, and therefore, when some embarrassment 

 appears, it is not attempted to be solved by economical measures, 

 cutting down expenditure, or delaying expense which might be put 

 off ; they prefer to liquidate by a loan ; therefore, says Laveleye, 

 credit (which we were taught to bless as a beneficent fairy, who in- 

 creases the well-being of humanity} becomes a worse scourge to 

 nations than the plague and famine of the Middle Ages ; because those 

 were transient, and the other is permanent. * 



" Whoever pays any attention to the increase of the estimates 

 is soon confronted by the augmentation of officialism (funccion- 

 alismo'). This is a cancer which devours and destroys the powers 

 of the country, prejudicial not only by the increasing augmenta- 

 tion of expenditure, but by the disorganization of the service. The 

 greater the number of those employed, the less is the amount of 

 * The italics are mine. 



