THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF BRAZIL. 311 



the confiding public should advance money for the purpose of 

 paying the ever-increasing deficits of an extravagant and impe- 

 cunious country. Certainly, Brazil has not as yet repudiated her 

 debts ; but the payment of interest is out of capital. 



It is considered by many in Brazil that the existence of the 

 empire depends upon the life of one man the present far-seeing, 

 admirable, intellectual, and scientific Emperor; a man whose 

 personal and domestic relations as husband and father are irre- 

 proachable. But at his death the future of the empire is far 

 from being secure. The question, therefore, arises, What is the 

 security of Brazilian stocks ? Is the outlook good for investors ? 

 The answer from every conscientious Englishman in Brazil is an 

 emphatic no. The present system has been undeniably bolstered 

 up ; by whom, does not signify ; but I think it sufficient to draw 

 attention to the foregoing pages to prove the truth of this state- 

 ment. Why are Brazilian stocks so high when she has only a 

 paper currency, while the northern republics, with Uruguay, the 

 Argentine, and Chili, all of which have silver, are not held in such 

 high repute ? The whole fabric of Brazilian finance rests upon a 

 very frail foundation, and, should there not soon be a material and 

 radical change in the tactics of that empire, the investors in her 

 stocks may find themselves ere long though I hope the day may 

 be long deferred in a sorry plight. 



NOTE TO PAGE 287. 

 Slavery in Ceard. 



The Rio News of February 24, 1886, referring to the Jornal do Com- 

 mercio of February 21, states that "to the infinite shame of" the Province of 

 Ceara, "and to the bitter humiliation of every honest abolitionist, it now 

 appears that a gross deception has been practised, and that Ceara is not 

 entitled to the honours awarded" on the occasion of the enthusiastic reception 

 of the news that Ceara was the first free province of the Empire. " According 

 to the Jornal, the municipality of Milagres then possessed 300 slaves which 

 were not redeemed, and of which 298 are in slavery down to this very day. 

 . . . With this deception before us," even should these slaves be liberated, 

 "we shall not be able to free ourselves from the fear that there may still be 

 men there from whom the shackles of servitude have never been stricken." 

 The inhabitants of Ceara have not only " discredited themselves before the 

 world, but they have done a thing which cannot fail to still further discredit 

 the sincerity and trustworthiness of the Brazilian people." 



