281 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



of Pharmacy, Normal School, College of the Fine Arts, Conservatoire of Music, 

 Lyceum of the trades and crafts, military and naval schools, withovit, however, 

 formin» a university hody. Pernambuco, Bahia, S. Paulo, and Ouro Preto have 

 also their medical, law, and mining colleges. In all these institutions French 

 is, to a laro-e extent, the vehicle of instruction. In the public libraries, also, 

 the demand for French was, till recently, greater than for Portuguese works. 



Printiuo- was introduced in 1744, but the first press lasted only three years, 

 having been destroyed by order of the central government. Then the country 

 remained without a printing oiBce till 1808, when the fugitive King of Portugal 

 introduced another press in order to publish his edicts. Newspapers had a hard 

 struggle till the period of independence, and the history of their first years is a 

 dismal record of banishments, imprisonments, and even executions of their 

 editors. After that the number of periodicals increased steadily from 31 in 

 1828, to 271 in 1876 ; during the next decade they had more than doubled. 



Formerly the Church was all-powerful in Brazil, where the Inquisition, intro- 

 duced in 1702, persecuted heretics with a blind rage. Yet in most cases heresy 

 consisted, not in the profession of heterodox doctrines, but in the strain of Jewish 

 blood in the veins of the victims. After the Declaration of Independence the 

 " Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church " maintained its ascendency, and the 

 public exercise of all other religions was severely interdicted. 



But the revolution which overthrew the empire also separated Church and 

 State, while continuing their incomes to priests on duty. Nevertheless, there 

 have been frequent collisions between the two powers, and even in 1892 the legal 

 suppression of the crucifix in the law courts gave rise to fierce demonstratiuns 

 against the " freethinkers." 



The vast majority of the population professes the Poman Catholic faith, and 

 in the returns for Rio de Janeiro in 1892 less than one per cent, declared 

 themselves of a different or of no religion. But indifference in religious matters 

 is spreading, and despite the thunders of preachers, freemasonry is acquiring 

 multitudes of adherents in all the large cities. The clergy finds it difficult to 

 obtain suificient recruits from the native white and black populations, and has 

 to be complemented every year by foreign priests, nearly all Italians, 



On the other hand, the Brazilians display great public spirit in the organisi- 

 tion of their charitable institutions. As in England, their hospitals and asylums 

 are independent of the State, and supported by voluntary contributions. An 

 appeal " in the name of all our suffering brethren " never fails to produce 

 subscriptions sufficient to provide amply for all the hospitals throughout the 

 Republic. 



The outward forms of the irmandadcs ("brotherhoods") are still religious, 

 and at the official gatherings the " brethren " wear the monkish habit as of old. 

 But each association is organised in its own way, and its operations are 

 carried on altogether independently both of Church and State. In Rio these 

 benevolent societies admiiiister a collective revenue of several hundred thousand 

 pounds. 



