288 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



It is noteworthy that Auguste Cerate's positive school had much to do with 

 the revolution which overthrew the empire. His teachings had made great 

 progress, especially in the military institutions, and to the zeal of certain 

 positivists engaged in the revolutionary movemcTit must be attributed several 

 decrees issued during the first weeks of the Republic. Such weie the separation 

 of Church and State ; the institution of the national feast of July llth coinciding 

 with that of the French Republic ; the adoption of the mottos " Order and 

 Progress " for the national flag, "Safety and Fraternity" iu official correspon- 

 dence. 



But political morals are unaffected by sr.ch empty formulas. The Brazilian 

 constitution may model itself almost slavishly on that of the IM^orth American 

 Union ; but it will fail to infuse the Anglo-Saxon spirit into the Brazilian 

 populations. Each article of its "magna charta" v,ill still be interpreted in 

 accordance with the habits of thought, the traditions, usages, and passions of the 

 half-caste Portuguese inhabitants of South America. 



Thus it has happened that the royal powers granted to the president of the 

 United States, and consequently to the head of the Brazilian Republic, have 

 rapidly led in the latter State to a pure dictatorship. From the very first, 

 however, the outcome of the revolution was of its essence a military autocracy. 

 The army had long grumbled at being kept aloof, and when the enfeebled 

 emperor ceased to take an active part in the administration, the deeply mistrusted 

 military commanders were studiously removed to great distances, and virtually 

 banished even to insalubrious regions, such as Upper Amazonia and Matto Grosso. 

 Nevertheless, the army, elated at its triumphs over Paraguay, had long resented 

 its subordinate position, and now clamoured for the first place in the manage- 

 ment of affairs. The few men who controlled the republican movement, taking 

 advantage of this feeling, offered power to the military leaders in exchange for 

 the name of " Republic," and the revolution, more apparent than real, was effected 

 without bloodshed as a simple " transformation scene." 



Since the end of the empire, Brazil has been ruled by soldiers, and in 189-^ 

 more than half of the provincial governors were army men. But the navy, which 

 had also a share in the glory of the Paraguay War, especially in forcing the pas- 

 sage of the rivers, now found itself neglected in the distribution of power. To the 

 consequent rivalry between the military and naval forces, diversely influenced by 

 the pressure of the civil element, must be attributed the sequence of events which 

 were brought to a temporary close by the collapse of the revolt in the spring ol' 

 1894. 



• At the same time the army is not a force constituted by the exercise of any 

 Icitimate national function. Although there exists a law of conscription by lots, 

 the regiments are recruited by voluntary engagements legally limited to a period 

 of six months, during which the men are in the j^ay of the State. Most of the 

 rank and file are men of colour, while the officers are mainly whites, or 

 regarded as such. During the Paraguay War, Brazil had as many as 70,000 

 soldiers, including the mobilised national guards, the police, and frontier garri- 



