SLAVERY. 381 



ciate the good in others, instead of dwelHng on what each con- 

 siders their faults or errors, one great step towards unity would 

 be attained. The bigotry and lack of charity amongst Christians 

 is the fact which affords — perhaps more than any other — the 

 ground for the arguments of Atheism against the Church of our 

 divine and blessed Redeemer. 



Slavery. 



It may be confidently asserted, owing to the very great move- 

 ment which has been daily increasing in earnestness, and which 

 engrosses the mind of every one throughout the length and 

 breadth of the empire, that before long slavery will have ceased to 

 exist in Brazil. 



The law of Rio Branco, or Lei do ventre livre, was passed 

 September 28, 187 1. It provides that the children of all slaves 

 born after that date shall be free ; and it also founded the Emanci- 

 pation Fund. The Bill was brought in by the Visconde do Rio 

 Branco, then President of the Council, and Director of the Poly- 

 technic School at Rio de Janeiro. He is a staunch Conservative. 

 The Bill passed through the two Chambers during one of the visits 

 of the Emperor to Europe, when the Princess Isabel was Regent. 

 She is the wife of Count Louis Philippe Gaston d'Orleans and 

 Conde d'Eu. 



Since that date the abolition of slavery has been steadily pro- 

 gressing, through the Emancipation Fund, and by private acts of 

 freeing slaves during their life, or after the death of the owners, as 

 I shall describe in due course. 



Slaves can still be bought, but there is a tax of a conto of reis * 

 on importing them from other provinces. The cost of slaves 

 from fifteen to twenty-five years of age is from four hundred or 

 five hundred milreis to one or two contos. Since 1831 no slaves 

 can be brought into the country ; but this law has been evaded, as 

 many have been imported from Africa from time to time. In 

 Gardner's Travels,t he mentions that in 1841 he saw, near Petro- 

 polis, twenty young negro boys recently imported, of from ten to 

 fifteen years of age, none of whom could yet speak Portuguese, 



* A cotito is a million reis = roughly ;^8o to ;^loo. 



f Gardner's "Travels in the Interior of Brazil," p. 536. 



