PRIVILEGE OF SUGAR-PLANTERS. 



1.55 



fee sold, he would immediately receive a sufficient 

 sum to place him in easy circumstances ; and 

 the estate would undergo improvement, for the 

 occupier would then have a direct interest in its 

 advancement. I might mention several other 

 plantations which are situated in a like manner. 

 The property of sugar-planters, which is di- 

 rectly applied to the improvement, or to the 

 usual work of their plantations, is not subject to 

 be seized for debt ; this privilege was granted 

 for the encouragement of the formation of such 

 establishments, but it may have a contrary effect. 

 The planter is allowed many means of evading 

 the demands of his creditors, and every thing is 

 permitted to act in his favour. But thus it is 

 that the government legislates ; the revenue is 

 thought of, instead of equity being regarded as 

 the primary consideration. Nor does the plan 

 act in the manner which the establishers of it 

 imagine that it will, for the estates which are 

 labouring under the disadvantage of being held 

 by men who require such a law as this to enable 

 them to keep possession of the property would 

 doubtless, nine times out of ten, yield a greater 

 profit if they passed into other hands ; they 

 could not be in worse, and they might fall into 

 better. The government need not fear that 

 good estates will, in the present state of Brazil, 

 remain long untenanted. Besides, the rulers of 

 that kingdom may be very sure that the mer- 



