PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 



55 



The Holy Office or Inquisition has never had 

 an establishment in Brazil, but several priests 

 resided in Pernambuco, employed as its fami- 

 liars, and sometimes persons judged amenable 

 to this most horrid tribunal, have been sent un- 

 der confinement to Lisbon. However, the ninth 

 article of the Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, 

 between the crowns of England and Portugal, 

 signed at the Rio de Janeiro in 1810, has com- 

 pletely determined, that the power of the Inqui- 

 sition shall not be recognised in Brazil. It will 

 appear surprising to English persons, that in a 

 place so large as Recife, there should be no 

 printing-press or bookseller. At the convent of 

 the Madre de Deos, are sold almanacks, prints 

 and histories of the Virgin and Saints, and other 

 productions of the same description, but of very 

 limited size, printed at Lisbon. The post- 

 office is conducted in a very irregular manner. 

 The letters from England are usually delivered 

 at the house of the merchant to whom the ship 

 which conveyed them is consigned, or at the 

 office of the British consul. There is no estab- 

 lished means of forwarding letters to any part of 

 the interior of the country, nor along the coast, 

 so that the post-office merely receives the letter- 

 bags which are brought by the small vessels that 

 trade with other ports along this coast, and sends 

 the bags from Pernambuco by the same convey- 

 ances j and as there is not any regular delivery 

 e 4? 



