PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



81 



Rego (the Captain-General) at Pernambuco, are decidedly under the best dis- 

 cipline. Those two officers served with Lord Wellington in the peninsular cam- 

 paign. The thirty-eighth British regiment proceeding to the Cape of Good Hope 

 put into Rio de Janeiro for refreshment; the men being permitted occasionally to 

 go on shore were soon recognised by one of the regiments from Portugal as their 

 companions in war. The salutations which occurred between them induced 

 the King to make some inquiries respecting this regiment, when he expressed 

 his desire to see them reviewed, which the commanding officer acceded to. 

 Boats were furnished to convey them up the bay to the Campo of St. Christovao, 

 where they went through their evolutions with such precision that the royal 

 family, and nearly the whole population of Rio and its vicinity, assembled 

 upon the spot, were much gratified, and spoke highly of their fine military ap- 

 pearance. 



Since the removal of the court to the Brazil, a bank has been established in 

 this city, which commenced upon the plausible plan of affording great facility 

 to commerce, by discounting bills at the rate of six per cent. ; but this banking 

 company soon curtailed these accommodations, on finding that, through private 

 channels and agents, they could obtain ten, twelve, and fifteen per cent, by 

 making loans, and advancing their notes upon securities not of the first 

 character and validity. In order to provide against this sort of traffic, and 

 acquire an unfair advantage over the public, they had the address to convince 

 the King that they were entitled to have a prior claim over the property of an 

 insolvent before other creditors, and, in consequence, his Majesty, (then Prince 

 Regent,) passed laws, of the 24th September, 1814, and the 16th February, 

 1816, conceding to them certain preferences ; and, by a decree of the 29th 

 November, 1818, he granted them the full privilege of a first and distinct 

 claim, before all other creditors, which is tantamount to the important 

 public right the British government, by virtue of extents, have over the 

 national property in the hands of any individual, and which every state can, 

 with equal justice, practise for the security of its revenue. But that such a 

 preference should be allowed to a body of merchants, trading for gain, over 

 other claimants precisely in the same circumstances, is an innovation upon 

 the laws of commerce not founded in justice. In most instances, our own 

 countrymen will be found to be the greatest sufferers, their liberal accommoda- 

 tions being too often unfairly taken advantage of. The bank declared a divi- 

 dend of twenty per cent, last year; and, notwithstanding the profitable 

 operations which afforded such a result, it was very recently involved in a 



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