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PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



temporary embarrassment, arising principally from the want of a competent 

 knowledge of those financial arrangements, foresight, and ingenuity, so impor- 

 tant and essential in the direction of a banking concern. In this dilemma, the 

 directors received effectual pecuniary aid from the English house of Messrs, 

 Samuels, Phillips, and Co. established here, with the same promptitude which 

 marks the financial transactions of its connexions in Europe. 



The revenue raised in the Brazil is computed at from six to seven millions 

 sterling, including the pecuniary aid the government receives from Portugal, but 

 which sum is not adequate to the demands upon the treasury ; many remaining 

 in arrears, and others, with more influence, getting their claims liquidated, after 

 much delay. The military establishment would not appear to require a very 

 large sum, the militia not creating an item of much expense, and the navy 

 being in a very inefficient state : it would, therefore, be difficult, on a first view 

 of the subject, to account for an expenditure at all proportionate to the income 

 arising from any apparent establishments for the security of the state ; but as 

 no details of the financial situation of the country, or the appropriation of the 

 revenue, are ever published, the cause of the embarrassment under which the 

 treasury labours can only be arrived at through the medium of piece-meal 

 information. From the aggregate of such intelligence it is fair to conclude 

 that the great item which disorganizes the financial wheel has its origin not 

 only in the great accumulation of individuals about the court, but also in every 

 department of the state. The King is a man of an easy and amiable disposi- 

 tion, and, from a wish to do something for every one, it is manifest, he has been 

 led to sanction the increase of public situations to an extent beyond what is 

 required. Few European courts, comparatively speaking, have so many per- 

 sons attached to them as the Brazilian, consisting of fidalgos, ecclesiastics, 

 and numerous attendants. Few governments have so prodigious a number 

 employed in the discharge of public affairs, compared with those holding 

 appointments here. In addition to the three hundred mules and horses at 

 St. Christovao, there is an equal number in the stables at the city, not kept for 

 the use of the royal family alone, but for the supply of fidalgos and the 

 numerous individuals composing the retinue of the court ; and, with all this 

 expense, there is no appearance of splendour or elegance. The carriages are 

 large unwieldly cabriolets, drawn by mules ; and a fidalgo will be seen using 

 the whip rigorously from his seat in the vehicle, although a postilion is 

 mounted upon one of the mules, to whose management one would expect the 

 whole matter to be left. 



