PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 95 



important subject, when its wise and enlightened policy will no doubt obtain 

 the desired relief. 



There can be but one opinion that the convention, if it applied to imports gene- 

 rally, is the only just principle upon which this matter should rest, provided it 

 were divested of the grievances just alluded to ; for the accomplishment of 

 which, the merchants of Bahia have been the flrst to present a memorial to the 

 Brazilian court. It was understood, before I left Rio, that the measures which 

 had been practised for the benefit of individuals, and not of the government, 

 were ordered to be discontinued by his Majesty, as contrary to the letter and 

 spirit of the convention. Having, however, referred to those practices, it may 

 not be irrelevant to state one instance out of many that were communicated to 

 me by the merchants at Rio de Janeiro. The obligations of the convention 

 are, that the merchant shall give in an attested invoice of the value of the 

 article, and if the government do not consider it a fair one, they have the option 

 of taking the goods by paying ten per cent, upon the price. A merchant re- 

 ceived a quantity of goods, which, had he despatched at the cost price, he 

 would have sustained a serious loss, in consequence of the low ebb at which 

 they then stood. In the course of twelve months, a demand arose for the article, 

 and he gave in an invoice at the cost price to pay the duties upon. The adminis- 

 tratador of the custom-house finding, (no doubt from his agents,) that he could 

 obtain a good profit, informed the merchant that the ten per cent, in addition to 

 the price given in, would be paid, and the goods kept ; consequently the mer- 

 chant M'as deprived of any advantage he might have received from running the 

 risk of retaining the goods for so long a time, without mentioning the loss of 

 interest ; besides, in those cases it has happened, that the goods have been 

 previously sold by sample to a dealer, who insists upon their delivery, or a 

 pecuniary allowance. The merchant above-mentioned ascertained that the 

 goods were actually despatched through the custom-house by the very invoice 

 he presented, and the duty paid only upon the value he gave in ; demonstrating 

 that the government derived no benefit from those proceedings, but that they 

 were the result of intrigue among inferior officers, for their individual gain. I 

 cannot conclude this important subject, without strongly recommending to the 

 British government the expediency of effecting, if possible, a change in the 

 levying the duty of fifteen per cent, as far as the pauta applies, for it is obvious 

 that an arrangement upon the principle of the convention can alone embrace 

 the infinite gradations of value peculiar to every denomination of British manu- 

 factures sent to the Brazil. 



