144 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



consideration, to effect a change in the character of 

 the inhabitants, by wholly reversing the existing 

 proportion of the white inhabitants to the blacks 

 and people of colour. But it is particularly ob- 

 servable in the class of rich merchants in the capital, 

 and even in the interior of the neighbouring pro- 

 vinces of Minas Geraes, and S. Paulo, what rapid 

 strides civilisation and luxury, and consequently 

 activity and industry, have made, in consequence of 

 the vast accession of new inhabitants from Europe. 

 Brazil has, properly speaking, no nobility ; the 

 clergy, the people in office, and the rich families in 

 the interior, that is, land-owners and miners, pos- 

 sessed in a certain degree, before the arrival of the 

 king, all the distinctions and privileges of nobility. 

 The conferring of titles and offices by the king, 

 drew a part of them to the capital, whence, having 

 become acquainted with the European luxuries 

 and mode of living, they began to exercise on the 

 other classes of the people, an influence very differ- 

 ent from that which they formerly had possessed. 

 Even the more remote provinces of the infant king- 

 dom, whose inhabitants, led by curiosity, interest, 

 or private business, visited Rio de Janeiro, soon 

 accustomed themselves to recognise that city as the 

 capital, and to adopt the manners and modes of 

 thinking, which, after the arrival of the court, 

 struck them as European. 



In general the influence of the court at Rio, 

 upon Brazil, is in every respect incalculable. The 

 presence of the supreme head of the state naturally 



