THE BRAZILS. 133 
sion of Rio de Janeiro, the natural strength of the country is 
so commanding, and the advantages it possesses so import- 
ant, that it would be ]io easy matter to driv^e them out of it 
by force, or prevail on them to quit it by treat}^ I am not 
sure also that, next to one of the royal family of Portugal, 
French interest might not preponderate in the interior of the 
country, where the descendants of the French Jesuits are not 
unmindful of their origin, and with whom the restoration of 
the order would be attended with no small degree of influence. 
And although in the sea-port towns the trading part of the na- 
tion mioht feel it their interest to throw themselves under the 
protection of the English Hag, thinking by such a change to 
acquire a free and unrestrained commerce ; yet such is the 
sway which the priesthood possesses over the laity, that the 
difficulties are immense which a Protestant government would 
have to encounter. It is probable also that the present im- 
becile government of Portugal may be compelled to court an 
alliance with France, though the result must inevitably be 
ruinous to her present declining trade and to her colonies. 
It has been a sort of popular speculation, that the present 
war would be the means of revolutionizing South America. 
Those whose expectations are sanguine on this point have not 
perhaps sufficiently examined the situation of the colonists. 
Revolutions in states, where each individual has some interest 
in their Avelfare, are not effected without the most serious 
calamities ; what then must the consequences be in a country 
where the number of slaves exceeds the proprietors of the soil 
in at least a tenfold proportion, the former of whom would desire 
nothing more earnestly than an opportunity of getting rid of 
