SOUTH AMERICA. 
Trust not, kind reader, to the envious remarks 
which their enemies have scattered far and near; 
believe not the stories of those who have had a hand 
in the sad tragedy. Go to Brazil, and see with 
thine own eyes the effect of Pombal’s short-sighted 
policy. There vice reigns triumphant, and learning 
is at its lowest ebb. Neither is this to be wondered 
at. Destroy the compass, and will the vessel find 
her far distant port ? Will the flock keep together, 
and escape the wolves, after the shepherds are all 
slain ? The Brazilians were told, that public edu¬ 
cation would go on just as usual. They might have 
asked government, who so able to instruct our 
youth, as those whose knowledge is proverbial ? who 
so fit, as those who enjoy our entire confidence ? who 
so worthy, as those whose lives are irreproachable ? 
They soon found that those who succeeded the 
fathers of the Society of Jesus, had neither their 
manner nor their abilities. They had not made the 
instruction of youth their particular study. More¬ 
over, they entered on the field after a defeat, where 
the officers had all been slain ; where the plan of 
the campaign was lost; where all was in sorrow and 
dismay. No exertions of theirs could rally the dis¬ 
persed, or skill prevent the fatal consequences. At 
the present day, the seminary of Olinda, in com¬ 
parison with the former Jesuits’ college, is only as 
the waning moon’s beam to the sun’s meridian 
splendour. 
When you visit the places where those learned 
fathers once flourished, and see, with your own eyes, 
