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has made, has since been his home. His health is now good, and when he speaks of Brazil it is without bitterness.

No resistance whatever has been offered to the Provisional Government. Freedom of speech and of the press has not been violated. The Provisional Government, "constituted by the army and navy in the name of the nation," has from day to day or from week to week issued its "decrees," accomplishing whatever changes in laws, institutions, and administration it deemed expedient. By decree it created a system of banking; by decree it established religious liberty; by decree it appointed a board of commissioners to draft a Constitution; by decree it declared such Constitution to be the fundamental law of the nation; by decree it caused the national election to take place on September 15, 1890; and by decree it provided that a Constituent Assembly should meet on the 15th of November, 1890. Of course, there are advantages in a small number of able patriots being permitted to organize a republic without opposition; but it is not popular government.

The new Constitution, signed June 22d, was modeled much after that of the United States, with probably some improved features. For example, the President's term is six years, and he is eligible but for one term. Each State has three senators, thus avoiding a tie, as is often the case where, as with us, there are but two. Representatives are elected for a term of three years, senators for nine years. There will be two hundred and two members of the House and sixty-three senators. Under the new Constitution the executive government, like that of the United States, should be stable and exempt from those frequent changes that intrigue accomplished under the parliamentary system. Thus far most of the experi

enced statesmen under the empire, both Liberals and Conservatives, have held themselves aloof from politics since the Provisional Government commenced. They intend to be in a situation to give the country their services in the event of a catastrophe to the republic. The latter, however, if it shall adhere to justice, will be permanent; and, with the exception of the undue influence which it brought to bear on the elections, it has conducted affairs generally in an exemplary manner. The London "Times," in an editorial, November 19, 1889, said with truth, “The Brazilian revolution has been carried out with a sobriety, a coolness, an attention to detail, and a general finish about all the arrangements, which in all the circumstances of the case are really remarkable."

The Constituent Assembly convened at Rio on November 15, 1890, and the Chief of the Provisional Government sent it a lengthy message expressing excellent sentiments, but not treating of the business of the Government, and in which he resigned his power into the hands of the Assembly. The latter, on the 21st of November, by a vote of one hundred and seventy-three to forty-five, returned him a request to continue in the exercise of executive power until the Constitution should be ratified and a President of the Republic elected. It then appointed a committee of twenty-one, being one from each State and one from the Federal District, to examine and report upon the Constitution, and adjourned until notice should be received that such committee was ready to report. It is somewhat peculiar that this committee was composed principally of young men. The committee concluded its labors on the 6th of December. The Assembly met on the 11th of December, and proceeded to discuss the Constitution. It was still engaged on this up to the last of January. A

new cabinet was appointed the same month consisting, in part, of members of the Constituent Assembly. At this date the election of a President by the Constituent Assembly had not taken place, but the prevailing impression is that the choice will fall upon the chief of the Provisional Government, General Deodoro da Fonseca.

An important report on finances made by Mr. Ruy Barbosa, Minister of Finance, at the close of the year 1889, showed that the total public debt of Brazil was then five hundred million dollars, being about half that of the United States. A part of this debt, however, was incurred for railroads owned by the Government.

Among local matters of interest at Rio may be mentioned the commencement, on August 15th last, of the filling up, by excavating the São Antonio Hill, of that portion of the bay extending from the Military Arsenal (on the point below the Misericordia Hospital) to the Gloria Hill, which when completed will extend the area of the city one hundred acres or more. Surveys have also been undertaken for filling the shallow bay of S. Christovão. Rio is undergoing at this moment a period of speculation. Some of the older part of the city is being rebuilt, and the time seems favorable for the Government to cause two or three wide avenues to be opened. There are now 37,000 houses in Rio of which only a very few

are vacant.

American relations and trade with Brazil are likely to improve somewhat under its new Government. An important lever was put into the hands of our own Government for securing reciprocal trade with that country in the Tariff act (McKinley bill) of October 1, 1890. Section 3 of that act provides in substance that on and after January 1, 1892, whenever the President shall be satisfied

that any country producing and exporting sugars, molasses, coffee, and hides imposes duties upon products of the United States which in view of the free introduction of such sugar, coffee, etc., into the United States he may deem to be reciprocally unequal, it shall be his duty to suspend the provisions of this act relating to the free introduction of such sugar, coffee, etc., for such time as he shall deem just; whereupon duties shall be collected upon sugar, coffee, etc., the product of or exported from such designated country, as follows: Sugars not above number thirteen, Dutch standard in color, etc., seven tenths of one cent per pound; all sugars above number thirteen, Dutch standard, and not above sixteen, Dutch standard, one and three eighths cent per pound; above sixteen and not above twenty, one and five eighths cent per pound; above twenty, two cents per pound. Molasses, testing above fifty-six degrees, four cents per gallon. Coffee, three cents per pound. Hides, one and one half cent per pound.

While we may hope for a gradual increase of American exports to Brazil, any high expectations in that direction are not likely to be realized.

The arrival at New York, on the 25th of November last, of a Brazilian squadron, under command of RearAdmiral da Silveira, on a complimentary visit to the Government of the United States, was an event very gratifying to Americans, as it indicated the cultivation of more friendly and intimate relations between the two countries. Friendship between nations, as well as between individuals, is cultivated, not by the interchange of fine sentiments, but by friendly acts.

On February 5th the President of the United States promulgated a reciprocity treaty with Brazil, which pro

vides for the admission into the ports of Brazil, from and after April 1, 1891, of certain products and manufactures of the United States free of duty, and of certain other products with a reduction of twenty-five per centum of the Brazilian tariff, namely:

1. Schedule of articles to be admitted free into Brazil.-Wheat, wheat-flour; corn or maize, and the manufactures thereof, including corn-meal and starch; rye, rye-flour, buckwheat, buckwheat-flour, and barley; potatoes, beans, and peas; hay and oats; pork, salted, including pickled pork and bacon, except hams; fish, salted, dried, and pickled; cotton-seed oil; coal, anthracite and bituminous; rosin, tar, pitch, and turpentine; agricultural tools, implements, and machinery; mining and mechanical tools, implements and machinery, including stationary and portable engines, and all machinery for manufacturing and industrial purposes, except sewing-machines; instruments and books for the arts and sciences, railway construction material and equipment; and that the Government of Brazil has, by legal enactment, further authorized the admission into all the established ports of entry of Brazil, with a reduction of twenty-five per cent of the duty designated on the respective article in the tariff now in force or which may hereafter be adopted in the United States of Brazil, whether national, State, or municipal, of the articles or merchandise named in the following schedule, provided that the same be the product or manufacture of the United States of America.

2. Schedule of articles to be admitted into Brazil, with a reduction of duty of twenty-five per centum.Lard and substitutes therefor; bacon, hams; butter and cheese; canned and preserved meats; fish, fruits, and vegetables; manufactures of cotton, including cotton

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