The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-05 00:00:00

SLAVERY iN BRAZIL.

If the war in Paraguay has not been beneficial
to any one else, it has been so to the slaves in Brazil,
of whom up to M wall, 1867, 829 have been libe-
rated for service in Paraguay. The high price of
slaves and the scanty population, have .been the
chief obstacles to the abolition of slavery in Brazil.
During 1866 the prices were at Bahia—African
males, £162 10s. ; females, £lOB 6s. 81 ; Creole
males, £l3O, and if knowing a trade, £216 13s, 4d.;
females, £B6 13s. 4d. The Consul at Rio Grande
do Sul reports :—" Holders of slaves have found it
difficult to keep up the prices, since there is an im-
pressionthat the Government may be forced to liberate
slaves for the purpose of finding men for the war in
Paraguay." At the same timehereports the prices of
the best African slaves, male, £173 6s. Bd. ; female,
£167 18s. 4d. ; and of 'the best Creole, male, £195 ;
female, £173 6s. Bd. At the present time Brazil
possesses more slaves than any other country, their
number being roughly estimated at three millions. In
1860 a bill was introduced into the Brazilian
Chambers to abolish public sales by auction, sepa-
ration of members of a family, to authorize slaves
to purchase their freedom on the death of their
masters, and to exempt from taxation sales of slaves
for agricultural employment ; but this was rejected,
as was also a similar measure during the following
year. In 1865 it was proposed to abolish slavery
at the end of ten years, but this also was rejected.
In 1866 the Benedictine monks, owners of 3,000
slaves, declared that all children born of these
slaves after May 3 of that year should be free; but
the Carmelite monks let out 78 slaves for a term of
twenty years for £4OO a year, or about 10 per
cent. on the value of the slaves. The Brazi-
lian Minister for Foreign Affairs wrote in 1866,
in reply to the Paris Society for the Abolition
of Slavery, that when the war with Paraguay
should be ended " the Brazilian Government would
regard as an object of the first importance the
realization of what the spirit of Christianity has
long since demanded from the civilized world." On
this the slaveowners, alarmed, raised an opposition,
and drew from the Government the following ex-
planation :—" The Government did not say that,
when the war had terminated, they would take im-
mediate steps to extinguish slavery ; the document
which emanated from the Foreign Office completely
destroyed such inference. What the Government
said was, that the emancipation of slaves in
Brazil is a question of how it is to be done
(forma), and of opportunity. To have said
less than this, in answer to the Foreign Society's
letter, would have been to retrograde to the doc-
trine of Aristotle, now overthrown by the light
of the Gospel as well as that of philosophy, on the
lawfulness of slavery in face of natural right. To
have said more would have been to us irp the pre-
roptive of the Chambers, to whom, and not to the
Executive power, belongs the decreeing of the time
and manner of extinguishing slavery. Agriculture
is our chief industry, and -at present it depends on
slave labour. To suppress slavery, having
moral,
religious, and philosophical sentiments only in view,
would be to sacrifice private property and the good
of the State, as also to put off to an indefinite. time
the solution of the problem of free labour in the
empire ; it would also be compromising public and
private fortunes." The Pall-Mall Gazette considers
that in view of the mart opened by Brazil and the
high price of slaves, Lord Stanley may yet think
it well to insist on a new slave trade convention
before repealing the Aberdeen Act.