New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-05-06
EMANCIPATION IN BRAZIL.

The telegraph brings us news to-day that the
last formidable stronghold of Slavery remaining
in ChrstendOm has virtually fallen before the IL
resistible advance of the great movement for
universal freedom and equal rights. Brazil
has given the death-blow to the wicked sys-
tenn which has been so long both her grievous
burden and her foul disgrace. IIcnceforth,
every child born into the empire is free, and ia
twenty years the chains will fall from the
limbs of her last surviving slave BY this
decree, nearly 100000 Blacks are raised up from
the dust; and though but few of this genera
ton can hope to see the day of general eman-
cipation il is much for them to know that the
curse which rested OH the parents will no longer
be transmitted to the children; it is something
that the younger of them have bright al
though distant future to look toward and to
wait for. Very likely. too, the dying insttu-
ton will not be suffered TO linger out the
whole of the existence which the new law ac-
cords TO it; as the benefits of free labor to the
whole country become appreciated, fresh legis
lation may hasten the advent of national
liberty and justice.
The State which has just taken this import
ant step i'll the road of progress, covers about
3.000,000 square miles of the richest portion of
the South American continent, being little
greater in extent than the United States.
Nature has given il the most magnificent river
system in the world. The Amazon rolls its
mighty waves through the dense forests of the
northern proyinces-fOreststcem with all the
sorgcousness and luxurance of the tropics, rich
in precious woods and valuable fruit bearing
trees. and alive with the most brilliant forms of
L
which in any other part of the world would be
called rivers of the first class. The Rio Fran
cisco in the East, and the aflluents of the La
Plata in the South, give fertility and channels
of easy INSTRUMENTATION to enormous ex
tents of country, while in the interior stretch
the great grass-gr0wn pampas, with their
countless herds of cattle covering region
seven times as big as the whole of France.
There are mines of gold; there is coal IN
plenty; there is iron; and the annual product
of diamonds is not far from S2000,00O.
There is not desert in the empire. The
whole is a rich loan, covered with a vegetation
unequaed for magnificence and beauty, except
perhaps, in some of the fairy-lik islands of
the Indian Ocean. Even with her present
meager development Brazil supplies half the
world with coffee, and sends abroad also great
quantities of cotton, sugar, and tobacco She
has exported more Of coffee and sugar in eighteen
months than of diamonds in eighty years. Ii is
three hundred years since the first permanent
settlement of the country by Europeans yet
in all this time, and with all the marvellous
wealth Of the soil and the charms of genial
climate to tempt immigration, not one
acre in hundred and fifty has
ever felt the labor of the husbandman;
and immense regions are almost as unknown
to-day as when Pncon, the companion Of
Columbus, first took possession of the country
in the name of the King of CASTLE. Nor, for
many years at least, has the Government,
which is one of the best, most liberal, and most
progressive monarchies in the world, spared any
effort to attract the superabundant population
of Europe. Since the Brazians wrested their
from the mother country, Portugal,
in 1922, they have devoted themselves zealously
to works of social and industrial improvement
They have freedom of education, freedom of
the press, and freedom of religious worship.
They have labored hard to develop their means
of communication with the old world, having
regular lines of mail steamers to the principal
European ports. They have steamers on the
coast and rivers They have railways, built by
English and American engineers. Their trade
with Great Britain, France, and the United
States is large, and constantly increasing. Their
imports at the latest date for which we have
returns QsG3) amounted to S55O0O,OOO,
and their exports to sGS0QQ,QQQ, Six OK