The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-06-27
The brazilian Empire-Its Resources and
Present and Future Prospects,.

archy, of the New World, has recently beer
brought into more than usual prominence by
drift Of several circumstances of late occur
renee, among which may be named the selec-
ton Of the Emperor Dom Pedro as one of the
referees in the matter of the Treaty of Wash
iDgton, his Majesty's trip to Europe and
the measures now being undertaken in the
Brazilian Assembly to secure . peaceful
emancipation Of all the slaves in the empire.
In at least two of these matters Americans
may very reasonably be assumed to experience
deep degree of interest, if not of solicitude-
to w.t. the Brazilian commssionership and
the emancipation problem. The first interests
with reference to the award in adjudi-
cation under the stipulations of the
Joint High Treaty, but 1t is also interesting
from the fact that it brings us into a singular
form of intimacy. The only monarchy on the
American Continent is called upon to act as an
arbitrator between ourselves, as a republic,
and kingdom Of the Old World. In the
South American Continent the empire of Brazil
holds the first place, not merely by virtue
of territorial area, but by resources, by geo.
graphical position, and by its strength as a
government. The same relative position in
the Northern Continent is held by ourselves,
and it is not to be deemed as an over -sanguine
reflection that each nation will at no remote
day have absorbed nearly all that Nature in
her lines of geographic demarcation has in
tended for it. Upon these questions Of rela-
tive position and strength, therefore, we are
analogous, but in everything else there is q
divergence-in race, in language in religion,
In politics and in condition. At present Brazil
is slaveholding Power; we have but re-
Gently, after terribly severe struggle, shaken
off that incubus by the severest means known
to mankind-the resort to arms. Brazil is now
engaged in a great effort to free herself from
is subjected by her slave power; and in this
effort she challenges the attention of all the
philanthropists of the era, as we'll as of the
statesmen of the world at large and of our
own country in particular.
Our special correspondence from Rio Janeiro
has recently treated of these subjects at some
length and glance at the present condition
of Brazil, with some reflections upon her ap-
parent future, as reflected by the opinions of
his Majesty Dom Pedro, expressed in an inter
view with HERALD correspondent, will be
opportune and appropriate.
No census of the empire has ever been
taken, but, in the opinion of the ablest
Brazilian political economists and historic
graphers, the free population of the country
does not exceed nine millions This, of
course, includes the Indian tribes of the
Amazon and the Matte Crosse provinces, a
very large proportion of which are not merely
''untaxed" and unproductive, but are also un-
taxable and destructive. The slave population
is computed at about three millions, and, esti-
mating the civilized or useful white and
Indian population at six millions, we have, in
Guiding the slaves, about nine millions of
people whose individual exertions aid the ex-
istence and material development of the
nation. This small population is dispersed
over a region of country little inferior In either
extent or natural riches to the United States,
and it was in connection with this state of
facts that the Emperor remarked to our cor
respondent, "Brazil is too large-too large for
her population. The development of the
country must, therefore, be necessarily slow,
and colonization and emancipation seem at
present to be the two most potent means of
overcoming the difficulty. To this end the
Assembly Of the nation, as well as the pro-
vincal legislatures, have for some years past
directed their energies by holding forth fatter-
ing inducements to emigrauts; and now, by
the presentation of an emancipation bill in the
Chamber of Deputies, second impulse will be
given to material progress and social enlight-
eminent. By the Emperor's voluntary admis-
sion, the southern provinces of the empire are
the wealthiest and most fourishipg, and these
happen to be also the provinces in which
colonization has been tried and is still making
its mark. 1t is curious circumstance, also,
that in these very provinces there is very
small proportion of slave labor performed,
and their prosperity may, therefore, be more
fairly ascribed to the influence of the hardy
and energetic colonists themselves. Railroads
are being pushed forward among them with
greater rapidity than in any other section Of
the realm and this is to be attributed to the
fact that the colonists have made railroads a
necessity IS well as prospectively remunera-
tive investment.
With reference to emancipation, the terms
of the bill now before the Assembly, as will be
seen by perusal, are liberal in the extreme,
and, though providing only for a gradual
extnguishment of the peculiar institution, y
It must be conceded tina. it is fully as radical
as the occasion would seem to demand or the
condition Of the nation to justify. The peace
full disenthralment Of slave people will
always be a question to be governed by con-
siderations of opportunity, power and appro-
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