Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-22
MORE ABOUT BRAZIL.


On Saturday the RECORD UNION in
dulged in an extended review of the his
tory of the efforts made in Brazil for the
abolition of slavery. The text for the re-
view was the passage of the bill for final
emancipation. We then said that, in the
absence Of details, it was safe to assume
that the abolition is to be made under re-
strictions so as not to create any CONNER
cial distress, and probably would be found
to be based upon scheme of further grad
ual emancipation, after the order of that
adopted in the Empire some years ago
The dispatches now announce that the
terms, while restrictive, are even more
favorable to the slaves than we had looked
for. All slaves are declared free, and the
masters are to receive no compensation for
them. But in all cases where slaves are
working upon coffee plantations, they are
to be continued at such labor for three
years, on payment to them by the planters
of small weekly wages, and on condition
that they are supported meanwhile, and
that they shall not be imprisoned, as here
tofore, for slight offenses. At the end of
three years they are to be absolutely free.
There is no other instance in the worlds
history OF such vast emancipation, with so
little friction, as in the achievement of
Brazil. 1t has cost the Empire a great
deal of treasure, but no blood, no wars, no
serious political involvments no social
revolution. Dom Pedro, who has for
forty years and more labored for that he
now sees accomplished, is deathly i'll and
away from his people, and will very likely
not recover or be able to return to his
Empire; but he can die content, now that
the noble end which has influenced his
entire reign has been attained. A great
deal of credit is due to his daughter, the
Princess Isabel. She has been as ardent
an abolitionist as her father, and has
tailored side by side with him in the
cause of freedom. She is now Regent.
and must presently come to the throne.
When she does, she will ill it with ability,
having already proved her entire capacity
for the high office. She is a woman of
brain, foresight, courage and caution
Under her rule, with the stain of human
bondage forever wiped out, the immediate
future of Brazil will prove to be of great
ct promise and Importance.
The general knowledge of the nation and
its people, its arts and its industries appears
to be much limited, but hereafter unless
we greatly mistake the indications, Brazil
will be one of the best known nations of
the new world, first in its influence upon
the South American continent, and second
only to that of the United States upon the
two greater Americas. In territory il is
as large as the United States, if we exclude
Alaska; it is peopled by the descendants
OF an industrious and spirited people; it
has nearly 100000 of inhabitants; it
produces nearly everything luxuriantly
common to semi-tropical regions; it is rich
in minerals and precious stones, and vastly
90 in woods; and it has many large navi-
gable rivers. 1t is not, and never will be.
agriculturally the equal of the United
States, as its soil on the whole is not so
fertile. though it is blessed with a milder
climate; but it produces many things that
can be grown only indiferently, or not at
all, IN the United States-as rubber. cof
fee, mandioca, etc. The foreign commerce
OF the country now exceeds 5000. 1000, 600
year, and is more than half in value of
all the foreign commerce Of the whole
continent. Brazil looks to the United
States for most Of her machinery research
has not yet given her domestic coal; her
roads are poor and few, and her resources
not half developed; she is heavily in debt.
and her territorial area cripples economic
government; in the Argentine Republic
she has powerful competitor as a grain
producer and industrial rival; but all these
obstacles viii be overcome in the new era
that has dawned. With Brazil our rela-
tons must become closer than now; at
present Europe supplants us in the atten-
tion received, but the natural relations of
the Americas, the output of American
trade, the good standing American manu-
lectures now have in the empire, and the
spirit of progress in Brazil, forbid that
such shall continue to be the rule.