Year: 1871

Inc Dill 10r the eXunCClOn OF slavery Ill
Brazil after hanging in the Legislative
Body through an entire session of nearly FIVE
months, has at length passed both the Chamber
of Deputies and the Senate. The telegraph
brings us q simple announcement of these
facts, without further particulars. How far the
| bill may have been amended in the course
| of the prolonged and exciting debates which
have marked its passage through the Chamber,
we are not yet informed. 1t has encountered
violent opposition from both sides-from the
planters who cling to the crumbling relic of a
brutal system of despotism with desperation
like that of our Southern chivalry of
1861, and from the radical reformers
who beloved the ministerial measure to be
only paltering with justice, delusve prom
ise of emancipation, instead of plain, honest
decree of freedom. The original bill, as
introduced by the Minister of Agriculture
early in May, did little or nothing for the
slaves now living, except the slaves OF the
Crown. These were declared free, but sub
ject for period of five years to the super
vision and control of Government officers
that is to say, they were to be let out on
kind of ticket-of-leave, and might be sum-
marily condemned to hard labor in
the public establishments if they were
found, in police parlanOe, without visible
means of support. There were sundry
devices for enabling slaves to buy their free
dom, and fund was created to emancipate
a number Of slaves annually in each of the
provinces of the Empire. There were further
more, provisions for the liberation of slaves
held by the religious orders, and humane enact
nents to prevent the separation of families,
and to secure for the bondmen the right to
hold property. These ameliorations of servi-
tude would have been thought highly important
if they had been introduced into our own
Slave States before the war but in Brazil,
where emancipation has been more common
and the social condition of the slave more
toerable than ever among us, such concessions
make little practical change and are not highly
esteemed


The OILY serious portion of the law is that
which affects the children born of slave
mothers after the passage of the act. If the
bill has been adopted in its original form,
these children remain in the power of the
owner until they reach the age of 81. Should
the mother in the mean time become free,
children under are to be given up to her.
When the child is 8 years Of age, the owner
has the privilege of selling it to the Govern
ment for the sum of $500. Children 80 pur-
chased, however, do not become Free but are
taken from their mothers and committed to
authorized associations, which have their gra-
tuitOus services until they reach the age of 81.
These associations seem to be in the nature of
great labor companies, organized for the purpose
of working the emancipated apprentices"
and as they have the privilege of underletting.
and of using the children in any way they
please, while they have no interest in pre-
venting depreciation in the value of the "pro-
"erty," provided they can keep it serviCeable
up to the age of 81, they must Of course be
exposed to exceptional temptation toward bru-
tahty and oppression. There Is no provision
for the education Of slaves or apprentices. and
the precautions against bad treatment are very
slight.


The result of the final vote in the Senate
was hailed with an enthusiasm which our cold
Northern natures cannot fully appreciate.
Emancipation, even though incomplete, is
indeed q noble step in the march Of progress
which has so long distinguished the Brazilian
Empire but there should be no room for half
measures when the question ia one be-
tween freedom and servitude. This bill post
pOncs liberty for whole gcneratOn-nnY. for
! half "A centnrF There are thousands of slaves
now living wno W.I bear children perhaps forty