16 knots. Her successor is 280 feet long, of less draught and displacement, and is intended to steam about a knot slower. Both vessels contain all modern improvements in construction and equipment, and they constitute a most valuable addition to the naval strength of Brazil. The Solimoes and Javari are two powerful double-turreted ships of light draught, suitable for coast-defence or river-service; they are of 3,700 tons displacement, and 2,200 horse-power, with 12-inch armour, and four 10-inch Whitworth guns. There are also three other turret-ships, with 4-inch armour, having displacements of 1,000 to 1,300 tons, and armed with two or four 7-inch guns. In addition there are six riverservice monitors, drawing less than six feet of water, of 340 tons displacement, protected by 4-inch armour, and each carrying one 7-inch gun in a single turret. The remaining eight armour-clads are of the central-battery type, of small size, with armour from 4 to 4 inches thick, and chiefly armed with 7-inch Whitworth guns, about four guns being carried in each vessel. The Sete de Setembro is the most powerful of this division. She is of 2,145 tons displacement, and 2,000 horse-power, with 4-inch armour, and four 9-inch Whitworth guns.

The unarmoured fleet of Brazil consists of about 15 screw gunboats and corvettes, and 8 smaller gun-vessels, besides paddlewheel vessels, tenders, &c. Recently, four or five large first-class torpedo-boats have been built in England for the Brazilian service, and armed with Whitehead torpedoes and Hotchkiss machine-guns. The navy is manned by 5,700 officers and men.

There are five naval arsenals, at Rio de Janeiro, Pará, Pernambuco, Bahia, and Ladario de Matto Grosso.

Area and Population.

The area of the empire is estimated at 8,515,848 geographical square kilometres, or 3,275,326 English square miles (some authorities reduce it to 3,000,000), with a population of 9,448,233 in 1872, giving, on the average, about three inhabitants to the square mile. A partial census of the population of the empire, embracing eleven out of the twenty provinces, was taken in 1872. The subjoined table gives the area and population of each of the twenty provinces of the empire, according to the official returns of the census of 1872, the eleven provinces in which actual enumeration was made being marked by an asterisk (*), with the numbers of population of the other nine provinces filled in after Government estimates.

In addition to the above there is a wandering population of aborigines, estimated to number about 250,000 souls. There were 5,123,869 males and 4,806,609 females. This census is not regarded as trustworthy, and the present (1883) population is estimated at over 12,000,000.

The three largest towns in the empire are Rio de Janeiro, the capital, Bahia, and Pernambuco. At the end of 1883 the population of Rio de Janeiro was estimated at 350,000; of Bahia, 140,000; of Pernambuco, 130,000; Belem, 40,000; San Paulo, 40,000; Maranhão, 35,000; Porto Alegre, 35,000.

Brazil is the only country in America where slavery legally exists. But the number of slaves has greatly decreased since the year 1850, when they were estimated at two millions and a half. In the census returns the number of slaves was given as 1,540,796.

A law for the gradual emancipation of the vast slave population passed the Senate and Congress in the session of 1871. The law, which received the imperial sanction on the 28th of September 1871, enacts that children thenceforth born of slave women shall be 'considered of free condition.' Such children are not to be actually free, however, but are bound to serve the owners of their mothers for the term of twenty-one years under the name of apprentices. The apprentices must work, under severe penalties, for their hereditary

masters, but if the latter inflict on them excessive bodily punishments, they are allowed to bring suit in a criminal court, which may declare their freedom. A final provision of the Act emancipates the slaves who are State property, to the number of 1,600, with the proviso that the slaves liberated by virtue of this law remain for five years under the inspection of the Government.' They are bound to hire themselves out under penalty of being compelled, if living in vagrancy, to labour in the public establishments. The law also established an 'Emancipation Fund,' to be applied annually to the liberation of slaves. It is admitted, however, that the law has been badly administered, and Government has done nothing for the education of the children born free; indeed, the masters of these children's mothers often publicly sell the children's services in Rio de Janeiro. About 90,000 slaves have been liberated privately. According to the last report of the Minister of Agriculture the number of slaves domiciled in Brazil in September 1884 was 1,233,195, besides 363,000 children of slave mothers. The slaves are thus distributed ::

There have since been considerable emancipations in Rio Grande do Sul. From the table it will be seen that the three coffee-growing provinces, Rio de Janeiro, S. Paulo, and Minas Geraes hold 692,910 slaves (not including 34,180 in the city and municipality of Rio de Janeiro), or nearly 56 per cent. of the total slave population of the empire. The provinces of Ceará and Amazonas now hold no slaves.

It should be said, however, that little reliance can be placed on Brazilian statistics, as they are very defective.

At the census of 1872 there were 3,787,289 whites, 3,801,787 métis, 1,954,452 negroes, and 386,955 Indians. In the northern

At

provinces the Indian element preponderates, while in Pernambuco, Babia, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas the negroes are numerous. the seaports the chief part of the population is of European descent. In 1870 there were 9,123 immigrants, and the number went on increasing gradually to 22,859 in 1880, 25,845 in 1882, and 26,789 in 1883. Of the immigrants in 1883, 10,698 were Italians, 11,286 Portuguese, 1,690 Germans, and 2,343 Spaniards.

Trade and Commerce.

The average value of the exports of Brazil in the three years 1869 to 1871-72 was 18,686,7907.; in 1872–73 it was 21,589,3107. In the last four years it has been as follows:-1879-80, 22,192,8807.; 1880-81,22,585,170l.; 1881-82, 20,985,1407.; 1882-3,19,549,8602. The general imports for 1882-3 amounted to 18,586,1907.

The increase between the two extreme periods has been 20 per cent. In the imports there has been in the same period an increase equivalent to 22 per cent.

Including the inter-provincial, the total amount of trade has been

Coffee is the principal item in the list of exports. The average percentage of the value of national products exported in recent years is as follows: coffee, 62.2 per cent.; sugar, 1134; cotton, 9.98; hides, 5.94; india-rubber, 4.19; tobacco, 2.94; all other products, 3-41 per cent. The value of coffee exported in 1882-3 was 10,544,000Z.; sugar, 3,250,000l.; caoutchouc, 1,193,000l.; raw cotton, 812,7301.; tobacco, 1,066,9007.; hides and skins, 808,1507.

The exports of Brazil go mainly to the United States and Great Britain. Out of the above total in 1881-2, the United States received 6,950,000l. and Great Britain 6,521,1007., Germany and France coming after with about 1,900,000l. each. In the imports into Brazil, Great Britain leads all countries, her share being 45 per cent, France coming next with 17 per cent. The principal articles imported are in the order of their value: cotton goods, wines and spirits, preserved meat and fish, woollen goods, farinaceous food, coals, linen goods, iron and steel.

The amount of the commercial intercourse of Brazil with the United Kingdom is shown in the subjoined table, for each of the five years from 1879 to 1883:

The two great staple articles of Brazilian export to the United Kingdom are raw cotton and unrefined sugar. The value of the cotton exports to Great Britain was 4,729,9137, in 1872; 2,343,9957. in 1875; 1,433,8407. in 1877; 568,1787. in 1878; 656,750l. in 1880; 1,165,5047. in 1881; 1,510,4327. in 1882; and 1,291,7987. in 1883. The quantity in 1882 was 482,611 cwts., and 438,919 cwts. in 1883. Of sugar, exported in an unrefined state, the value was 1,692,0887. in 1879; 1,512,7097. in 1880; 2,569,0147. in 1881;2,166,3937. in 1882; and 1,105,7007. in 1883. The quantity exported in 1882 was 2,217,567 cwts., and 1,233,846 cwts. in 1883. Caoutchouc has also become an important export in recent years; the value in 1879 was 1,082,0447.; in 1880, 1,297,3737; in 18814 1,267,0087.; in 1882, 1,460,2197.; in 1883, 1,953,1427. The value of coffee exported in 1882 was 635,2997., and in 1883, 1,107,78211.

The most important article of British import into Brazil is manufactured cotton, the value of which was 2,810,1907. in 1879; 3,498,6887. in 1880; 3,225,7017. in 1881; 3,242,2567. in 1882; and 2,885,3187. in 1883. Wrought and unwrought iron, of the value of 671,3291.; linens, of the value of 98,8471.; woollen manufactures, of the value of 308,6977.; coals, of the value of 257,3691.; and machinery, of the value of 536,1517., in 1883, form the other principal articles of British import into Brazil. Vast quantities of iron are known to exist in certain districts of Brazil, but it cannot be worked for want of fuel.

The customs duties upon all articles of British manufacture are very heavy, averaging 45 per cent. In a British Consular report from Rio de Janeiro, dated December 19, 1874, it is stated that the practice of sucking the marrow out of the agricultural organisation,. by the imposition of enormous export duties, has rendered the accumulation of capital an impossibility.'

In 1882-3, 2,989 vessels of 2,367,296 tons entered, and 2,522 of 2,095,237 tons cleared Brazilian ports, besides 5,210 vessels entered, and 4,863 cleared coastwise.

The empire possessed in January 1884 railways of a total length of 3,500 English miles open for traffic, besides 1,500 miles in process of construction. The State owns nine lines, with 1,300 miles