No. 62.
Mr. Partridge to Mr. Fish.
(Petropolis,) Rio de Janeiro, April 22, 1872. (Received May 21.)
Sir: On the 20th instant some changes took place in the Brazilian cabinet, probably induced by the result of the late elections in this province (of Rio) for the three candidates from whom the Emperor is to select a senator, in place of the Yiscount Itaborahy, whose death I mentioned in a late despatch.
The Viscount de Rio Branco (formerly Senhor Paranhas) remains as president of the council, but in place of the Counselor Tobato, as minister of justice, Mr. Duarte de Azevedo has been named. Mr. Oliveira Jiinqueira (now president of the province of Pernambuco) takes the place [Page 98] of Mr. Soyão Tobato in the war office, and the Baron de Itauna (senator) becomes minister of commerce and public works in place of Mr. Freire Pereira da Silva.
The newly-appointed ministers are still of the same (conservative) party; and it may be said, without error, that, in fact, the Viscount de Rio Branco is really the minister-general. The Counselor Correa remains at the foreign office. As there are no representatives in the house of deputies of the liberal party, this change is merely meant to strengthen that portion of the party in power, which, contrary to the wishes of the slaveholding party, passed the emancipation bill of September last.
It seems that there have been obstacles placed in the way, and delay in the execution of that law in many of the provinces, and as the more liberal portion of the conservatives, with Bio Branco at their head, is resolved upon its execution, the ministry issued circulars to the presidents of the provinces, providing for the registration and evidence of freedom to those children of slaves born since the passage of the bill.
Their continuance in power depends, in fact, upon their compliance with this law, for though the slaveholding interests in the southern and coffee-growing provinces bitterly oppose the ministry for this act, that interest well knows that the access of the liberal party to power would be the occasion of emancipation to the slaves now held, either immediate or after an intermediate and short stage of apprenticeship.
The news from the other parts of the empire shows continued quiet in polities$ but it is known that the liberal party is already at work for the elections in January next.
We have had here and in the provinces immediately south, very heavy and incessant rain-storms of long continuance, which have done great injury to property, and especially to the railway from Santos to Saint Paulo, washing away the inclined planes from the ascent of the Serra, and the last rains particularly have done damage in Rio, flooding the streets and undermining the foundations of many houses so that they have fallen.
On invitation of the manager of the Uniãoe Industria (turnpike) road, one of the finest works of its kind anywhere, I made an excursion (Rear-Admiral Lanman and other guests being of the company) to Juiz de Fora, in the province of Minas Geraes, spending one day in going, (one hundred miles,) two days there and one in returning, and passing through a fine coffee-growing region. At Juiz de Fora is a nourishing German colony, and an agricultural college, which is not very flourishing. The coffee-trees were heavy with berries, and there appears to be nodanger this year of any short crop, which will be gathered in May and June. The great Don Pedro Segundo Railway runs parallel to the Union road from Intre Rios, and will be finished to Juiz de Fora in two years. Beyond that point, at present, there are no roads, properly so called—only wide mule-paths, which wagons, hauled by six and seven yoke of oxen, travel with difficulty, and this into a region where mining and planting have been carried on for three hundred years.
I have, &c.,