No. 65.
Mr. Partridge to Mr. Fish.
Rio de Janeiro, May 25, 1872. (Received June 19.)
Sir: On the 21st the present ministry (under Viscount Rio Branco) was defeated by a vote in the chamber of deputies, (50 against 49,) by which the chamber refused to consider the budget, until the ministry had first explained satisfactorily to the chamber the reasons for the changes made in the ministry on the 20th April. (See my No. 49.)
This result was not unlooked for, and, since the 16th, the public business has been in suspense, both sides awaiting the arrival of some deputies who were delayed, and on whose coming the above result was had. The vote against the ministry was secured by the desertion of several of the moderate (who support Rio Branco) to the extreme conservatives’ side for personal reasons, as well as because of the dissatisfaction of the landed proprietors with the passage of the emancipation bill.
Next day an imperial decree dissolved the chambers, and called another legislature for the 1st December next. For this there will have to be a new election of deputies, and the liberal party (which has not a single representative among the present deputies) will undoubtedly strive hard to obtain a majority and possession of the government.
The present ministry remain in power, and in Brazil that means control the elections. Whether the Viscount Rio Branco will now divide the conservative party, and, at the head of the more liberal portion, invite the co-operation of the moderate liberals, or whether the liberal party, many of whom (perhaps a majority) are avowed republicans, will prefer to maintain their organization, at the expense of losing their more moderate supporters, are questions for the canvass. Rio Branco’s effort most probably will be to found, and lead, a new intermediate party, composed of the middle and moderate men, leaving the extreme and slave-holding conservatives and extreme liberals (republican) to do what they can. If he can secure this union, his victory will be great and his power renewed and strengthened. Since the opposition to him in his own party rises from the liberality of many of his views, and chiefly because of his having carried the emancipation bill, and since the extreme liberal (or republican) party by itself has no chance at present of triumph, one cannot help feeling some interest in his success.
The country is quiet, and commercial activity has begun again in Rio, after hearing of the abolition of our duty on coffee. There is great ease in the money market, and new joint-stock companies, and undertakings of all sorts, are forming for almost every conceivable business, and enterprise, and municipal improvement. One or two of them, not finding room for their activity in Brazil, undertake improvements in Montevideo and Buenos Ayres. The shares of some of these have, by manipulation of speculators, risen enormously, and many persons begin to apprenend a financial difficulty.
By this packet Rear-Admiral Lanman and the officers late of the flagship Lancaster return home, and Rear Admiral Win. Rogers Taylor takes command. I hope my relations with him will be as agreeable as those I have always maintained with his predecessor.
I have, &c,