No. 62.
Mr. Partridge to Mr. Fish.
Rio de Janeiro, November 23, 1874. (Received December 24.)
Sir: During the parliamentary recess hardly any political occurrence of note takes place, and the usual quiet has prevailed here since the departure of the last packet. Some of the ministers have taken advantage of this to enjoy excursions to the provinces. The minister of the interior has been passing some time in Pernambuco, and the minister of justice in San Paolo, where they have had receptions and dinners, made speeches in defense of their policy, and endeavored to gain supporters for the next session. I have reported in No. 211 the condition of the “ecclesiastical question,” and we hear from Rome that the Pope is so dissatisfied with the hostility shown by Brazil to the just rights of the Church that he will maintain here only a chargé d’affaires in place of the late internuncio, now sent as nuncio to Lisbon, so that the mission of Mr. Magalhaens (Baron Araguaya) has not as yet been successful.
From the river Plata we get conflicting and contradictory accounts of the civil war there; and as yet no sign of its speedy termination. Nor is the government here any better informed than any one else.
The new loan of £5,000,000 to be issued by Brazil for the extension of the government railway system has not been announced as taken on the terms which were first published; but it is now thought that it will soon be consummated.
From the provinces we have favorable accounts of public order; but there is general complaint of the difficulties (financial) under which the agricultural interest labors, and this notwithstanding very remunerative prices—though lower than they have been—for the great staple articles of production. The minister of finance at the beginning of the last session proposed that the government should pay as a bonus to that interest some 2 per cent, interest on a limited amount, which the Bank of Brazil was invited to advance on approved mortgages of productive fazendas, (plantations,) with a long term for payment in annual installments. The rate to the bank was to be eight per cent., of which only 6 per cent., would thus fall on the agriculturist. The measure did not pass, however. A much shorter and more efficient way to assist that interest would be to relieve the products from at least a portion of the heavy export duty.
I am, &c.,