CHAPTER XI.

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH BRAZIL.

STATISTICS OF COMMERCE WITH BRAZIL-INCREASE OF COMMERCE SINCE SUSPENSION OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS-SIR HUGH CAIRNS-IMPROVEMENT IN BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT SINCE THE REPRISALS-CHANGE OF COMMERCIAL POLICY NECESSARY IN BRAZIL-IMPORT AND EXPORT DUTIES-CUSTOMS REGULATIONS-ACTION OF SOME BRITISH SUBJECTS AGAINST THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT-STATEMENTS OF LORD BROUGHAM, LORD HOWDEN, SIR JAMES HUDSON, LOKD PALMERSTON, AND MR. CONSUL COWPER-THE SECRETARY OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY

SOCIETY.

LORD PALMERSTON, in reply to Mr. Osborne's invective on a late occasion, produced statistics of our imports from and exports to Brazil, to show the growth of our Brazilian trade, especially of late years. From 1850 to 1852 he stated the value of the imports as about 2,000,000l. a year, and of the exports as varying from two to three millions. From 1860 to 1863 he gave the figures as follows:

These figures certainly prove one thing, that the commerce between England and Brazil has even increased since the reprisals.

Sir Hugh Cairns, somewhat put out by these figures, said he knew from his friends among Brazilian merchants

"That traders laboured under constant and serious apprehension with regard to the risks to which their

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property was exposed in Brazil, from the want of that protection which British commercial interests enjoyed in every other country, and that they stated in the most decided manner the conviction that the renewal of diplomatic relations would be followed by a considerable expansion of commerce. He trusted, therefore, that the Foreign Office would endeavour to ascertain whether or not this was a delusion under which the government laboured. pronounced it an utter and complete delusion. (Lord Palmerston held up his paper of figures.) Could the noble lord contradict what he had stated, that the merchants were filled with apprehension in regard to their property, and that they said the exports could be perhaps doubled if commerce received due protection?'

He

What are the apprehensions of British merchants trading with Brazil, and what is the protection which they want? Does Sir Hugh Cairns refer only to the want of a Minister at Rio? "It is notorious," Lord Russell has said in a published despatch, "that the government of Brazil has for a long course of time habitually disregarded the representations made to it by Her Majesty's diplomatic agents in Brazil." British Ministers at Rio have had the greatest possible difficulty even in getting answers to their notes. Of this there is abundant proof throughout the long series of published Slave-trade Correspondence, in the correspondence about the "Prince of Wales" and "Forte," and in what has lately transpired as to the question of the British claims and the case of Mr. Reeves.*

* Mr. Reeves is the British Post-office agent at Rio de Janeiro. He has had a law-suit with a Brazilian woman, and the Director General of the Ministry of Justice wrote to two Judges before whom the case was pending, asking them as a favour to vote for the Brazilian woman. The letter came into Mr. Reeves's possession. I brought the matter to the knowledge of the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs (Marquis of Abrantes); my

But since the reprisals and the suspension of diplomatic relations our Consul has found a marked improvement. The lately deceased Consul, Mr. Westwood, had been some twenty years at Rio as Vice-Consul and Consul. A Brazilian Deputy, Senhor Nebias, stated, shortly after Mr. Westwood's death, in the Chamber of Deputies, on March 14th of this year:-"It is known that the English Consul, who has lately died, was in the habit of saying that his position had never been so good as since the suspension of diplomatic relations. His reclamations had never been so well attended to, and he had never seen so great a desire to oblige him." So far, then, Sir Hugh Cairns's friends may feel easy.

But perhaps it is the want of a commercial Treaty and Consular Convention and liberal commercial policy on the part of Brazil that Sir Hugh Cairns's friends complain of. But all that rests with Brazil. And does Sir Hugh Cairns feel convinced that Brazil would grant us a good commercial Treaty and reasonable Consular Convention on a renewal of diplomatic relations, even if the renewal were accompanied by a repeal of the "Aberdeen Act?" It was all refused to Mr. Ellis, sent, with the highest diplomatic rank, on a special mission, before the "Aberdeen Act" existed. He must remember, too, that Brazil stands, even

note was not answered. Lord Russell approved my note, and ordered me to write another. This elicited a reply of excuses from the Brazilian official, one of them being that the writing of such letters to Judges was a custom of the country. Senhor Sinimbú, who was then Minister of Justice, has lately, while the Portuguese mediation was proceeding, produced in the Brazilian Senate most of the correspondence, defended the official who solicited the judges, and described my notes, which were approved and ordered by Lord Russell, as "most impertinent." This case was referred to by Mr. Newdegate in the House of Commons, on the occasion of Mr. Osborne's motion, June 18, 1864.

at this moment, towards England, in the face of the world, in the unhappy position of violator of existing treaty obligations, and that she evaded and violated the stipulations of the former Treaty of Commerce. It is Brazil that must change her policy. If she will observe the faith of treaties and comity of nations, she will have no trouble from England; and the expansion of commerce must come from a change in the policy of Brazil, which it is her own interest to make, and which can be made without Treaty or Convention.

Moderate import duties, no export duties or very low ones, Custom-house regulations as little vexing as possible, honest Custom-house administration, fair and liberal treatment of foreigners, pure justice, a treatment of immigrants which will encourage immigration,-these are the cardinal points of a policy which will expand Brazilian commerce, which involves issues for Brazil much larger than a treaty with England, and which need not wait for the repeal of the "Aberdeen Act."

Import duties now average 30 per cent. This is a moderate statement. Export duties range from 5 to 10 per cent. The Provincial Assemblies, which are precluded by the Constitution from imposing import duties, are permitted to levy export duties. I have already spoken of Custom-house corruption and venality of judges. No one acquainted with Brazil will deny that the following extract from the work of a gentleman who cannot be accused of being hostile to Brazil, is still a correct account of the vexations for foreign traders in Brazilian ports. The work I refer to is Mr. Hadfield's "Brazil and River Plate," published in 1854:—

"In Brazil you have the ordeal of health-visits, police, and Custom-house searchers, before you can even leave the ship, and if a vessel arrives after dusk, no matter where from, coasting or otherwise, she must remain till morning for the visit, after which she is a kind of Custom-house prey, watched and pounced upon in every possible manner, if all is not found to be strictly in accordance with the long string of regulations, numbered like a criminal code; and woe betide the unfortunate shipmaster or merchant importing goods who innocently falls into the trap laid for him. It is a case of heavy fines, damages, and often confiscation of ship or property, although it can be clearly and satisfactorily proved that no one is to blame in the matter, and that there has been no fraudulent intention whatever. The stipulations of the Custom-house code are being continually infringed, and yet, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, it altereth not. All this is very sad, and unworthy of a country that looks to commerce for its intercourse with Europe, and as a main source of revenue and social progress."

The English government, in its relations with Brazil, has had two chief objects of attention and duty,-the slave-trade, and the interests of English merchants and residents. The latter comprises protection against wrongs and extension of commerce. It is a painful fact that one of its chief difficulties in dealing with the Brazilian government has always arisen from the opposing action of some Englishmen. The bulk of the English community in Brazil,-quiet, respectable men,-pursue their business and hold their tongues, knowing what they might suffer from open expression of opinion in support of their own government, against that of the country to which they have gone to make their fortunes. But unscrupulous, illconditioned Englishmen make it their business and find it