Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/282

Expenditure

Expenditure. Home Department 405,800 Justice 224,700 Foreign Affairs 58,900 Marine 1,006,600 War 1,358,300 Finances". . . . . . . 2,375,000 Commerce 1,426,000 Total (121,874 : 462 contos) 6,855,300

In the Budget for 1876-77 the receipts are estimated at 107,133 : 070 contos or 6,026,200 ; the expenditure at 105,378 : 914 contos or 5,927,600.

There are twenty-three custom houses, the amount of duties col lected being largest in that of the capital, next in order those of Pernambuco, Bahia, and Para.

The effective strength of the army and navy is every vear fi xe( j by the general legislative assembly, upon the data furnished by the ministers of the two departments. The army was originally organized on the principles established by Marshal Beresford when in the service of Portugal. It is principally from the northern provinces that the infantry is recruited, and from the southern that the best cavalry is obtained. A board, presided over by H. R. H. the Comte d Eu, marshal of the army, is charged with the reformation of military legislation, and has been in session for some years. The actual army is thus com posed, on a peace footing:—

a. Special corps, staff engineers and sanitary corps 427 b. Infantry, 21 battalions 9,864 c. Cavalry, 5 regiments and 2 battalions 2, 484 d. Artillery, 3 regiments and 4 batteries, with 1 ) 3 2 SO battalion of engineers c. A division stationed in Paraguay, of various arms 1,894 17,949 On a war footing the army is raised to 32,000 men.

Besides the regular army there is a national guard, which was organized in 1831, and comprised nearly 750,000 men in the latest returns, in cavalry, artillery, infantry, and reserve. This force has been disbanded for the present, to be re-organized on the completion of the census begun in 1872.

The police service of the empire is performed by city guards under military organization, under the provincial legislatures. The provinces of Para, Pernambuco, Bahia, Eio G~ande do Sul, and Matto Grosso possess military arsenals, recently reorganized. Military colonies for dis ciplinary or penitentiary objects, and also for protection of the frontiers, are dotted round the outskirts of the empire.

The navy is under the control of the minister of marine, assisted by a naval council instituted in 1855, organized after the plan of the French admiralty. There are six arsenals, and a pyrotechnical laboratory was established near Rio in 18G8.

The navy is principally manned by civilized aborigines and negroes, organized in bodies called imperial sailors, with a certain military discipline. The aborigines have a peculiar aptitude for a maritime life. Officers destined for the Brazilian navy receive a suitable education in the naval school of Rio, and for some years the Government intro duced the practice of sending the more apt scholars to serve in the British, French, and American navies. In this way a body of efficient naval officers has been formed.

In 1875 the naval force was thus constituted:—

a. Steam-vessels Number Guns Armour-plated ships 19 73 Frigate l 12 Corvettes 8 Cl Gun-boats 23 47 Transports 7 1. Sailing-vessels Corvette 1 22 Sloops and smaller vessels 2 15 61 230

These vessels were manned by 4136 seamen, including gunners and marines. One armoured vessel and four corvettes were on the stocks in 1875.

The Roman Catholic is the established religion of the empire. All other forms of worship are tolerated, but may only be practised privately. Dissenters enjoy all political and civil rights, with the sole exception of being elected into the chamber of deputies. The peculiarity of the ecclesiastical organization of the Brazilian church is, that the clergy do not receive the tithes. As a conquest of the military and religious order of Christ, all the churches of Brazil belonged from the beginning to that order, whose grand-master appointed the bishops, and submitted them directly to the approbation of the Pope. The order became so powerful that the king obtained the union of the grand-mastership to the crown, and so disposed of all the livings and other benefices of the order, and paid from his treasury the salaries of the clergy, receiving the tithes from the people as a civil tax. The tithes were afterwards abolished as oppressive. This organization is still recognized by the Holy See, and in the capacity of grand-master of the order of Christ the emperor appoints all the bishops and other ecclesiastical functionaries. There are convents of Francis cans, Carmelites, and Benedictines. These are very rich, and generally very learned men, who are usefully employed in teaching the sciences. They pay double annual taxes as a compensation to the treasury for not paying taxes upon transfers of property, as theirs is not transferable.

Primary and public schools., supported by the state through the provincial and municipal legislatures, for gratuitous instruction, have been established throughout the empire, under the general control of the ministry of the interior. In some of the provinces instruction has been made obligatory. Besides these, in which the teach ing is limited to moral and religious instruction, reading and writing, the elements of grammar and arithmetic, there is a second or higher order of schools in most of the provinces, either public or private, in which such subjects as the elements of history and geography, especially that of Brazil, the principles of the physical sciences, elementary mathematics, drawing, Portuguese, French, and English are added. The Dom Pedro II. Imperial College of the capital has twenty-two professors, and provides a course of study of seven years, at the termination of which a degree of B.A. may be gained. Each diocese has a seminary for theological instruction, and these, with the exception of that of S. Jos6 in the capital, are subsidized by Govern ment. Military training is under the care of the war department, and is carried on in preparatory and regimental schools, and further in military academies in the capital and in Rio Grande do Sul. A practical school of gunnery is established in the Campo Grande, near the capital ; a central college with eleven professors also educates in the higher branches of military science and engineering.

An imperial astronomical observatory has been appended

to the central college for the instruction of observers, and the recording of astronomical and meteorological pheno mena. There is also a state observatory in Pernambuco. The naval college is established on board a war vessel,

the cadets being drafted to it from a preparatory naval