which gives orders to confine the frail instantly taken off, and a gown or culprit till the issue of the affair; and thick jacket adopted by some in their then, after the examination of wit- stead, while others content themselves nesses, &c. transmits the documents with remaining in their shirt and and refers the final determination and drawers. sentence of divorce to the ecclesiastical The usual dress of the ladies is a court, so far as respects the man and single petticoat over a chemise. The wife; reserving to itself the punish- latter is composed of the thinnest ment of the male delinquent. This muslin, and is generally much worked latter measure consists of a severe fine and ornamented; it is made so full at and imprisonment, towards those who the bosom, that on the smallest movecan afford it; but sometimes of trans- ment it drops over one or both portation to Angola. shoulders, leaving the breast perfectly The business is always dispatched exposed; and besides this, it is so transwithout delay; and if the case be very parent, that the skin is every where flagrant, the female is doomed to a visible underneath. This violation of convent for life, to be maintained by feminine delicacy appears the more the husband at about ten-pence per disgusting, as the complexion of the diem. The parties cannot marry Brazilians is in general very indifagain during their joint lives. ferent, approaching to an obscure The generality of crimes are punish- tawny colour. Stockings are scarcely ed with imprisonment; but the atro- ever used; and during the rainy cious one of murder and treason, with season, which is to them cold, they death, unless the parties are opulent; shuffle about in a pair of slippers, and in which case they too often escape, by are accommodated with a thick blue means of the subtilties of the law, by and white cotton wrapper, or a woollen appeal, or by pardon. Punishment by great coat faced with shag, similar to torture is forbidden, and secretos are the German cavoys. When attending substituted in its stead. The laws re- mass, a deep black silk mantle, worn specting debtors are extremely lenient; over the head, conceals the transparent a late ordinance at Bahia prohibits im- costume beneath, They let the hair prisonment for debt, unless it be a grow to a great length: it is twisted, swindling or fraudulent transaction, fastened in a knot on the head, and which is punished by confinement till always loaded with a profusion of porestitution is made, or the injured matum and powder of tapioca. On party relents. If an individual finds some public occasions, and visits of himself unable to pay his creditors, he ceremony, a few ladies of rank adopt delivers over to them his effects, which the European dress. are sold and divided, and he is free; The singular custom of permitting but if he neglects to do this, or refuses the nail of the thumb, or forefinger, to pay, the creditors seize by distraint (sometimes both) to grow to a hideous every thing he has, except the clothes length, and then paring it to a sharp on his person, and have claims on point, is common to both sexes. This whatever property he may afterwards excrescence, however, is not without acquire, till the debt is liquidated. its use, as it serves the men to divide MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. the fibres from the tobacco leaf, and The male inhabitants generally dress cut it into shape preparatory to rolling as in Lisbon, following the English it into segars, to the smoking of which modes; except that when visiting on they are greatly addicted. Their viols a holiday, they have an excess of em- and guitars are also thrummed with broidery and spangles on their waist- this nail, the flourishing display of coats, and lace to their linen. The which adds, in their opinion, a beauty sword they have totally thrown aside, to the instrument. And lastly, these (except in office); and cocked hats sacred nails are considered as distinare going out of fashion. Shoe and guishing the wearers for an easy inknee buckles of solid gold, and of dolence, which in this country is no their own manufacture, are very com- trivial recommendation*. mon; and they are fondly attached to every species of finery. On their It is a curious circumstance, that return home, these gala clothes are a similar custom prevails in China, MINES. At Bahia, there is a Portuguese trary in South America, that if it rain comic theatre, under the management in the morning, the expression isof an Italian. The house is nothing "what a dreadful winter!" And if better than a barn, and the acting, the sun shine in the afternoondecorations, &c. are in unison. The "what a beautiful summer!" The music is the only tolerable part. soil teems with fertility, and rather The chief amusements of the citizens requires to be exhausted than maare the feasts of the different saints, nured. processions of nuns, sumptuous funerals, the holy or passion week, &c. M.Bougainville, in his voyage round Scarcely a day passes without some the world, seems to have collected one or other of these festivals oc- the best information upon this subcurring. Sometimes, on grand occa- ject, and upon the revenue of Brazil. sions, after coming from church, they "Rio Janeiro is the staple and prinvisit each other, and have a more cipal outlet of the riches of Brazil. plentiful dinner than common, under The mines called General, are the the term banquet; during and after nearest to the city, at the distance of which they drink unusual quantities about seventy-five leagues. They yield of wine; and, when elevated to an to the king, every year, for his right extraordinary pitch, the guitar or of fifths, at least a hundred and twelve violin is introduced, and singing com- arrobas of gold; in 1762 they yielded mences; but the song soon gives way a hundred and nineteen. Under the to the enticing negro dance. This is a captaincy of the General Mines, are mixture of the dances of Africa, and comprehended those of Rio do Morte, the fandangos of Spain and Portugal. of Sabara, and of Serro-frio. The It consists of an individual of each sex last, besides gold, produces all the diadancing to an insipid thrumming of monds that come from Brazil. They the instrument, always to one mea- are found at the bottom of a river, of sure, with scarcely any action of the which they turn the course, in order legs, but with every licentious motion to separate from the pebbles in its of the body, joining in contact during bed, the diamonds, topazes, chrythe dance, in a manner strangely im- solites, and other stones of inferior modest. The spectators, aiding the quality. season NATURAL GEOGRAPHY. He music with an extemporaneous cho- "Of all these stones, the diamonds rus, and clapping of the hands, enjoy alone are contraband: they belong to the scene with an indescribable zest. the undertakers, who are obliged to These amusements, with parties into give an exact account of the diamonds the country, and a few others of a found, and to place them in the hands trifling nature, added to the enervat- of the intendant appointed by the king ing idleness in which the Brazilians for this purpose, who deposits them are plunged, constitute their whole immediately in a casket encircled with happiness. iron and shut with three locks. has one of the keys, the viceroy anIn Brazil, says Mr. Pinkerton, other, and the assayer of the royal (Geog. Vol. 111. p. 723.) the rainy treasury the third. This casket is begins in April, and ends in enclosed in a second, sealed by the August. This is called the winter, three persons above-mentioned, and though, in fact, the heat is equal or which contains the three keys of the superior to that of the dry season, or first. The viceroy has not the power summer. These terins are so arbi- of visiting its contents. He only consigns the whole to a third strong cofwhere the men of learning, as they fer, which he sends to Lisbon, after stile themselves, suffer the nails of having set his seal on the lock. They their little fingers to grow sometimes are opened in the presence of the to the enormous length of 3 inches, king, who chooses what diamonds he for the sole purpose of giving ocular pleases, and pays the price to the undemonstration of the impossibility of dertakers at the rate fixed by their their being employed in any sort of agreement. manual labour.-Sec Barrow's Travels, and Universal Mag. Vol. 11. p. 441. "The undertakers pay to his most Faithful Majesty the value of a piastre Spanish money, each day, for every beautiful which exist; it is furnished slave employed in searching for dia- with every convenience to work with monds; and the number of these the greatest celerity. As the gold slaves may amount to eight hundred. arrives from the mines at the same Of all kinds of contraband trade that time that the fleets arrive from Porof diamonds is the most severely tugal, it is necessary to accelerate the punished. If the offender be poor, it work of the mint, and the coinage costs him his life; if he has wealth proceeds with surprising quickness. sufficient to satisfy the law, besides "The arrival of these fleets renders the confiscation of the diamonds, he the commerce of Rio Janeiro very is condemned to pay twice their flourishing, but chiefly that of the value, to one year's imprisonment, Lisbon fleet. That of Porto is only and is afterwards banished for life to laden with wines, brandy, vinegars, the coast of Africa. Notwithstanding provisions, and coarse cloths, manuthis severity, there is a great contra- factured in that city or its environs. band of diamonds, even of the most Soon after the arrival of the fleets, beautiful, the hope and ease of con- all the merchandise brought is taken cealing them being increased by the to the custom-house, where it pays small size of the treasure. ten per cent. to the king. It is to be "The gold drawn from the mines observed, that at present, the comcannot be carried to Rio Janeiro, munication of the colony of St. Sacrawithout being first brought to the mento with Buenos Ayres being smelting houses established in each severely prohibited, these rights must district, where the right of the crown experience a considerable diminuis received. What results to private tion. Almost all the most precious persons is remitted in bars, with their articles were sent from Rio Janeiro weight, number, and the royal arms, to the colony of Sacramento, whence All this gold has been assayed by a they were smuggled by Buenos Ayres person appointed for this purpose, into Chili and Peru; and this frauand on each bar is imprinted the standard of the gold, so that after wards in the coinage the operation necessary to estimate their due standard may be easily performed. "These bars belonging to individuals, are registered in the factory of La Pray buna, thirty leagues from Rio Janeiro. In this station are a captain, lieutenant, and fifty men: here is paid the right of tifths; and besides a toll of a real and a half per head on men, cattle, and beasts of burden, Half of the product of this duty be longs to the king, and the other half is divided between the detachment according to rank. As it is impossible to return from the mines with out passing by this office, all persons are there stopped, and searched with the greatest severity. dulent commerce was worth every year to the Portuguese more than a million and a half of dollars. In a word, the mines of Brazil produce no silver; all that the Portuguese possess is acquired by this contraband trade. The negro trade was also an immense object to them. It is impossible to compute the loss occasioned by the almost entire suppression of this branch of contraband trade. It occupied alone at the least thirty vessels in the coasting trade from Brazil to La Plata. Besides the ancient right of ten per cent, paid to the royal customhouse, there is another of two and a half per cent. imposed under the title of free gift, since the disaster at Lisbon in 1755. It is paid immediately on leaving the custom-house, whereas a delay of six months is granted for the tenth, on giving good security. Individuals are afterwards obliged to carry all the gold in bars, which belongs to them, to the mint of Rio "The mines of St. Paolo and ParJaneiro, where the value is given in nagua yield to the king four arrobas coin, commonly in half doubloons, for the tifths every year. The most each worth eight Spanish dollars, distant mines, as those of Pracaton Upon each of these half doubloons and Quiaba (Cuyaba), depend on the the king gains a dollar, by the alloy and the right of coinage. The mint ✦ The colony of St. Sacramento has of Rio Janeiro is one of the most since been destroyed.. captaincy of Matogroso. The fifth equal fame. I have read his works of the above mines is not received more than once or twice; always at Rio Janeiro, but that of the mines with high delight, and always with a of Goyas is deducted. This captaincy strong conviction that his poetry also possesses diamond mines which abounds with errors of a bad taste. are forbidden to be worked. Of his Four Seasons, his Spring is "The whole of the expence of the incontestibly the best, and to that, king of Portugal at Rio Janeiro, for as it is the first, I shall first pay my the payment of the troops and civil attention. officers, and for the charges of the The fault that will most forcibly mines, the maintenance of the public strike a careful reader of Thomson is buildings, the careening of vessels, an ungraceful redundancy of words; amounts to about six hundred thou- these are often heaped up in such an sand dollars. The expences of build- undistinguishing manner, that the ing ships of the line and frigates there sense is often obscured, and the beauty stationed are not included." of the imagery often injured. But this fault is little perceptible in Recapitulation, and the amount of Spring; there is a force, a harmony, the average of different objects of an elegance of language in this, royal revenue. " which cannot be found so entirely in either of the other seasons. Dollars. Another error, frequent in this writer, is the usage of unauthorised, .1,125,000 of compounded, and of inelegant 240,000 words. Of this the following are 400,000 proofs. Suffused and glaring with untender fire.” "Young day pours in apace, Total 2,667,000 And opens all the lawny prospect wide." "From which, deducting the above expences, it will be seen that the king of Portugal draws from Rio Janeiro, a revenue exceeding ten millions of French livres," * STRICTURES on the POETRY of SIR, THE HE interesting criticisms upon Summer, l. 55, and 1. 778. "The turning spring Averts her blushful face." "Effulgent, hence the veiny marble shines." Ib. 1. 7. Ib. 1. 135. That throws refreshful round a rural smell." Ib. 1. 364. "His swelling sides which have lately ornamented the Laves, as he floats along the herbag'd brink." fb. 1. 475. "Beneath the touch pages of your Magazine, leave me Autumn, l. 140. aspire to the dignity of a classic; and «Along the woods, along the moorish fens yet he has undergone less of critical Sighs the sad genius of the coming storm." examination than any author of • £416,656. Winter, 1. 66. Who would not think this an epithet derived from Barbary These are few instances taken from many and not even the most enthusiastic of his admirers will venture I believe to defend them. To return however to Spring. To those who have been accustomed to find beauty in the following passages, it will be unpleasant to learn that their admiration must be transferred to other poets: describing the sorrows of the nightingale when her nest is robbed, he adds, That strain again-it had a dying fall: That breathes upon a bank of violets Twelfth Night, Act I. Sc. I. I could not stop my pen without finishing these exquisitely beautiful lines, though the latter part has nothing to do with Thomson. Again, «Tis on some evening, sunny, grateful, mild, When nought but balm is breathing thro' beth of Shakspeare, and among others the following lines: -"Come thick night! And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell!" serves, (after admiring the grandeur of Upon this passage the critic obthe whole invocation) "yet its efficaepithet now seldom heard but in the cy is destroyed by the insertion of an stable, and dun night may come or go without any other notice than contempt." No. 168. Would this fastidious and tasteless critic have said, that the following lines from Milton too might be dismissed with contempt? "The Creator then surveyed Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there Coasting the wall of heaven on this side night, In the dun air sublime." PL B. III. 1. 72. In each of the above two quota. tions, in fact, the epithet dun is applied in a most forceful manner, and excites a grand and awful idea. Should these remarks be inserted, I will send you a continuation of them for the ensuing number; and remain, Sir, &c. Bath, Feb. 1. H. YELVERTON. On MODERN ARCHITECTUre. THE study of modern architecgeneral, so that its principles and having lately become very practice are pretty well understood, and digested into some kind of meHere he has copied a most heavenly send you a few thoughts on that part thod and regularity, permit me to passage from Milton: the woods." 1.783. "The soft delicious air To heal the scar of these corrosive fires, Shall breath her balm." Paradise Lost, B. II. 1. 401. Before I conclude this letter, I will cursorily advert to another passage in Spring, for the sake of vindicating Shakspeare from a contumelious remark of Johnson. Thomson says, of it which has prevailed in this kingdom from the times of the Saxons to the reign of Henry the Sth, and on its stile of architecture, which is vulgarly revival in the present century. The called gothic, is very improperly distle indebted to the Goths, either for tinguished by that name, for it is litits origin or improvements, except so far as the nations who first adopted it are descended from the Goths; but "Where the dun unbrage o'er the falling as a term of reproach by the revivers the truth is, it was originally applied stream, &c. 7. 1024 of Grecian literature, to distinguish it Your readers doubtless recollect a from that more pure and scientific paper in Dr. Johnson's Rambler, stile, and thence has obtained the where that critic examines the Mac- name of gothic all over Europe, |
