The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1890. BRAZIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1998, 23 January 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1890. BRAZIL.

It is well that "virtue is its own reward," because if it were not it is evident that it would often not be re warded at all. Virtue must be contented with whatever solace inner consciousness yields, for the world seldom pays much attention to it. " 1 he evil that men do lives after them ; the good is often interred with their bones," so it is no use for one to do good except for the sake of doing it. Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, a short time ago emancipated all the slaves within his dominion, For years the Emperor had been working hard towards this end, and at the same time thus undermining his own influence. The greed and avarice which characterise man the world over is as rampant in Brazil as elsewhere, with the result that the abolition of slavery has led to the dethronement of the ruling monarch there. It was so in the United States of America. the South fought hard against the North to retain slavery, So man is ! the same the world over. He is as ready to enslave his brother man now as he was 1000 yeaies ago.- Some few years ago there were in Brazil about ; 2,000,000 slaves out of a population of about 12.000,000. '1 he Emperor Dom Pedro—who is a most humane man, a poet, a scholar, and. the author of some literary works—conceived thp idea of liberating them, and in ISBS a Bill was introduced into Parliament for the gradual extinction of slavery. This Bill passed. This measure provided that no one under 14 or over 65 > years of age should be a slave. It set 1

a value on various classes of slaves, the highest being £79 3s 4d per head. From this value there was deducted every year 6 per cent., and it was computed that this would extinguish slavery altogether in 1896. But another agency was set at work to effect this much-desired reform more expeditiously. A tax was placed on slave property, and the proceeds from it was employed in buying the slaves and giving them their liberty. '1 his tax was added to by taxes placed on certain other commodities, and by the donations of benevolent people, and

by these means the slaves were being liberated at a rapid rate, and it was computed that slavery would cease to exist in 1892. The pace, however, appears to have been too slow for the good-natured, humane monarch, for some 12 or 18 months ago he abolished slavery altogether. This led to great discontent. The loss to the slave-

owners is alleged to have been very great. It is variously stated at sums between £20,000,000 and £60,000,000, and it is this very thing which has led to the dethronement of one of the most virtuous and the best of all the monarchs that ever lived. They want now to throw the blame on the priests. They say that the Empress was too much under the influence of the priests, and that the Emperor was too much under the influence of the Empress, and that it was to get rid of this influence the revolution took place. Of course, this is to a certain extent right. It was the priests, instigated by the Pope, who urged on

the Emperor to liberate the slaves, and they are thus responsible indirectly for the revolution. The slaves were liberated by the Empress during the Emperor's absence in Europe, as will be remembered, and the Pope manifested great pleasure at it at the time. It is, however, no disgrace to either the priests or the Empress. Whatever the wretched slave-owners may say, the world will uphold them in giving freedom to the slaves.

All this, however, would have been of no immediate interest to us in this colony if it did not teach a lesson which we might do well to learn. We have seen that wherever man can enslave man he has not the slightest scruple in doing it. In North America oceans of blood were spilled to retain slavery ; in South America a monarch has been dethroned for abolishing it. Nihilism in Russia is traceable to the fact that the father of the present Czar abolished serfdom in that country. These instances show " man's inhumanity to man." Men are not a whit worse in Brazil or the Southern States of America than they are in this colony or anywhere else. They would have slaves everywhere if the law allowed them. Theoretically there

are no slaves within the British dominions, but practically the bondage of the pour is a form of slavery. Wherever there is starvation in the midst of luxury there is slavery. For instance, sweating is worse than slavery. The slave-owner is bound to provide good wholesome food, good house accommodation, and medical attention for his slave when sick, for bis own sake if for no other reason. The master under the sweating system need not trouble himself, and he does

not. If one of his work-people falls sick, another fills the place, and his anxiety ceases. The present system is worse than slavery, and is not freedom only in name; This ia what we ought to think over. This world is capable of producing enough for all, and so long as persons willing to work have not enough to eat slavery has not been completely abolished. "We ought to think over this and never cease our exertions in the cause of freedom until all men are free to eat the fruits of their own labor.