The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

288 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA.
It is noteworthy that Auguste Comte's positive school had much to do with
the revolution which overthrew the einjHre. His teachings had made great
progress, especially in the military institutions, and to the zeal of certain
positivists engaged in the revolutionary movement must be attributed several
decrees issued during the first weeks of the Republic. Sucb were the separation
of Church and State ; the institution of the national feast of July I4th coinciding
with that of the French Republic ; the adoption of the mottos " Order and
Progress " for the national flag, "Safety and Fraternity " in official correspon-
dence.
But political morals are unaffected by such empty formulas. The Brazilian
constitution may model itself almost slavishly on that of the North American
Union ; but it will fail to infuse the Anglo-Saxon spirit into the Brazilian
populations. Each article of its " magna charta " will still be interpreted in
accordance with the habits of thought, the traditions, usages, and passions of the
half-caste Portuguese inhabitants of South America.
Thus it has happened that the royal powers granted to the pi-esident of the
United States, and consequently to the head of the Brazilian Republic, have
rapidly led in the latter State to a pure dictatorship. From the very first,
however, the outcome of the revolution was of its essence a military autocracy.
The army had long grumbled at being kept aloof, and when the enfeebled
emperor ceased to take an active part in the administration, the deeply mistrusted
military commanders were studiously removed to great distances, and virtually
banished even to insalubrious regions, such as Upper Amazonia and Matto Grosso.
Nevertheless, the armj', elated at its triumphs over Paraguay, had long resented
its subordinate position, and now clamoured for the first place in the manage-
4^ent of affairs. The few men who controlled the republican movement, taking
advantage of this feeling, offered power to the military leaders in exchange for
the name of " Republic," and the revolution, more apparent than real, was effected
without bloodshed as a simple " transformation scene."
Since the end of the empire, Brazil has been ruled by soldiers, and in 1893
more than half of the provincial governors were army men. But the navy, which
had also a share in the glory of the Paraguay War, especially in forcing the pas-
sage of the rivers, now found itself neglected in the distribution of power. To the
consequent rivalry between the military and naval forces, diversely influenced by
the pressure of the civil element, must be attributed the sequence of events which
were brought to a temporary close by the colla^jse of the revolt in the spring of
1894.
At the same time the army is not a force constituted by the exercise of any
le"-itimate national function. Although there exists a law of conscription by lots,
the regiments arc recruited by voluntary engagements legally limited to a period
of six months, during which the men are in the pay of the State. Most of the
rank and file are men of colour, while the ofiicers are mainly whites, or
regarded as such. During the Paraguay War, Brazil had as many as 70,000
soldiers, including the mobilised national guards, the police, and frontier garri-