ABSTRACT
The authors, in reviewing the ground which they have gone over in this volume, only feel the imperfection of their labors and how difficult has been the task to give in so small space a just and general view of Brazil. They have compared the Empire not with England and the United States, but with other countries of the New World which have been peopled by descendants of the Latin race. This they believe to be the true mode of comparison. Many errors may thus be avoided. In the year 1857 their attention was called to an editorial in one of the most widely-circulated and influential papers of our country, in which occurs the following sentence :—
“To those who wish to know how deep human nature can sink in moral degradation and the extreme limit of monarchical imbecility, we recommend a reading of Ewbank’s ‘Brazil,’ whose details of hopeless superstition, general ignorance, and political demoralization have no parallel.”
