Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/530

 494

BRAZIL.

The councillors of state, ordinary and extraordinary, are mostly ex-ministers. The heir to the throne, if of age, is by right a coun- cillor of state.

At the head of each province is a president appointed by the central Government. Each province has also its local parliament or Provin- cial Chamber, and a general council, called the Legislative Assembly of the province. The members of the latter are nominated by the same electors who choose the deputies and senators to the general legislative assembly, while the members of the Provincial Chambers are elected directly by the voters. The election of members of the Provincial Chambers is for two years. The Legislative Assemblies of the provinces exercise, with some restrictions, as to political matters, the same power within their districts as the Congress for the whole empire.

Church and Education.

The established religion of the empire is the Roman Catholic, but according to Article 5 of the constitution, all other religions are tolerated, ' with their domestic or private form of worship, in build- ings destined for this purpose, but without the exterior form of temples.' No person can be persecuted for religious acts or motives.

The Roman Catholic clergy is maintained by the State ; funds, however, are voted for the construction of chapels and for trie" sub- sistence of ministers of different religions.

The bishops, and all other ecclesiastical officers are, depending the confirmation of the Apostolic See, appointed by the Emperor, and no Decree of Council, nor letters apostolic, nor any other ecclesiastical statutes, can be executed in the empire without the consent or placit of the Emperor, or of the General Assembly. Marriages of Protestants celebrated in foreign countries or in the empire, according to its civil law, are respected in all their legal effects.

Brazil constitutes an ecclesiastical province, with a metropolitan archbishopric, the seat of which is at Bahia, 1 1 suffragan bishops, 12 vicars-general, and 1,297 curates. For the private instruction of the clergy there are 11 seminaries, in general subsidised by the State.

Public education is divided into three distinct forms, or classes, namely, primary ; secondary, or preparatory ; and scientific, or superior. The primary instruction in the capital is under the charge of the General Assembly, and in the provinces under the Provincial Assemblies. According to the constitution it is gratuitous, and it ' will become compulsory as soon as the Government considers it opportune.' Notwithstanding the efforts of the legislature in recent