Amalgamation [pp. 1-20]

AMALGAMATION.
Throughout the interior of Brazil, we find a degraded and ig norant population, presided over by a still more degraded priest hood, so that the vast body of the people of the empire are un doubtedly inferior to the Spanish Creoles of Cuba. Here then
the negro approaches still nearer to the low standard of civili zation prevailing around him, and consequently he enjoys not
only the same social but the same political rights as any of the
natives of the country.
"Indeed," says Lord Brougham, "the colored race was better treated in the empire of Brazil than by our American kinsmen. Liber&ted Africans had all political rights, save that of holding office; and free Creoles, without distinction of
color, had all rights, without exception, and not merely by law, but in practice;
men of color filling high places both civil and military, and being received in
society on the same footing with whites. The constitution of Brazil rested upon
the two great pillars of representative government, an extensive elective franchise (every person having a vote who possessed ~20 a year in any way), and
two chambers-one elective, for four years, the other for life."*
Thus the negro, who, amid the higher civilization of Cuba,
had acquired only a few social privileges, and amid the still
higher British society of Antigua, none, has, in the lower one
of Brazil, acquired both social and political rights.
If we cross the continent to Peru, we meet with a population which, being unvivified by the civilizing influences of
commerce, is sunken still lower than that of Brazil, and although, owing to a different form of government, the political
privileges of the negro are not so great, yet socially the distinction between him and the people generally is still less marked
than in Brazil; in the latter country a talented mulatto rises
to a high position; but the. mass of the free negroes do not appear to enjoysocial privileges to such an extent as in Lima,
for example, while one will frequently find all classes assembled together promiscuously; in the restaurants, for instance, of this city, says Von Tschudi, "The Congo negro, the
grave Spaniard, the white Creole, the Chino, too'ether with
monks and soldiers, may be seen all grouped together, and devouring, with evident relish, refreshments served out in a way
not remarkable for cleanliness."] In Balize, too, amalgamation is common; and Stephens
writes: "Before I had been an hour in Balize, I learned that the great work of practical amalgamation, the subject of so much angry controversy at hom,, had
been going on quietly for generations; that color was considered mere matter
of taste; and that some of the most respectable inhabitants had black wives
and mongrel children."t
But, last of all, let us take the country which is perhaps the
* Speech, Hlouse of Lords. 28th June, 1855.
$ Central Americas, vol. i., p. 12.
t Peru, p. 151.
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