NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Provisional Government of Brazil is clearly not firmly seated. Ordinary telegrams are still edited or suppressed; but according to some cipher telegrams received in Lisbon, avowedly from mercantile firms, but more probably from the Portuguese Legation, there was sharp fighting in Rio from the 18th to 20th inst. A discontented body of troops, some sailors, and a few residents rose in the name of the Emperor, and endeavoured to effect a counter-revolution. They were put down, but not without bloodshed and a suspension of business, and so alarmed is the Government that it issued on the 24th inst. a decree subjecting all persons charged with sedition or opposition to the Republic to military tribunals. The banks, it is reported, are so pressed that the Treasury has advanced them a million sterling, and a financial crisis is anticipated. So great is the distrust felt by the Government, that in order to compel the Emperor to abdicate, it has suspended payment of his allowance, and con- fiscated his property. It has also decreed perpetual exile against the Premier, the Viscount d'Ouro Preto, and has de- ported Senhor Martins, the popular Governor of Rio Grande do Sul. Finally, on the plea of time being needed for new electoral lists, it has postponed the elections till September 15th, 1890, and the meeting of the Convention to November 15th,—more than ten months hence. This last decree shows alarm, and as it will prevent all borrowing in Europe for the same period, it was followed by a sharp fall in all Brazilian securities. A revolution generally devours its children, and this one in Rio will not, it is pretty evident, be hungry long.
