It is needless to say that the restoration of a monarchy in Brazil is quite unthinkable, and that the society’s existence is more interesting than important, but I mention it to show the amused tolerance of the Brazilian towards other people’s opinions. He has a detached, sometimes cynical attitude, believes in frank discussion and the airing of ideas, and together with a markedly democratic habit of life retains a European respect for tradition and authority. In Rio, the intellectual centre of Brazil, the influence of the administration is very strongly felt, and it is the focus of interest and activity: the Brazilian takes a passionate part in politics, criticizes the Government when and where he thinks fit, but will never do anything to undermine the power and prestige of the administration. With but one notable exception the heads of the Brazilian Government have been men of such ability and force of character that they have thoroughly earned the confidence of the thinking classes. From the cultivated caste in Brazil is chiefly drawn the political group: there have been exceptions, as in the case of Pinheiro Machado, but as a rule the reins are in the hands of a distinct social element, descendants of white Portuguese families and frequently men of great intellectual strength. The names of the Visconde de Rio Branco, Conselheiro Rodrigues Alves, João Alfredo and Affonso Penna are but four out of a long list of statesmen of the first rank in Brazil. The ruling classes are almost always great landowners, _fazendeiros_, and there was a time when sons of such families destined themselves to politics, agriculture or one of the “professions;” today commercial careers are sometimes chosen—perhaps partly because the planter of coffee or sugar is often necessarily a mill owner and shipper as well—as Brazil becomes more industrialized, but although these young men may enter other than the traditional spheres, it is seldom that theirs is invaded from the world of industrialists or _commerciantes_. The latter are, indeed, largely recruited from the foreign element; shop-keepers as well as commission agents and dealers all down the coast were once largely British and French, but now the energetic Portuguese-born trader, with the keen Italian and Spaniard, and the still more insinuating Syrian, has absorbed a marked proportion of the retail business.