On the day when the minister of the interior delivered in his budget, I visited the _House of Representatives_. The gallery and four private boxes were crowded. We occupied one of the latter. There were about seventy members present, highly respectable in their appearance, although some were of a doubtful white, and others quite black. They were dignified in deportment, graceful in action, and spoke with great fluency. _Education_ has made great progress throughout Brazil within the last fifteen or twenty years. Beside several Lancasterian schools, supported by government, to which are admitted, gratuitously, children of all colours, (slaves excepted,) primary schools are to be found throughout the city; and private schools also, in which are taught the higher branches of education. There are also a _surgical_ and a _medical_ academy, an academy of fine arts, and ecclesiastical seminaries. [Sidenote: SCENERY--PUBLIC GARDENS.] The city has two public libraries; one of them contains between sixty and seventy thousand volumes, in all languages. The other is at the Convent of St. Benedict. I visited that institution when the librarian was absent, but was amply compensated for the tiresome walk up the steep hill, on a hot day, over a very rough pavement, by the beautiful views exhibited in every direction. There, were seen mountain, hill, and dale, cultivated and in a state of nature--an ocean, a bay, a river, and on their surfaces were floating noble line-of-battle ships, merchant vessels, and an abundance of little skiffs. At my feet lay the city, with its busy throng, and at every important point were fortresses and castles, showing forth rows of formidable cannon. The day shone forth with great brilliancy; not a cloud was seen hanging over the Payo d’Assucar, the Corcovado or the Tejuco; numberless vessels were seen far at sea, pressing for the port, under a cloud of white canvass, during the continuance of the breeze. On the left lay the palace of St. Christovao; and, in the far west, a noble range of hills, terminated by the spiked tops of the organ mountains, rendered the picture enchanting and unrivalled. At the foot of the hill is the arsenal; being deficient in room, the wall of the convent, on that side, was taken down, and the rocks being blown away, a secret entrance was discovered under the church, so ingeniously contrived as to be hid from observation--it appeared like the rocks in which it was formed.