NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MHE event of the last eight days has been the disappearance of the Empire of Brazil. The true details of this singular and unexpected occurrence are still unknown, the Provisional Government evidently editing all bulletins ; but the account which they choose to publish runs as follows. On Friday, the 15th inst., the garrison of -Rio Janeiro, numbering six thousand men, broke into open revolt, and was followed by the Fleet, which dominates the capital. Marshal Theodore da Fonseca, the Commander-in-Chief, nominated a Provisional Govern- ment, chiefly of journalists, who issued a manifesto abolishing Monarchy_ and declaring a Republic ; while he himself pro- oeeded to Petropolis, the country-seat where the Emperor and his family were residing ; and here a strange scene occurred.
he sickly Emperor refused to abdicate ; but on the receipt of a draft on the Treasury for £500,000, all opposition vanished, and the whole Imperial family went on board a steamer, which immediately started for Lisbon. Marshal da Fonseca returned to Rio, and with his colleagues drew up a proclamation abolishing the Council of State and the Senate, dissolving the Chamber, and summoning the twenty-one provinces to send up delegates to. make a Constitution. They are not, however, to be entirely independent, for the Provisional Government has in advance .deereed that the form of the new system shall be that of a Federal Republic, and that the suffrage shall be universal. As Brazil is a medley of colours, varying from persons as white as Portuguese are, to savage Negroes, the latter decree is a most audacious experiment. No one has apparently been killed, and all the provinces, even Bahia, are said to have adhered to the revolution ; bat, we repeat, nothing is known except what Marshal da Fonseca chooses should be reported.
