Marcos de Noronha e Brito

D. Marcos de Noronha e Brito, 8th Count of Arcos (7 July 1771 – 6 May 1828) was a Portuguese nobleman and colonial administrator who served as the last Viceroy of Brazil. He ruled from 21 August (or 14 October) 1806 to 22 January 1808, when Prince Regent John arrived in the city of Salvador, transferring the seat of the Portuguese monarchy to Brazil.

He had been sent to Brazil to occupy the position of governor and captain general of the provinces of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro. Called back to Rio de Janeiro, he replaced Fernando José de Portugal e Castro as viceroy of Brazil. In 1808, with the arrival of the Portuguese royal family in Brazil, he was transferred to Bahia as governor.

There he established the first printing press and printed the newspaper Idade d'Ouro do Brazil (Golden Age of Brazil), created the public library, completed the São João Theater and the customs wharf, in addition to installing a postal line to Maranhão.

During the Pernambuco revolt of 1817, he helped in the repression of rebels, some of whom were hanged.

Appointed Minister of the Navy and Overseas, he moved again to Rio de Janeiro. With the return of John VI to Portugal, he remained in Brazil, in charge of the affairs of the Kingdom and Foreigners portfolio, he was Minister of Affairs of the Kingdom of Brazil.

Governor of Bahia He assumed the government of Bahia in 1810, after the death of the Count of Ponte in 1809, ruling the captaincy for eight years (1810-1818) and was described as an energetic man, influenced by new ideas. The Count of Arcos was responsible for achievements in education. During his government, schools were created.

Education

His period as governor was good for the education in Bahia. the Count of Arcos was responsible for creating schools and classes. In all, 25 chairs of literacy and 11 of Latin grammar were created. He also received authorization to open the Archepiscopal Seminary.

One of his first achievements in education was the creation of the commerce class, in 1810, the same year he assumed the government. In the commerce class, bookkeepers were trained and chairs of public instruction were created. A year later, on 15 July 1811, the Praça do Comércio was founded, which concentrated commercial and mercantile buildings. The idea was suggested by judge Brito and other men. The Praça de Comércio was the beginning of the Commercial Association of Bahia, which still exists today.

A year after the royal charter for the creation of the course, on 28 July 1813, a declaration with the indigenous medicinal products studied in each captaincy was requested, which the governors should attest to the quality and quantity of the products to be used to treat sick people at the Royal Military Court Hospital. The costs of extracting the products and who was trafficking them should also be reported. The information was passed on to the court through the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and War.

When the library opened, there were donations of books, including from the governor himself. However, the copies of the Count of Arcos were only borrowed, as he withdrew his books when the library moved to the cathedral. In 1817, when the Count of Arcos was about to leave the government of Bahia, the library began to lose the attention and care it had at first.

It was with his support that the brotherhood of Barroquinha managed to build a noble hall attached to its temple. The temple also gained more equipment and increased in size. The meetings, which were prohibited by the previous governor, the Count of Ponte, became legal by the Count of Arcos and, therefore, had a substantial improvement even in their structures.

As in the rebellion of the slaves, the Count of Arcos reacted to the revolt with violence. One of the rebel leaders, José Inácio Ribeiro de Abreu e Lima, which was known as father Roma, went to Bahia to persuade the captaincy to join the revolt. When he arrived in Bahia, he was immediately arrested and sentenced to death by firing squad on the orders of the governor. The judgment was quick, done verbally. The surprised even some government officials. The Minister of the Kingdom, Tomás António de Vila Nova Portugal, disapproved of the procedure and ordered the Count of Arcos to stop executing rebels "without the guarantees of the law".

The Laboratory was one of the first initiatives in the country to work with chemistry. There, chemical researches were carried out for commercial purposes. The first product evaluated by the laboratory was brazilwood. The preparation of opium and the purification of sugarcane spirit were also studied. Under the direction of the Count of Arcos, the laboratory faced the difficulty of looking for a new headquarter. Goulart later found a new building to be the headquarters of the laboratory, but when he received the request in December 1818, he stated that he had no money to invest and would not request it from the King. On 22 December 1819, the laboratory was dissolved.

Imprisonment decree With the typical communication difficulties of the time, news of arrests spread slowly. Furthermore, there was little or no control over arbitrary imprisonments, and few police and judges to carry out trials. Noting this situation, the Count of Arcos issued a decree on 23 May 1821 that aimed to regulate the imprisonments and living conditions of prisoners. In his words, the justification for the decree was:

The decree contained five articles. The first attested that people could only be arrested with a written court order, except in flagrante delicto. The second article attested to the conditions under which a judge could issue arrest warrants: guilt confirmed by three witnesses, two of them sworn; the fact being a crime exposed by law; description of the accused; a court decision determining the arrest and release. The third article provided a non-extendable period of 48 hours for the conviction or acquittal. The entire process should be public, with authorization for defendants and witnesses to be confronted if necessary. The decree made self-defense legal in crimes that did not carry the death penalty. Regarding living conditions in prisons, the Count prohibited in the decree:

The last article threatened the fulfillment of all previous articles by governors. Anyone who disobeyed any article would lose public employment and be permanently banned from public service.