The regular fortnightly meeting of the Harvard Union was held in Sever 11 last evening. After the election of Mr. H. E. Gregore to membership the amendment to the by-laws proposed at the last meeting, namely, that here after debate do close at ten o'clock, was read and adopted. The question selected for the next debate was as follows: Resolved, That there should be free coinage of silver in the United States. The debate of the evening was on the question: Resolved, That a republican form of government is the best for Brazil. R. L. O'Brien, L. S., opened for the affirmative. He declared that all arguments directed against the advisability of government by a democracy in Brazil were invalid; because in becoming a republic, Brazil did not necessarily become a democratic republic. The bloodlines of the late revolution shows that the Brazilians acted from deliberate conviction. Brazil has been gradually educated up to a republican form of government, for the monarchy was so limited as to be little less than a republic. The change has met with approval everywhere. There has been almost no flurry in Brazilian goods. Lastly, the republic was inevitable, and the sooner it came the better. The debate for the negative was opened by C. T. R. Bates, '92. He said that the efficiency of any form of government depended on the adaptability of the people to it. The Brazilians are not yet fitted for a republic. The leaders in the revolution were selfish men, seeking for personal aggrandizement. It certainly was not right to turn out in their favor a man who for fifty years guided the destinies of the Empire, and raised it from the position of an unimportant state to be one of the chief countries of the world. Mr. Bates also spoke of the incongruous elements of the people in Brazil, and of the vast territory to be governed by so small a population.

P. L. Horne, '92, closed the debate for the affirmative. The outbreak, he said, was not against Dom Pedro, but against the succession of his son-in-law, the Count D'Eu. The diversity of population in Brazil is not greater than in the United States The United States, too, had a small population and a large territory at the beginning of the government. The Spanish Americans have proved by their commerce that they can make a republic successful. All the good that the emperor has done has been under a government practically republican.

The negative side of the question was closed by R. W. Hale, '92. He declared that the statements of his opponents were not correct. It was not true that Brazilian credit was unshaken by the revolution. The masses in Brazil are still little civilized. This was provided for under the old government by a very limited system of suffrage, but it is proposed by the revolutionists to make the suffrage universal. The leaders of the revolt have treated the capital in a very partial manner, and there is great danger that Brazil will split up into several different governments.

The voting was as follows: On the merits of the question: affirmative 22, negative 13: on the merits of the principal disputants, affirmative 23, negative 10; on the debate as a whole. affirmative 14, negative 3.