LEITE FERREIRA DE MELLO, Jose Bento (lay'-e-teh), Brazilian politician, born in Campanha, Minas Geraes, 6 January, 1785; died near Pousoalegre, 8 February, 1844. He studied and was graduated in Sao Paulo, where he was ordained priest in 1810, and soon afterward he was appointed rector of the parish of Pousoalegre. In 1821 he took part in politics as a member of the Liberal party, which elected him representative to the assembly of Lisbon. In 1822 he was appointed member of the provisional government of Brazil, and in 1825 he was elected to the legislature of the nation. In that year he began to publish the paper "Pregoeiro Constitutional," and some years afterward the "Recopilador Mineiro." In 1831 he founded in Pousoalegre the society "Defensora da Libertade a Independencia Naeional," and from that year till 1834 he was active in propagating liberal ideas concerning the abolition of slavery. During the regency of Father Feije he sustained the government, and in 1840 was the first to propose the declaration of the majority of Pedro Ii. In 1843 he espoused the revolution of the Liberal party in S. Paulo and Minas Geraes, and, being defeated, retired to his province on account of feeble health and his decreasing popularity. Next year, on the way to one of his plantations, he was murdered.