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                             OBSERVATIONS
                         ON THE PRESENT STATE
                                OF THE
                                AFFAIRS
                                  OF
                           THE RIVER PLATE.

                                  BY
                            THOMAS BAINES.


    "Malheur au siecle, temoin passif d'une lutte heroique, qui
    croirait qu'on peut sans peril, comme sans penetration de
    l'avenir, laisser immoler une nation."
                                                  CHATEAUBRIAND.


                              LIVERPOOL:
         PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE LIVERPOOL TIMES OFFICE,
                            CASTLE STREET.

                                1845.




                             OBSERVATIONS
                                  ON
                         THE PRESENT STATE OF
                    THE AFFAIRS OF THE RIVER PLATE.


The destructive war which has now been waged for so many years, by the
Chief of the Province of Buenos Ayres against the Republic of Uruguay,
involves questions of so much importance to the commercial interests,
and to the national honour of England, that nothing can account for the
very slight attention which it has received from Parliament and the
press, except the fact that many of the principal considerations
connected with it have never yet been fully brought before the British
public. In order to supply this deficiency, and to show how much it
concerns the character of this country that this war should at once be
brought to a close in the only manner in which it can be ended; that is,
by the prompt and decided interference of the Governments of France and
England, I have thought that it might be useful to lay before the public
the following observations and documents, explanatory of the principles
involved in the war; of the conduct pursued by Mr. Mandeville, the
British Minister to the Argentine Confederation, at the most critical
period of its progress; and of the strong and rapidly-increasing
interest which this country, and more especially the port of Liverpool,
has in the preservation of the threatened independence of the Republic
of Uruguay.

Most of the readers of these remarks are no doubt aware that the
Province of the Banda Oriental, or eastern bank of the River Plate, was
first constituted an independent state, under the title of the Republic
of Uruguay, at the close of the war between the Argentine Confederation
and the Empire of Brazil, in the year 1828. This arrangement was in a
great measure brought about by the good offices of Lord Ponsonby, the
Ambassador of the British Government to the Court of Rio, and the result
of his negociations was so agreeable to the English Government, that
the peace thus concluded was made a subject of congratulation in the
speech from the throne in the year 1829. The principal object in forming
this new Republic was, to put an end to the destructive war between
Buenos Ayres and Brazil, originating in the claims put forward by both
these countries to the possession of the Province of the Banda Oriental.
The Brazilians, who had had possession of it for several years, were
naturally unwilling to have so warlike and powerful a state as the
Argentine Republic on their most vulnerable frontier, and the Argentines
were not less unwilling to have the Brazilian frontier pushed more than
a hundred leagues up the River Plate, and within the limits of the
ancient Viceroyalty of Paraguay, which had for ages been occupied by the
Spanish race. As the only effectual solution of these difficulties, the
English Government proposed that the Banda Oriental should be rendered
independent of both countries, and this, after some negociation, was
agreed to by all the parties concerned.

The primary object of the mediation of the English Government was the
re-establishment and preservation of peace and amity between two
nations, with both of which England had valuable commercial relations;
and this object has been completely gained by the arrangement then
effected. During the sixteen years which have elapsed since the treaty
was concluded, no serious difference has occurred between Brazil and the
Argentine Confederation, nor is any likely to occur so long as the
barrier of an independent state is interposed between them. It is only
during the last two years that serious discussions have arisen between
them, and these have originated in the fears of Brazil, lest the
successes of the Buenos Ayrean army, now before Monte Video, should be
such as to break down the barrier established by the Ponsonby treaty,
and again to bring the Buenos Ayreans on the frontiers of Rio Grande.
From apprehension of this event, the Brazilian Government has allowed
General Paz, with his military staff, to pass through its territory to
place himself at the head of the Correntino insurgents, who have risen
against Rosas, and made common cause with Monte Video; it has also
recalled Admiral Grenfell, its commander in the River Plate, as well as
its diplomatic agent at Monte Video, for engaging in an ill-timed
quarrel with the Monte Videan Government; and if the Buenos Ayrean army
should succeed in gaining possession of the city of Monte Video, it will
in all probability, whether backed or not by England and France, decide
to take part in the war, rather than allow General Rosas to succeed in
the designs which he now avows on the Republics of Uruguay and Paraguay,
the two bulwarks of the western provinces of the Brazilian empire.
Notwithstanding the recent victories of the Brazilian General, Baron
Caxias, over the rebels of Rio Grande do Sul, that province is still in
a very unsettled state--far too much so to be safely exposed to the
machinations of such dangerous neighbours as Generals Rosas and Oribe.
It may, therefore, be confidently expected, that if the great naval
powers do not interpose, the progress of events will again bring on a
war between Brazil, strengthened by the army of Uruguay, under General
Rivera, that of Corrientes under General Paz, and the forces of Paraguay
on one side; and Buenos Ayres on the other, backed by those other
provinces of the Argentine Confederation, which still follow the
fortunes of General Rosas.

What the result of such a war would be no one can predict, but its first
consequence would be another blockade of Buenos Ayres, by the Brazilian
fleet, its next the reinforcement of the garrison of Monte Video by a
detachment of Brazilian troops, and its probable final result, after the
whole of the countries engaged in it had been thoroughly ruined, the
establishment of the ascendancy either of the government of Buenos
Ayres, or of that of Brazil at Monte Video. This would be alike opposed
to the wishes and the interests of the Monte Videans themselves, to the
interests of a large portion of South America, and to those of the
nations trading with it. A small Independent State, like the Republic of
Uruguay, governed as it has ever been since the date of its independence
on the most liberal commercial principles, is the best of all checks on
the commercial illiberality of the neighbouring countries, and is much
too valuable to be sacrificed by the Government of any commercial nation
which has at heart the prosperity of its subjects.

If it should be said that neutral nations have no right to interpose
between belligerents, even for the purpose of preserving the national
independence of the weaker, I answer, that no longer since than last
year, the Government of this country was prepared to have interposed, if
it had been necessary, in order to preserve the independence of the
Empire of Morocco; and that the Government of France fully admitted the
right of England to do so in such a case, by giving a promise beforehand
that it would not use its victory either to conquer the territory or to
destroy the independence of the offending state. The reason why England
was prepared to resist the conquest of Morocco was, that such a conquest
would have seriously endangered her interests and influence in the
Mediterranean; and one principal reason why she should interfere to
prevent the conquest of Monte Video by the army and squadron of Buenos
Ayres is, that such a conquest would jeopardise her valuable commerce
and her influence in the River Plate, the only outlet of regions larger
than all the great Kingdoms of Western Europe united. Brazil has the
same right to interpose that Austria would have to resist the conquest
of Sardinia, or Prussia the conquest of Belgium, by France.

Many advantages have resulted both to the commerce of foreign nations,
and to the prosperity of the people of Uruguay, from the recognition of
its independence both of Buenos Ayres and Brazil, which were not
anticipated at the time when it was established, the whole of which, as
we shall show, will be lost if it is allowed to be absorbed by or placed
in dependence on Buenos Ayres. Amongst these advantages are the
following:--

The creation of an Independent State on the eastern bank of the River
Plate has given the commercial nations of Europe trading with those vast
countries of South America, whose only means of intercourse with the
rest of the world is through that River, a greatly increased security
against being again cut off from communication with them, as they were
during the Brazilian blockade, in the years 1825, 6, and 7. At that
time, both banks of the river were involved in the war, the city of
Monte Video being in the hands of the Brazilians, and the Province which
now forms the Republic of Uruguay being in arms against them. The
consequence of this state of things was, that the whole of the countries
watered by the great rivers Parana, Paraguay, Uruguay, and their
innumerable tributary streams, as well as the provinces of Buenos Ayres
and Monte Video, were cut off from all communication with Europe for
nearly three years, and that the great commerce which even then was
carried on by England and other nations with those countries, was for
the time destroyed. Some notion may be formed of the inconvenience which
this country alone sustained from the blockade of the river, from the
following facts. In the years 1822, 3, 4, and 5, the four years
preceding it, the average annual value of the exports from England to
the River Plate, was L909,330, whilst in 1826, 7, and 8, during the
blockade, it fell to L279,463, and in 1827, to L150,000, and even that
small remnant of trade was carried on by vessels which broke the
blockade. At a subsequent period, namely, in the years 1838-9, and 40,
there was again a blockade in the River Plate, established by France, a
power much more capable of making a