"Malheur au siècle, témoin passif d'une lutte héroïque, quicroirait qu'on peut sans péril, comme sans pénétration del'avenir, laisser immoler une nation."
The destructive war which has now been waged for so many years, by theChief 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 forthe very slight attention which it has received from Parliament andthe press, except the fact that many of the principal considerationsconnected with it have never yet been fully brought before the Britishpublic. In order to supply this deficiency, and to show how much itconcerns the character of this country that this war should at once bebrought to a close in the only manner in which it can be ended; thatis, by the prompt and decided interference of the Governments ofFrance and England, I have thought that it might be useful to laybefore the public the following observations and documents,explanatory of the principles involved in the war; of the conductpursued by Mr. Mandeville, the British Minister to the ArgentineConfederation, at the most critical period of its progress; and of thestrong and rapidly-increasing interest which this country, and moreespecially the port of Liverpool, has in the preservation of thethreatened independence of the Republic of Uruguay.
Most of the readers of these remarks are no doubt aware that theProvince of the Banda Oriental, or eastern bank of the River Plate,was first constituted an independent state, under the title of theRepublic of Uruguay, at the close of the war between the ArgentineConfederation and the Empire of Brazil, in the year 1828. Thisarrangement was in a great measure brought about by the good officesof Lord Ponsonby, the Ambassador of the British Government to theCourt of Rio, and the result of his negociations[Pg 4]was so agreeable to the English Government, that the peace thus concludedwas made a subject of congratulation in the speech from the throne in theyear 1829. The principal object in forming this new Republic was, toput an end to the destructive war between Buenos Ayres and Brazil,originating in the claims put forward by both these countries to thepossession of the Province of the Banda Oriental. The Brazilians, whohad had possession of it for several years, were naturally unwillingto have so warlike and powerful a state as the Argentine Republic ontheir most vulnerable frontier, and the Argentines were not lessunwilling to have the Brazilian frontier pushed more than a hundredleagues up the River Plate, and within the limits of the ancientViceroyalty of Paraguay, which had for ages been occupied by theSpanish race. As the only effectual solution of these difficulties,the English Government proposed that the Banda Oriental should berendered independent of both countries, and this, after somenegociation, was agreed to by all the parties concerned.
The primary object of the mediation of the English Government was there-establishment