Number of merchant vessels arrived at the Ports of Monte Video and
Buenos Ayres during the half-year ending June 30th, 1842:--
Monte Video. Buenos Ayres.
National 16 0
Brazilian 54 17
American 48 31
Chilian 1 1
British 115 47
French 52 20
Spanish 44 17
Sardinian 76 14
Portuguese 4 2
Hamburgh 14 8
Danish 17 12
Austrian 6 0
Swedish 9 8
Belgian 3 1
Bremen 3 3
Prussian 6 0
Russian 1 1
Hanoverian 1 1
Lubeck 2 0
Norwegian 3 2
Tuscan 1 1
--- ---
475 186
--- ---
Great as this trade is, there is no reason why its future increase
should not be as rapid as its past. There are at present several
millions of cattle roving over the boundless pastures watered by the
Uruguay, the Rio Negro, the St. Lucia, and the two hundred arroyos or
rivulets which flow into them, and with a few years of peace, this
number would be doubled, or if it was found more profitable, flocks of
sheep might be introduced instead. The repeal of the duty on foreign
wool, by the Act of 1844, gives additional encouragement to the raising
of this kind of stock, and the reduction in the duty on foreign
provisions made by the tariff of 1842, would, if this country was at
peace, throw a considerable portion of the provision trade created by
that reduction of duty, and at present monopolized by the United States,
into Monte Video. Enormous quantities of meat are now wasted, which it
might be worth while to prepare for this market, in a way suited for the
English taste.
Pastoral countries, such as the territory of Uruguay, New South Wales,
Van Dieman's Land, and South Africa, have this great advantage over
arable countries that their resources can be developed much more
rapidly, with a much smaller amount of labour, and with much less
capital. This is one of the causes of the sudden rise of the trade with
Australia, and it is also a considerable cause of the rapid development
of the prosperity of Monte Video. Its power of producing hides, wool,
tallow, and provisions is unlimited, by any thing except the deficient
numbers of its population; and whilst on this subject, I may mention
that Monte Video is the only one of all the Republics formed out of the
ancient possessions of Spain which has been sufficiently well governed
to attract to its shores any considerable number of emigrants from
Europe. It will be seen from the following table extracted from the
books of the Custom House at Monte Video, that not less than 33,607
emigrants arrived in that port between November, 1835, and December,
1842:--
_Table made from the books at the Sala de Comercio of the
number of passengers who arrived at Monte Video from Nov.
1835 inclusive, to the end of 1842._
KEY:
A: Basques, from both sides of the Pyrenees.
B: Frenchmen.
C: Gallicians.
D: Catalanes.
E: Spaniards from Cadiz, &c.
F: Genoese.
G: Canarios.
H: Portuguese and Brazilians.
I: Miscellaneous.
J: Total.
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
1836| 1116 | 56 | ... | 94 | 112 | 365 | 744 | 782 | 331 | 3600
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
1837| 348 | 72 | 101 | 485 | 310 | 175 | 949 | 454 | 223 | 3117
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
1838| 1939 | 71 | 85 | 264 | 284 | 645 | 2320 | 294 | 177 | 6079
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
1839| 233 | 69 | 141 | 64 | 53 | 202 | ... | 160 | 111 | 1033
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
1840| 1107 | 80 | 106 | 107 | 58 | 727 | ... | 316 | 122 | 2623
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
1841| 3965 | 121 | 408 | 104 | 92 | 2552 | 365 | 101 | 111 | 7819
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
1842| 4968 | 227 | 502 | 143 | 293 | 2123 | 774 | 140 | 166 | 9336
====+=======+=====+=====+=====+=====+======+======+=====+=====+=====
| 13676 | 696 |1343 |1261 |1202 | 6789 | 5152 |2247 |1241 |33607
----+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-----
Of this large number of emigrants, 13,676, it will be seen, were from
the Basque provinces; 696 from France; 3806 from Spain; 6789 from Genoa;
5152 from the Canary Islands; 2247 from Portugal and Brazil, and 1241
from other parts of the world. If, as has been said by one of our
greatest writers, there is no worse sign of the condition of a country
than the fact of large masses of its subjects leaving it, surely it must
be considered an equally strong proof of the goodness of a Government
and the resources of a country when great masses of foreign emigrants
are pouring into it. In this respect, Monte Video stands pre-eminent
above all the States of America, except those founded by the British
race, and considering the limited extent of its territory, and the short
period of its independent existence, it can scarcely be said to yield to
them.
Having thus shown the grounds on which the Government and people of
Monte Video are entitled to the sympathies and support of England, I
shall now proceed to say a few words on the present disastrous position
of the affairs of that Republic.
For the last two years, the city of Monte Video has been besieged by an
army composed almost entirely of Buenos Ayrean troops, commanded by
General Manuel Oribe, the expatriated President of Uruguay, who claims
to be the legal President of the Republic, and whose avowed object is to
overturn the present Government, and to seize on supreme power for
himself, and blockaded by sea by a Buenos Ayrean squadron, commanded by
William Brown, a British subject in the pay of General Rosas. If the
army of General Oribe was composed of Monte Videans, England could have
nothing to say in this matter, as his success would be merely the
substitution of the chief of one native party for another; but this is
not the case. Oribe has neither army, fleet, nor treasures of his own,
and owes every thing to General Rosas as absolutely as if he was a
Buenos Ayrean citizen. To allow him, therefore, to get and to retain
possession of Monte Video, would be to establish the authority of Buenos
Ayres on the east bank of the river as effectually as on the west, and
this I have already shown would be most injurious to the interests of
England, of Brazil, and the other adjoining States, as well as to Monte
Video itself, and to the upper States of the Argentine confederation.
Whatever might be the wishes of General Oribe, it is evident that he
would have no chance of retaining power any longer than he made himself
agreeable to General Rosas. In the city he has a considerable number of
supporters amongst the shopkeepers and a few amongst the merchants, but
in the country, the landed proprietors and gauchos or peasantry are all
opposed to him, and are enrolled in the armies of General Rivera, or his
lieutenants. When President, he was besieged and deposed by this class,
against which the mere townsmen can effect nothing. If he got possession
of the city, he would not be able to raise such a native force as would
sustain him. He must, therefore, retain the Buenos Ayrean army in his
pay, or he could not stir a mile from the walls without being attacked
by the army of Rivera. Hence he would continue in a state of dependence
on General Rosas for many years, if indeed he ever became entirely
independent of him. Thus, it will be seen, that this is not a struggle
to decide whether Oribe or Rivera shall be chief of the Republic, but
whether the Republic shall remain independent or become subservient to
the will of its bitterest enemy.
If the will of General Rosas should thus be allowed to become the law of
Monte Video, the prosperity of that country is at an end. A very large
revenue would be required for the support of the Buenos Ayrean
mercenaries, and it is not at all unlikely that Rosas, who confiscated
the property of the whole of the Unitarian or Centralist Party to pay
the expense of a former civil war, would insist on the repayment of the
whole, or at least of a part of the expenses of the present war, in
carrying on which the finances of Buenos Ayres have been brought to the
verge of ruin. To raise the money required for these purposes, there are
only two ways; the first, the confiscation of the property of Oribe's
opponents; the second, a great increase of the taxes on foreign imports.
The first of these measures would destroy all the best connections of
the English merchants, and ruin all the most respectable men in the
Republic, whilst the second would quite as effectually destroy its
foreign commerce.
It is by no means certain, however, that even the name of independence
would long be left to Monte Video, if General Oribe should succeed.
General Rosas would, in all probability, soon grow tired of supplying
troops and money to support another man's authority, whilst General
Oribe's necessities would compel him to submit to anything which his
patron might propose, even if he went the length of proposing the
annexation of Monte Video to Buenos Ayres, in humble imitation of the
annexation of Texas to the United States. The last letters from Monte
Video state, that Oribe has been getting together, at the Buceo, all the
members of his former Legislative Assembly, who had followed him to
Buenos Ayres or joined him there, and with their aid he will soon form
an assembly quite capable of performing any act which it may suit his
convenience to have performed. With such materials we shall scarcely
fail to have a repetition of the annexation of Texas on the banks of the
River Plate, whenever it may suit the plans of General Rosas and the
necessities of General Oribe to effect it.
It is not, however, merely on grounds of policy and humanity that
England is called upon to interfere in this contest, but it is bound to
do so by the distinct pledges of assistance given by Mr. Mandeville, the
English Minister at Buenos Ayres, to the Government of Monte Video, in
the name of his own Government. In December, 1842, at the most critical
period of the war, that gentleman formally announced, both to the
Governments of Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, that England and France had
determined to put an end to the war, and demanded that they should both
cease from hostilities.[C] Not content with this, he addressed an
official letter to Senor Vidal, the Secretary of State to the Republic
of Uruguay, urging him and his Government not to relax, but rather to
redouble their efforts to resist the Buenos Ayreans, until the arrival
of the assistance which, he stated, might be expected daily from
Europe.[D] The letters of Mr. Mandeville will be found in the appendix
to this pamphlet, and it will be for the public to decide whether
promises so distinct and emphatic, accompanied by exhortations so
strong, do not justify the Government of Monte Video, and the merchants
trading with that country, in calling on the British Government to
fulfil the engagements of its representative. Indeed it is impossible
that the Government of England can allow Monte Video to be taken and
plundered, the leading men of the Republic to be murdered or driven into
exile, and the Republic itself to be annihilated, without destroying the
high reputation which England has so long possessed in all those
countries for honour and uprightness.
That these consequences will be justly chargeable either on the
Representative or the Government of this country, if Monte Video
should be taken, is evident from a consideration of the circumstances
under which Mr. Mandeville gave his promises and his urgent
recommendation quoted above. The letters containing them were written
in the period which intervened between the total defeat of the Monte
Videan army at Arroyo Grande, and the advance of General Oribe and the
Buenos Ayrean forces on that city. When they were given, the Monte
Videan Government was in a state of the utmost uncertainty as to
whether further resistance would not be a useless waste of human life,
and whether it could have any other effect than to render its own
position more desperate. The infantry of Rivera, the only force up to
that time available for the defence of the city was destroyed, and the
cavalry was broken, and discouraged, besides being totally useless for
the purpose of resisting a siege. Within the city were a considerable
number of Oribe's supporters, and many neutrals, including nine-tenths
of the foreign population. At this critical moment the letters of Mr.
Mandeville, given above, were written, and it is the opinion of those
who were at Monte Video at the time, that it was those letters which
induced the Government to forego all attempts at negotiation, and to
call upon the whole population to rise and resist to the last. With
this view, besides calling on those classes of the people which had
previously taken part in the struggle, to rally round the Government,
it declared all the negro slaves in the Republic free, and formed them
into regiments of infantry for the defence of the capital, and it also
gave every encouragement to the foreign population which had emigrated
for the purpose of following the pursuits of peaceful industry, to
take up arms. By these means, an army of some thousand men was formed
within the city, chiefly from classes not before compromised, whilst
in the open country, the landed proprietors and peasantry, were
encouraged to take arms again under the command of their favourite
chief Rivera. Thus the war was renewed, and the whole population of
the Republic was again engaged in a struggle which, from the great
disproportion of the forces, nothing but the promised intervention of
England and France can bring to a close which will not be fatal to
them.
My object in referring to these facts is not to excite odium against
Mr. Mandeville, who could have had no object in making the promises
contained in his letters of the 28th December and 12th of January,
except that of preserving the independence of Monte Video, until the
forces which he expected from Europe had arrived. In a previous
letter, quoted in the Appendix, he positively refused to give any such
promises without the permission of his own Government; and in his
letter of the 12th of January he bases his promises of aid to the
Monte Videan Government on this assertion:--"THE INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE
BRITISH AMBASSADOR (at Paris) AND GUIZOT TOOK PLACE ON THE 9TH
SEPTEMBER, WHEN HE AGREED TO ALL THAT LORD COWLEY PROPOSED OF UNITING
THEIR FORCES TO PUT AN END TO THE WAR." I will not suppose, even for
the sake of argument, that an English Minister made such a statement
as the above without believing it to be true, still less that he made
it for the sake of exciting fallacious and unfounded hopes in the
minds of men struggling for existence. He must have believed his own
assertions, and he must have had some strong, if not conclusive
reasons for believing them.
It is just as little my wish to cast odium on the English Government
as on Mr. Mandeville. Its foreign policy in other parts of the world
has been wise, dignified, and honest, and all that is asked is that it
will act on the same principles in this transaction. No one can doubt
that it is sincerely desirous of restoring peace in the River Plate.
The reason which Sir Robert Peel gives for the non-fulfilment of Mr.
Mandeville's promises is that he had exceeded his orders in giving
them. That there was a mistake somewhere or other cannot be doubted,
though whether it arose from want of explicitness in the directions
given to Mr. Mandeville or from want of comprehension on his part no
one is in a position to decide, except those who have seen them. What,
however, is perfectly clear is this, that the promises given by him to
the Monte Videan Government and the assurances given by him to his own
countrymen have had a most important influence on their conduct, and
have so far compromised the British Government as to add greatly to
the other many and strong reasons for interposing. It is no longer a
question of whether an independent Government, formed under the
mediation of England shall be sacrificed, and along with it the peace
which it has so long been the means of preserving between two of the
most important states of South America, neither is it a mere question
of whether the commercial intercourse with the finest regions of that
great continent shall be carried on without impediment; it is not now
even a question of whether a friendly Government shall be destroyed
and all connected with it ruined; these considerations, great as they
are, yield to the consideration that the honour of this country has
been pledged by its authorized representative, and that promises have
been given which cannot be violated without deep disgrace to the
hitherto unsullied honour of the English name.
* * * * *
POSTSCRIPT.--Since the above observations were written, explanations
have been given by the Prime Minister in Parliament which encourage us
to hope that her Majesty's Ministers have at last decided to fulfil
the promises made by their late representative Mr. Mandeville, by
taking effectual steps to terminate the war, and to secure the
independence of the Republic of Uruguay. They have only to speak the
word, and to make such a display of force as will show that they are
in earnest, and Monte Video is saved. Admiral Brown, or as Commodore
Purvis calls him, "Mr. Brown, the British subject, commanding the
Buenos Ayrean squadron before Monte Video," will never run the double
risk of being sunk by an English broadside, or of being hung as a
traitor by resisting the orders of his own Government, if he is
convinced that his Government means to be obeyed, and the moment that
he strikes his flag, Oribe will have nothing left but to make the best
terms for himself and his army. He draws all his provisions from the
fleet, and must retire when his supplies are cut off.
Within the last few days information has been received from Buenos
Ayres strongly confirmatory of some of the views stated above.
According to letters from that city of the 7th February, the
Governments of Brazil and Paraguay have formed a treaty offensive and
defensive, in which they stipulate for the freedom of the rivers
flowing through the territories of both. This is a movement of the
greatest commercial as well as political importance, and if the
independence of Monte Video is preserved, there can be no doubt that
it will join this league, and that the line of communication with the
interior of South America up the River Uruguay will be kept open, even
if General Rosas should persist in his illegal anti-social policy of
closing the Parana against foreign nations.