Produced by Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) 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.