Observations on the Present State of the Affairs of the River PlateBaines, Thomas
History
Observations on the Present State of the Affairs of the River Plate
Baines, Thomas
Argentina; Argentina -- Foreign relations -- Uruguay; International relations; Uruguay; Uruguay -- Foreign relations -- Argentina
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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