rejoined that in case of an attack without a previous declaration of war, the naval forces of their respective governments would not remain indifferent before such a violation of all international law.

On the 3rd December Earl Russell received from Mr. Lettsom a despatch dated Monte Video, October 21, 1864, transmitting a letter from Baron de Tamandaré, containing pretensions which appeared to him, in every point of view, to be inadmissible; inadmissible as applicable to the present question; inadmissible as tending to establish a precedent from which complications cannot fail to arise; and inadmissible from being opposed to the first principles of established law. The letter was dated from on board the sloop Nitheroy, Buenos Ayres, October 11, 1864, and was to the following effect:

"Your Excellency is perfectly well informed concerning the progress of the special mission which my august Sovereign was pleased to direct to the Government of the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay, in order to make a last amicable appeal to that Government, with the view to obtain from it the guarantees necessary to the life, the honour, and the property of the Brazilians resident in that state, who were victims to constant outrages and insults, even from the very authorities who were bound to protect them. The documents concerning this frustrated negotiation make evident the good faith and moderation of my Government and the efforts made by the Brazilian Envoy, in cooperation with the Minister of her Britannic Majesty and with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Confederation, for the purpose of establishing peace, under which these external complications might be of easy solution. All was useless in the face of the obstinacy of the Oriental Government, and the Brazilian Envoy withdrew, after his ultimatum had been rejected, giving me instructions to proceed at once to make reprisals by sea, until such time as the Imperial army should cross the frontier to make them likewise by land.

"My Government, having regard for the establishments of neutrals, the most valuable and important of those located in the country, and not wishing to alarm trade, or to injure the pacific national citizen or foreigner engaged in industrial pursuits or in turning to account his

activity, conceived that it should cause the effect of the reprisals to fall upon that which immediately affected the Government, in order to oblige it, by means of this pressure, to give us the satisfaction demanded. To this end I received orders to exact that the war-steamer General Artigas should remain stationary in the port of Monte Video, which President Aguirre promptly agreed to, and likewise the chartered steamer Villa del Salto, which was at Paysandu. The Government of Monte Video refusing to adopt in respect of this vessel the same determination as it had wisely taken in the case of the other, your Excellency is already aware of what was the result of the attempt made to provoke us into a collision with the Argentine Confederation and the Republic of Paraguay.

"Notwithstanding the perfidiousness attached to this proceeding, I did not hesitate to give the service of the ships of war under my orders in conveying to Monte Video the Secretary of General Flores, who presented himself as deputed by the latter in a fresh negotiation of peace, entered upon by General Urquiza, because this was in the interest of the tranquillity of the Republic, which is a necessity, and of paramount expediency for all the foreigners who inhabit it, and especially for the Brazilians, by reason of their great number and the nearness of the two states.

"Firm in its determination, and stimulated by the later proceeding of the Government of Monte Video, the Imperial Government resolved that our army should take possession of the forces dependent upon that Government which still holds the towns to the north of the Rio Negro, and should keep them as reprisals until we obtained the guarantees and satisfaction which we have in vain demanded to the present time with manifest denegation of justice. To this end the squadron under my command is to co-operate with the said army, and to use all its exertions in order that those garrisons may not receive succours from Monte Video, nor move by way of the river from the points at which they are at present. In making this communication to your Excellency with all frankness and sincerity, I have for my object to solicit of your Excellency to issue the necessary orders that the vessels engaged in the navigation of these rivers under the flag of your nation, whether sailing-vessels or steamers,

shall refuse to receive troops or munitions of war to convey them from one point to another, thus maintaining the perfect neutrality it behoves them to observe at the present juncture. I shall thus be relieved from fulfilling the painful but imperative duty of exercising a constant vigilance over them, and to seize the contraband of war if found on board, assuring your Excellency in the meanwhile that the vessels engaged exclusively in their legitimate operations will always receive every support and assistance from the Brazilian naval forces.

"I am convinced, M. le Ministre, that your Excellency, estimating the just value of the intention that guides me on the present occasion, which is not to cause the slightest difficulty to the free navigation of the rivers, nor to awaken groundless fears in commerce, in so far as this may be reconciled with the duties I have to perform, will not hesitate to concur in the measure which I request above, in order to obviate the abuses spoken of."

To which note Mr. Lettsom answered as follows on the 18th October 1864 :

"I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt this day of your Excellency's communication of the 11th instant, marked circular confidential, wherein your Excellency lays before me a statement of the conduct which the Imperial Government purposes pursuing with reference to the lamentable struggle which for so many months has been maintained in this country, and wherein your Excellency further addresses to me the request that I should give directions to the masters of British merchantvessels navigating these waters not to receive on board troops and munitions of war, to carry them from one point to another, thus maintaining the perfect neutrality which it becomes them to observe in the present juncture.

"It is not necessary for me to enter into detail upon the matters touched upon in the first portion of your Excellency's communica

tion.

"In the concluding portion of that communication your Excellency speaks of the painful duty imposed upon your Excellency of exercising a constant vigilance over British merchantvessels, with the view of detaining and searching them, and of seizing what your Excellency terms the contraband of war that may be found on board those vessels.

"In reply to this statement, I have the honour to acquaint your Excellency that, in the view which I take of the matter, no question of maintenance of neutrality can, with propriety, be mooted on this occasion.

"There are not any belligerent parties concerned in the strife now in progress here, inasmuch as the military chief who has thought proper to raise the standard of revolt against the Government of his country cannot be looked upon by me in the character of a belligerent. He is simply a rebel. There being no belligerents, there are no neutrals.

"Moreover, in the absence not only of a declaration of war between Brazil and the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay, but even of the notification of a blockade of its ports, made with the prescribed formalities, I cannot admit that the expression employed by your Excellency, namely, contraband of war,' can with propriety be applied to any goods which English merchant-vessels are carrying in the course of their legitimate traffic, and I can, as a consequence, as little recognize the validity of the right now claimed by the Government of Brazil, upon the vague plea of carrying out reprisals, to detain, search, and possibly even seize, British merchant-vessels navigating the waters of this Republic upon the faith of solemn treaties-waters which are essentially free, waters over which the empire of Brazil exercises no sway whatever.

"I have, in conclusion, the honour to observe, with reference to your Excellency's intimation as to the military and naval operations contemplated by Brazil against the commercial towns to the north of the Rio Negro, that should those operations prove the cause of damage to the British subjects residing in those places, it will remain for Her Majesty's Government to determine to what extent the Brazilian Government will be held answerable for those damages."

On the same 3rd Dec. Earl Russell received from Mr. Lettsom a despatch announcing the entry of a considerable force of Brazilian troops from the province of Rio Grande, and stating that the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian naval forces in the River Plate had notified to him the blockade of the ports of Paysandu and Salto in the Monte Videan Republic. On the same day Mr. Hammond received from Mr.

Lettsom some printed documents professing to state the real cause of the differences between Brazil and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. It appears from these papers that there was for a long time a concert on the part of the Brazilian population to invade the Argentine frontiers, which they called the "Oriental California ;" and that, moreover, a difficulty had existed from a very remote period as to the respective right of the Portuguese or Spaniards to the discovery of Rio de la Plata.

On the 24th December Earl Russell sent a despatch to Mr. Lettsom on the subject of his note of the 21st of October, regarding the Brazilian circular as to the measures proposed to be taken in connection with the hostile operations between Brazil and Monte Video, informing him that it was competent to the Brazilian Government, in order to obtain justice for wrongs inflicted upon its subjects, to have recourse to reprisals against the Republic of Uruguay; but that it was not competent to the Brazilian Government to stop, visit, or take any cargo whatever out of neutral vessels as a subsidiary means of accomplishing that end. This right of interfering with the commerce of the neutral is incident, and incident only, to a state of war; and Mr. Lettsom was so far right in the position which he assumed in his reply to Baron Tamandaré.

On the other hand, if the Brazilian Government had declared war with Monte Video, and at the same time notified their intention of not declaring a blockade, but of simply preventing neutrals from carrying contraband of war to the enemy, it would have been competent to that Government to have so limited the exercise of its own belligerent rights. This was the course which Mr. Thornton supposed the Brazilian Government had actually taken; but reprisals in the usual limited sense, and war, are not the same: the former affects the party only against whom the reprisals are made; the latter affects a third party, the neutral, also. It was of course competent also for the Brazilian Government, in declaring war, to announce a blockade also in due form in the exercise of belligerent rights. Earl Russell desired Mr. Lettsom to ascertain and report to him by the first opportunity whether Brazilian sea and land forces were exercising a right of reprisals without war, or were acting under

orders to make war; and if making war, whether with or without a blockade; and if with a blockade, within what limits. And on the 29th December Earl Russell wrote to Mr. Lettsom and Mr. Thornton that Her Majesty's Government would expect that in the circumstances of the Brazilian blockade in the Plate, no British vessel would be detained or captured which had not previously received full and due notice of the existence of the blockade; and also that British vessels in the ports about to be blockaded would be allowed a fair and reasonable time to depart with their cargoes.

On the 29th January, 1865, Earl Russell received from Mr. Thornton a despatch, dated Buenos Ayres, December 9th, announcing that M. Paranhos, one of the most distinguished men of Brazil, and who had frequently been employed on missions to this country and the neighbouring Republics, arrived in Buenos Ayres on a special mission from his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, on the 2nd instant. The principal object of M. Paranhos' mission was the direction of the hostile measures which were being carried on against the Monte Videan Government. M. Paranhos was provided with the most ample instructions and powers, and although the Brazilian Government were determined to continue their hostilities with more energy than had previously been shown, they would still be extremely glad to make peace with the Monte Videan Government, provided they could obtain reasonable satisfaction for the grievances of which they complain. M. Paranhos was, however, of opinion that it would be impossible to bring the Monte Videan Government to terms, without a strong demonstration of force, and it was evident that he proposed, after the fall of Paysandu, which was supposed to be imminent, that as large a force as possible, both of Brazilians and of those under the orders of General Flores, should be conveyed to the neighbourhood of Monte Video principally on board Brazilian vessels of war, for the purpose of acting against that capital. A part of M. Paranhos' instructions was to endeavour to induce the Argentine Government to join that of Brazil, in active hostilities against Monte Video.

On the 29th January, Earl Russell received from Mr. Thornton a despatch dated Decem

ques de Olinda, on the 13th November. In this grave situation my Government is desirous that the Government of her Majesty may know at once what are the objects and what are the forms and means with which Paraguay intends to carry on the war to which the necessity of her defence compels her.

"Paraguay owes and wishes to pay this proof of her respect for the opinion of the great nations which favour her with their friendship, and she flatters herself that the soundness of her views and the justice of the motives which place arms in her hands will bring to her side the sympathies which the civilization of Europe has always given to the nations which contend for its benefits. The principal and most immediate object of Paraguay, for the present, is to preserve the independence of the Banda Oriental, which is the bulwark of her territory, by compelling Brazil to quit that province. Its entire evacuation by the forces of Brazil will be the implicit reestablishment of peace, unless the result of their passage should be the creation of a Government which might take upon itself to deliver up the country more or less clandestinely, as it took place in 1821. For Paraguay to prevent Brazil from taking the Rio de la Plata as its southern frontier is only to preserve intact the free navigation of its affluents, the Paraná and the Paraguay, because that freedom is essential to the life of Paraguay as an independent State and as a civilized nation. If the past reclusion of Paraguay, by which she escaped the general anarchy, and gained the strength which now serves to defend her, if this lends an argument to her adversaries against the views of her present policy, she may reply that she fights for her present and her future, not for her past. A proof of this is that all the views which she now defends have received the sanction of the positive law of nations, and the repeated and constant support of civilized Europe, by the great diplomatic and military acts of which the Rio de la Plata has been the theatre in this century, and whose object and result has been to secure Oriental independence.

"The views which actuate the policy of Brazil in its present conflicts with the Republics of the Plata are entirely opposite. History shows that its traditional endeavours have

always been to annex to its territory the Oriental countries of the rivers Paraguay, Paraná, and Plata. Four times in the present century, when the Banda Oriental of Uruguay was in a state of anarchy, Brazil has come forward with its army, requiring two contradictory things, either that the Government, almost destroyed, should give it satisfaction, or that the country should accept the Government of Brazil as its own, to be ruled by it, while the national Government was failing or almost defunct. At present, instead of its own Government, it offers an Oriental Government of Brazilian creation, in order to conciliate the acquisition of its second object with respect to the treaties which protect the Oriental independence. This desire of Brazil for territorial annexations does not derive its origin from exalted views, nor from reparations or from ephemeral wishes for vengeance more or less legitimate, nor from antagonism of race or of system of government, but from the force of necessity, it must be admitted, which interests its population in the immigration of people of white race, in the maintenance of its present dimensions, and even in the subsistence of the people.

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Although these facts are not hidden from the sagacity of Europe, I do not think it inexpedient to recall them to your Excellency's observation on this occasion and in this place. Brazil dissembles its territorial aspirations, pointing to the dimensions of its territory, which is equal to a quarter of North America. But this is a specious argument. It is not a question of the magnitude but of the quality of the country. Like Africa, almost all lying in the torrid zone, it is only habitable by Africans, whom it cannot now introduce, because of the international treaties which protect the freedom of the black man. Though bound to depend on the immigrations of races white and free, it its prevented from obtaining such for want of a temperate territory, since Brazil may be said to be the smallest and most deficient of the States of South America, if we consider that beyond the torrid zone she has no other provinces than San Pablo and San Pedro, adjoining the Republics of the Plata. And it is to acquire lands, temperate and habitable by white men, which she wants, that she aspires to annex those which divide it from the Plata, Paraná, and Paraguay.