ment here withdrew yesterday the exequatur of the Brazilian Const General, and that this gentleman has left for Buenos Ayres, to await there the orders of his Government. I am unable to state for certain why the Oriental Government have taken this step at the present moment, as no further aggres sions have been committed since the affair of the Villa del Salto, which circumstance led to the Brazilian Minister having his passports sent to him on the 30th August. News had, however, just been received by the Government that the arms over the Brazilian Vice-Consulate at Salto had been pulled down on the night of the 31st August, and as it would be inconvenient that there should be an agent of the Empire here to complain of this indignity, the Brazilian Consul-General had his exequatur withdrawn without delay. This, at least, I conceive to be the true explanation of the measure adopted. I have, &c., Earl Russell. W. G. LETTSOM. Señor Bareiro to Earl Russell.—(Received October 31.) October 27, 1864. In compliance with the order of my Government I have the honour to address your Excellency, with the object of communicating some explanations upon the causes which have just now brought the relations between Paraguay and Brazil into a state which approaches war, and of laying before your Excellency the reasons which lead Paraguay to expect that the valuable sympathies of England will be given to her part in case the war should unhappily break out. As the immediate antecedents of the conflict comprehend at the same time others of a more general and permanent nature, I consider it to be my duty to submit both of these, however briefly, to the consideration of your Excellency. Paraguay having well-founded and sufficient reasons to consider the balance which protects the independence of the less-extended States of the Plata as menaced by the attitude which Brazil has lately assumed in regard to Monte Video, my Government has thought it to be essential to the defence of the country under its rule to make known in a respectful and friendly manner to Brazil, as it has done by its note of the 30th of August last, "that the Government of the Republic of Paraguay will consider any occupa tion of the Oriental territory by the Imperial forces, for the reasons declared in the ultimatum of the 4th of this month (August) to be injurious ('attentatorio ') to the balance of the States of the Plata, which concerns the Republic of Paraguay as being the guarantee of her safety, her peace, and her welfare; and that it most solemnly protests against such act, rejecting at the same time all responsibility for the results of the present declaration.” Brazil having replied, through her Minister in Asuncion, " that no consideration would induce her to refrain from the fulfilment of the sacred mission" which she has assumed in the Banda Oriental of the Plata, my Government, strengthening its former protest, found itself obliged to add, on the 3rd of September, " that it will be its painful duty to carry its protests into effect, whenever the acts alluded to may confirm" this new assertion of the Brazilian Minister. As the anticipated acts of aggression were soon carried into effect, according to the last intelligence from the Plata, it is to be presumed that hostilities have begun or will begin shortly. The strong interest felt by Paraguay that her acts may be well appreciated by the great Powers of Europe, and more especially by that of Her Britannic Majesty, and the desire that her interest in this conflict with Brazil may be seen from the point of view in which they coincide entirely with those of the commerce of Europe in America, have given rise to these explanations of good and sincere friendship, which I have the honour to submit to your Excellency by the especial command of my Government. Paraguay is perhaps the only American State which has received reproaches from her neighbours for her aversion to revolutions and for her steadfast attachment to external peace. In departing now from this line of conduct she does not yield to suggestions of agitation from without, since, though solicited by Monte Video to act in common with her towards Brazil, she has not thought it her duty to accede to this, but has determined to work by her own impulses and for her own interests, as acting in virtue of the liberty which she reserves entirely to herself. The causes of the conflict, my Lord, into which Paraguay feels herself driven, are general and permanent, and it is on this side that she wishes to submit them to the consideration and to recommend them to the influence which liberal Europe may exercise in the maintenance of peace, which interests every one, by the benign action of its counsels addressed to those who abuse the relative superiority of their strength. The conflict does not arise from the difference in the form of government, as Brazil would perhaps endeavour to persuade the monarchical Governments of Europe to believe in order to gain their sympathies. Before a Republic existed in America, Portugal and Spain were already divided by the same interests as those which now divide the American Governments, which have succeeded them in the dominion of both shores of the Plata. These interests are no other than territorial interests, nd although it may seem strange that Brazil should aspire to augment her vast soil at the expense of States of small territory, Europe has just witnessed an example of such aberration in the fate which two great Powers have inflicted on Denmark. And as the territory of the conflict between Paraguay and Brazil is a land of rivers, the commerce and navigation of Europe are compromised by it equa with those of interior or inland American territories. This, my Lord, is the living and sensitive side of the question, by virtue of which it deserves all the attention of the maritime and commercial States of Europe. Rio de Janeiro, like other American capitals on the Atlantic, is inclined to keep for its own advantage the benefits of the monopoly which such capitals exercised for the profit of Portugal and Spain when they directed colonies belonging to those States. Obtaining afterwards the liberty of commerce with Europe, they endeavoured to apply it to their exclusive benefit by constituting themselves, as towards the interior regions of America, the indispensable and necessary organs of their intercourse with manufacturing and trading Europe. Paraguay, notwithstanding her political independence, would, by her geographical position, turn out to be the victim of this state of things, which, by its retrograde effects, would be equivalent to the old colonial rule which was destroyed for the good of the general interests of the two worlds. And this state of things, my Lord, would be realized on the day when the Oriental State of La Plata, the key to the navigation of the rivers falling into the Plata, should come, directly or indirectly, openly or clandestinely, into the hands of Brazil, and of the Americans, who connive at its policy in the Plata. Europe would suffer equally from it in the development of its commerce, because two-thirds of South America are in the same case as Paraguay. When liberal Europe by its sympathies cooperated in the emancipation of these countries for the advantage of all the world, it was not in order that some privileged places on the coast should alone be accessible to free trade, but also the whole vast field of the natural riches which that part of the New World contains in its interior regions, accessible solely through the great rivers which Brazil and some other capitals of that coast would aspire to monopolize to the prejudice of the rest of America, and of direct trade between the two Continents. England and France have always considered the independence and integrity of the Oriental State of Uruguay to be a guarantee of their free trade with the countries situated in the interior of South America, and it is well known that this consideration led to the idea of making the Oriental State independent of Brazil and of Buenos Ayres, which State was, in 1826, an object of contention between the two countries, which would now perhaps be satisfied with dividing between them what one of them could not at that period take possession of to the exclusion of the other. At the present time Paraguay does no more than appeal, for herself and for the countries which are in the same condition and in solidarity with herself, to that same influence which has been used by the Governments of England and France for the advantage of all, in more than one occasion like the present. A policy whose sole object is to preserve intact and continually augment the liberty of living in close association with Europe cannot but have the sympathies of a Government so loyal and generous as that of Her Britannic Majesty. At a time when Brazil, notwithstanding its monarchical forms, appeals to the Monroe doctrine, ostensibly in favour of American Republics, which would not perhaps desire to observe it for themselves, it is natural that Paraguay should seek, in the legitimate and civilized influence of England, a guarantee against the absorptions of certain American Powers, whose continental patriotism seems to consist in doing, on their own account and for their own advantage, the same thing which they accuse the pretended ambition of Europe of doing. Although quite ready to give the Government of your Excellency all the explanations you may think proper to require of me relative to the question which is the object of this note, I flatter myself, my Lord, that those which I have given above will suffice to convince your Excellency of the spirit of justice, of moderation, and of respect for the right of others and of her own, with which Paraguay is acting in this difficult case touching Brazil. I take, &c., Earl Russell, CANDIDO BAREIRO. Earl Russell to Señor Bareiro. SIR, Foreign Office, November 2, 1864. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 27th ultimo, upon the subject of the existing differences between Paraguay and Brazil, and the causes which have led to them; and in thanking you for your communication I have to state to you that Her Majesty's Government regret this state of things, and trust that some means may be found by which these disputes may be settled without an appeal to force. In the mean time Her Majesty's Government must reserve their opinion upon this difficult question. You are of course aware that in case of the breaking out of war, certain duties are incumbent upon Her Majesty's Government towards belligerents which will be scrupulously observed on the part of Her Majesty. Señor Bareiro. I am, &c., RUSSELL. Mr. Thornton to Earl Russell.—(Received November 6.) (Extract.) Assumption, September 5, 1861 I HAVE been requested by the Paraguayan Government to transmit to your Lordship copies of the inclosed correspondence between Señor Berges and Señor Vasquez Sagastume, Monte Videan Minister to the Republic, and between Señor Berges and M. Lima, the Brazilian Minister resident in this capital. This correspondence was communicated officially to myself and to my colleagues with a request that we would transmit it to our respective Governments, and the greater part of it has been published in the official newspapers issued in this capital. Señor Berges' note to Señor Sagastume of the 30th ultimo contains a tolerably correct detail of the negotiations which have been carried on between the Republics of Paraguay and of the Uruguay since the invasion of the latter by General Flores. It is pervaded by a tone of complaint that the services offered by Paraguay have not been accepted by the Monte Videan Government, nor her goodwill and efforts to assist them duly appreciated; and it concludes by stating that the Paraguayan Government do not think it expedient to intervene for the present in favour of the Republic of the Uruguay against Brazil by assembling their naval and land forces in the waters and on the frontiers of that Republic, as solicited by Señor Sagastume; but that as they consider it indispensable to the equilibrium of the River Plate States that the independence of the Republic should not be assailed, they reserve it to themselves to attain this result by independent action. In the same note Señor Berges states that Señor Lapido, formerly Monte Videan Minister at Assumption, had, in July 1863, proposed to negotiate a Treaty containing certain stipulations with regard to the Island of Martin Garcia which, as Señor Berges writes further on, would amount to a declaration of war against the Argentine Republic. In another part of the note his Excellency declares that in September last Señor Lapido determined to go to Monte Video, stating his intention to send thence to General Urquiza a confidential agent who should endeavour to raise Entre Rios against the Argentine Government, or induce it to assist the Monte Videan Government against General Flores Adverting to the correspondence with M. Lima, your Lordship will perceive that Señor Berges, in his note of the 30th ultimo, declares that the Paraguayan Government cannot see with indiffer |