much prosperity, and is likely to procure still greater advantages, for the British nation-the free exercise of the individual faculties! In the country of Rio de la Plata, it is of no moment whether a person be born a Briton, a Frenchman, or a German; whether he is of the torrid, of the temperate, or of the frigid zone; whether he has been educated under regular governments, or exposed to the misfortunes of absolute power: in that country, it is of no moment whether he is a Protestant, a Papist, or an Israelite; it is sufficient that he is a man-a moral, active and industrious man! The climate of the United Provinces, and the genius of its inhabitants, accommodate themselves perfectly to all human physiognomies and constitutions: as little do its rivers, its lands, and its productions, need the assistance of ancient or fashionable mythology, or any of the quackeries of political machinists to recommend them: and by the fundamental principles of the country every thing is conceded to a foreigner, even to placing him on an equality with the natives as to rights, without the exception of the least privilege, whatever may be the reason alleged for his deserving it. This also proves that the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata know how to be-Independent. APPENDIX. Letter concerning the Occupation of Monte Video, by the Portuguese and Brazilian Governments. DEAR SIR, Señor Don N. de N. London, 15th June, 1825. You impose on me a task of which I hardly know how to acquit myself. You wish to know the origin, the intervening circumstances, and the actual state of the quarrel concerning Monte Video, between the United provinces of Rio de la Plata, and Brazil and Portugal; and also that these observations should be accompanied with my private opinion, which you do not consider to be liable to mistrust, from the circumstances that you have pointed out to me. I will, therefore, proceed to comply with your desire. And first, I take leave to observe, how remarkable it is that, at the very time when the questions between America and Spain are closing in favour of the former country, the questions of a similar nature between Brazil *The following letter was addressed to a respectable person in London, by another residing in the same capital. and Portugal are announced to have terminated in a different manner. It is also remarkable that the British Cabinet is mentioned in both cases. But the most extraordinary thing of all is, that, by these means, the provinces of La Plata will continue involved in difficulties with a European power-a power which assuredly possesses resources as ample as Spain! But whether that will or will not happen-of which, by the way, there is no certainty; considering on the one hand, the general spirit of America, and the means of Portugal to retain that conquest; and on the other the European influence, which has extended itself to Brazil; and the mutual explanations on the transactions which have taken place between the Emperor and his father, Don Juan VI. :-it is necessary, at all events, that you and your friends should thoroughly know the merits of this case, which, perhaps, must hereafter be settled by the sword. Spain and Portugal-these two countries, which have domineered over the new world, without knowing themselves, or any one knowing for them, how they effected such a prodigy-carried on, for many years, various wars through disputes about the limits of Colombia, Peru, and Rio de la Plata. History is full of details on these matters; and records the conventions which terminated the quarrels in 1668, 1715, 1763, 1777, and latterly |