sion, when the Commissioners of North America came to this city, Señor Tagle gave a similar exposition to Mr. Rodney.

ON the 12th May this year, you reminded me, in a confidential letter, of the request made by you to Señor Rivadavia, while he yet filled the office of Minister Secretary of the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of the Government, to be furnished with a slight sketch of the origin, progress, present state and form of government of this country, with a summary of its revenues and military strength; adding, that it would be desirable that that sketch, which you charged me to undertake, should also comprise all the points concerning which it may seem desirable that your Government, for whose inspection you solicited it, should be informed.

Permit me, Sir, to assure you, that I considered such a request, conveyed to me, after having been made to Señor Rivadavia, as conferring on me a distinguished honour, which could not fail to flatter me in the highest degree; inasmuch as it afforded me an opportunity (of which, since your arrival in this country, I had been very desirous,) to prove to you, in a suitable manner, the anxiety with which I waited to receive your orders, and the wish which animated me to render you service.

I shall, however, be extremely sorry, if, after having manifested such good-will and sentiments of regard for you, I should not have the good fortune to please you, by duly fulfilling the objects which gave rise to this communication; but I shall, at least, have the satisfaction to know that your indulgence will attribute whatever defect may be perceptible, not to intention or negligence, but rather to the difficulties with which the subject is enveloped, and to the obstacles which my own political situation must unavoidably throw in

my way.

I consider you as informed of the causes which produced the revolution in the provinces of Rio de la Plata in 1810; the period from which may be dated the independence, de facto, in which they now stand with regard to their ancient mother-country. Now, although it must be admitted, that much was done to occasion this

revolution, as well as to strengthen it afterwards, by the dissensions in the reigning house of Spain, between father, mother, and son; by the imprisonment of them all at Valençay; by the substitution of the Napoleon dynasty; by the anarchy which Spaniards of the first consideration introduced into our States; by the acts of inconsistency and demoralization proceeding from the Junta of Seville, the Central Junta, the Regency of Spain and the Indies, and the Cortes of Cadiz, which were the chief authorities subsequent to the captivity of the King-I say, allowing that each and all of these circumstances had an undeniable influence in the separation which the provinces of Rio de la Plata effected from the ancient mother-country, and maintained in despite of her, it will, nevertheless, not be amiss here to remark, that these events cannot rationally be considered as having been the principal causes of the separation; but should only be viewed as casual circumstances, that took place before and after this revolution, which, in truth, afforded means, or contributed to what was yet wanting, to enable those States to shake off a heavy yoke, and to place themselves in the situation which had become indispensably necessary for them.

The enemies of my country have sometimes found pleasure in asserting that nothing was discernible in that revolution but an act of insubor

dination and rebellion, or, more properly speaking, of ingratitude; thinking, perhaps, that it would have been better, if, before we constituted ourselves guardians of our own interests, we had followed the example of our ancestors in the succession war, and awaited the fate of the mother-country, to obey that authority which should possess itself of the sovereign power. Such was the language used to these provinces by way of exhortation, on the arrival at Buenos Ayres of an envoy from Bonaparte, claiming the recognition of Joseph as King of Spanish America, but used without reflecting that the operative cause of the separation was so far from emanating substantially from the dangerous circumstances to which Spain was reduced, (which must have been the case to render the term ungrateful applicable to us,) that, in the two years preceding 1810, during which Spain experienced not a few misfortunes, in every emergency she received pecuniary subsidies from all quarters of America, and considerable donations, given without any other object than to promote her deliverance ; although, on the part of the provinces of Rio de la Plata, at the risk of compromising the character of Colonies of Spain, which, at that time, they still retained.

The enemies of my country have indeed often been eminently unjust: they have not chosen to

concede to us the capacity of understanding either how impossible it was for Spain, situated as she was, to meliorate the condition of our country, or that it was only by our own efforts that we could extricate ourselves from the ignorance and the abject state in which Spain kept us, in conformity with her principles, and her determination to hold us in subjection by force. Permit me, Sir, briefly to remind you of the declaration of the Central Junta of Spain in 1809, by which the States of America were recognised as integral parts of the monarchy, and with the same privileges as the States of the Peninsula; but, in order to show you that, so far from any amendment following this solemn declaration in regard to our government, to our revenues, or to our institutions, we remained in the same state of abandonment as formerly, and as much as ever at the mercy of men who had learned the art of oppressing and vexing the States of the nation in the school of Godoy, it will only be necessary to mention that the first Viceroy sent by the Central Junta to the Provinces of Rio de la Plata, soon after his arrival declared that he had no power to depart, even in a single instance, from the laws of the Indies. Recollect, also, the manner in which this same Viceroy expressed himself on opening a free commerce to the British nation, when he said, that nothing but the most urgent necessity could