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dictatorial powers for one month; that the three provinces of Coquimbo, Santiago, and Conception, should each have a separate legislature and government, and also be formed into a federal republic, to be represented in a new Congress, composed of deputies to be elected according to a new sysAfter long debating, the law was adopted by a very small majority, on 17th May; after which suicidal act the members separated.

The provincial assemblies which were convoked in consequence of the above law, agreed to recognise the powers conferred by it upon the Supreme Director, and also to submit to the authority of the future federal Congress, reserving to themselves, however, the power of reviewing and withholding their sanction from such laws of the Congress as involved the fundamental principles of government. The period fixed for holding the Federal Congress was suffered to pass without Freyre having convoked it; but having received an invitation from Bolivar to send plenipotentiaries to the Congress of Panama, he took that opportunity of ordering the elections to proceed, by a decree of 6th July. In that decree he arbitrarily prescribed the qualifications of both the electors and the elected, and fixed the representation at the rate of one deputy for every 5000 inhabitants.

But the troubles of Chili were not yet at an end. Certain duties which Government had imposed upon commerce, excited an extraordinary ferment at Valparaiso, where, in an assembly of the people, all the acts of the Director were declared to be void and null; and, in the provincial Congress of Santiago, where the Director was residing, opposition rose to an extraordinary height, and was conducted with so much violence, that he, affecting to be afraid of his personal safety, mounted his horse, and,

at the head of his body guard, sallied out of the city. He was followed by his friends; and having collected in the environs a considerable body of troops, he re-entered the city at their head, and immediately dissolved the Congress, and appointed a new ministry. The better to secure his power against future hazards, he arrested and banished from the territory a number of inimical individuals. Those members of the legislature who were public functionaries, he treated with more lenity, having only banished them to their estates, after supplying their immediate necessities.

By this act of vigour the President restored at least order and tranquillity to the state, while he crushed its liberties; and during the remainder of the year, he occupied himself in fitting out an expedition for the invasion and conquest of the Chiloe islands.

We now come to treat of the affairs of the Argentine republic, which had, in its progress, reached a doubly interesting crisis-at once conspicuous and hazardous. An end was put to the dissensions which had so long agitated the interior provinces; and these, with the exception of the Upper Peruvian ones, had formally announced their adhesion to the federal government established at Buenos Ayres. By the Constitution, which had been at length promulgated and agreed to, each province preserved its own peculiar institutions; and the government of Buenos Ayres was charged with the executive powers of the federation, so far as respected the enforcement of the acts of Congress and the external relations of the State, and also the negotiation of treaties; but with regard to the national legislative power, Buenos Ayres was placed upon an equality with the other states.

The first National Congress assembled at Buenos Ayres, and after being

duly installed on 25th January, it passed a law, declaring itself legisla

tive and constituent.

The Buenos Ayres government was then administered by Don Juan Gregory de las Heras, who, in virtue of his constitutional powers, entered, in the name of the Federation, upon a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation, with Great Britain, upon the principles of reciprocity. The British plenipotentiary was Mr Woodbine Parish, our consul-general at Buenos Ayres. As the instructions given to Mr Parish were most liberal towards the new republic, and as, on the other hand, the acknowledgment by Britain of its independence, (an acknowledgment which the treaty implied,) was to the republic of paramount consequence, the negotiation was very speedily concluded to the satisfaction of both parties. The treaty agreed upon was approved of by Congress without opposition; and the event was celebrated with great rejoicings.

But while it thus secured a powerful friend, the republic, by urging its just pretensions, was about to call into action a most dangerous enemy. The Emperor of Brazil still continued to occupy Monte Video and the whole of the Banda Oriental, which had formed part of the former Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, and of the republic which succeeded, until 1816 and 1817, when the Portuguese general, Lecor, forcibly and fraudulently acquired possession of them, in name of his sovereign. The republic demanded of the Emperor that the whole Banda Oriental should be evacuated by his troops; but he, founding on an act passed by a sham Congress of a few interested individuals, pretending to represent the inhabitants of the district, by which act the district was declared to be incorporated with Portugal and Brazil; and pleading also, strange to say, the

sovereignty of the people-refused to comply with the demand. To give a still better colour, however, to his injustice, he, by the advice of his counsellors, caused detachments of his troops to traverse the country with registers, and employ the influence which attaches to an armed force, in persuading the inhabitants to subscribe their names to an engagement to support the imperial authority. Some names were thus obtained; but many were fraudulently adhibited; and among these there were some altogether spurious and imaginary.

The Monte-Videons were, in point of fact, extremely dissatisfied with their political condition; and even the Cabildo of the place, partaking largely of the general feeling, forwarded repeated remonstrances to the Emperor against his continued occupation of the place; but the only answer they received, was an order by General Lecor deposing them from their office. Many of them, in consequence, repaired to Buenos Ayres, and solicited for their country the aid of that government.

The popular discontent in MonteVideo at length extended itself to the troops there stationed, who were natives of the province. Among them was Colonel Ribiera, one of Artigas old officers, but who latterly had been attached to the Brazilian service. About the beginning of May, this officer, with the regiment which he commanded, sallied out of the town, and throwing himself into the province of Entre Rios, called upon the inhabitants to take up arms to recover their liberties. He was soon joined by General Llavalleja, with eighty of the most considerable inhabitants; and, in a short time, the whole of the old partisans of Artigas flocked to his standard.

On 14th June, a number of the inhabitants of the disputed territory assembled at Florida, in the department of

Saint Joseph, and established a provisional government, at the head of which was Don M. Calleros, who, after convoking a provincial legislature, repaired to Buenos Ayres in the character of a deputy to the Federal Congress, and demanded for the Banda Oriental the national protection.

The news of this insurrection excited great alarm at Rio Janeiro, where a squadron of three vessels of war, and some transports, having on board 1800 troops, including a German regiment, was instantly dispatched to relieve Monte Video, the garrison of which was greatly reduced by desertion. It had been seriously menaced by Ribiera; but he, after capturing Maldonado, thought proper to retire into the interior.

The Government of Buenos Ayres, under existing circumstances, thought it prudent, as a measure of precaution, to cause the line of the Uruguay to be fortified, and reassembled the whole of its forces.

About this time the Brazilian squadron, commanded by Admiral Lobo, after having reinforced Monte Video, appeared within sight of Buenos Ayres. Lobo demanded from the Government an explanation of its conduct, alleging that it had excited the insurrection in the Banda Oriental. The Government denied the imputation, but refused to give a categorical answer to the demand, on the pretext that Lobo was not authorised to enter upon negotiations; upon which his squadron retired from Buenos Ayres, and commenced a blockade of the river.

After having communicated with the whole of the provinces, the Federal Congress, on 25th October, voted an important decree, incorporating the Banda Oriental with the Argentine Republic. This decree, which was all but equivalent to a declaration of war against Brazil, inspired the people with patriotic enthusiasm ; and, amid the general tumult of joy, the

VOL. XVIII. PART I.

rabble proceeded to the house of the Brazilian Consul, to whom they threatened such outrages, that, to secure his personal safety, he retired to Monte Video. The decree of the Congress was formally notified by the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Court of Brazil.

The Congress, before it closed its sittings, distinguished itself for a liberality superior to that of other new American states, by decreeing a right to all to worship the Deity according to the dictates of their own consciences. It also authorised the sending of a minister to the Congress of Panama.

We shall now direct our attention to Brazil, the equivocal character of whose Emperor inspired serious apprehensions both in his own subjects and the neighbouring states. He had deigned to bestow, during his father's lifetime, without any right, legitimate or rational, to do so that we can imagine, a constitutional government upon the Brazilians; but he had subsequently shown that when the constitution did not work according to his own mind, he valued it no more than so much blank paper; and that though he had no objection to constitutional forms, he wished these to be so far delusive, as to permit him, in effect, to govern despotically. All this was sufficiently apparent; but farther, he was suspected by the neighbouring states as irrevocably attached to the principles of legitimacy, and of a design to make Brazil a fulcrum for such machinery as the Holy Alliance might choose to employ to reduce the whole of South America to its former vassalage. The Emperor, however, was by no means deficient in either talent or energy; his government, though arbitrary, was mild and enlightened; and under his government Brazil made astonishing progress.

An event occurred in the month of May, well calculated to confirm the

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sincerity of the suspicions entertained of the Emperor's attachment even to the forms of a constitution; but which his Majesty contrived to turn to an excellent account. At a meeting of the general council of three towns in the province of Saint Paul's, it was agreed to address his Majesty, imploring him to abolish the Constitution, and to assume absolute power. The Emperor, in his answer, rebuked the sentiments thus conveyed to him, and expressed his unalterable attachment to the Constitution. At the same time, he suspended from his functions the chief magistrate of the town of Tambate, who had been instrumental in procuring the address, and directed him to repair to the capital to give an account of his conduct.

In his dispute with the Argentine republic, the Emperor had occasion to regret the retirement from his service of Lord Cochrane, who had returned to England, for reasons never yet explained, in the Piranga, a Brazilian frigate.

On 17th July, Sir Charles Stewart, as Portuguese plenipotentiary, arrived from Lisbon at Rio Janeiro, empowered to enter into a treaty for the recognition of Brazilian independence. After a number of conferences, a treaty was definitively arranged, by which Portugal admitted the independence of Brazil, and conceded to Don Pedro and his successors the title of Emperor, while the same title, from courtesy, was allowed by Brazil to the King of Portugal during his lifetime; but it was remarked at the time as extraordinary that no provision was made in the treaty for the succession to the crown of Portugal, upon the death of King John. Don Pedro was the undoubted heir to that crown; and were he to succeed according to law, the two countries would again be united as formerly under the same govern

ment, though the treaty was ostensibly designed perpetually to dissever them; in which event the one would be converted into a dependency of the other.

The merit was at this time conceded to Sir Charles Stewart, by very common consent, of having persuaded the Emperor to direct the evacuation by his troops of the Upper Peruvian province of Chiquitos; and it was also believed that he had exerted himself, though in vain, to prevent the rupture between the Emperor and the Argentine republic.

Sir Charles Stewart was also invested by the British Cabinet with full powers as its ambassador to the Brazilian Court; in which capacity he negotiated two treaties between the two states. The first contained a recognition by Britain of the independence of Brazil and the imperial dignity in the person of Don Pedro and his successors; and certain mutual stipulations with regard to trade, upon the principle of reciprocity, for the freedom of religious worship by the subjects of either state within that of the other, and for placing each state, in relation to the other, upon the footing of the most favoured nations. The se cond treaty stipulated for the abolition of the slave-trade, on the part of the Brazilians, at the expiry of four years from the ratification of the treaty, and confined the trade, in the interval, to certain specified limits. The treaties having been transmitted to England, our Government took exception to some of the articles, and declined ratifying them until they had undergone certain alterations.

In the course of the summer, the Emperor received an invitation from Bolivar to become a party to the Congress at Panama, thereby to strengthen the ties which bound together, in one common destiny, the new states of America, and secure their future in

dependence. The Emperor, by the advice of his council, decided to send a minister to the Congress, but only as a spectator and friendly adviser.

In addition to the reinforcements sent by him to Monte Video, the Emperor commenced preparing a new expedition for the Banda Oriental; and also issued an ordinance, provisionally suspending within that territory every law which guaranteed the liberty of the subject, and subjecting the insurgents to the rigours of military law. This ordinance was more calculated to disgust his Brazilian subjects than to intimidate those against whom it was directed.

On receiving intelligence of the decree of the Congress at Buenos Ayres, incorporating the Banda Oriental with the Argentine republic, the Emperor did not venture at once upon a declaration of war, but published a manifesto, in which he attempted to justify his claim to the disputed territory, and recapitulated the injuries and insults which he had endured from the Government at Buenos Ayres. That Government shortly afterwards replied to his by a counter-manifesto.

Hayti, in the course of this year, purchased from the French monarch the acknowledgment of its independence; and, by the purchase, tarnished the glory it had acquired by having, through the persevering valour of its citizens, virtually emancipated itself. The process by which this event was brought about, was not a little refined, elaborate, and curious.

An ordinance by the French king, of date 17th April, was secretly prepared, by which his Majesty (expressing himself as if he had been both the actual and legitimate sovereign of Hayti), decreed, 1st, That its ports should be open to the trade of all nations; and that the duties levied in its ports upon all foreign merchandise

should be equal, without any distinc tion of national flags, but with this exception, that the duties upon French ships and merchandise should be one half less than those levied on others. 2d, That the inhabitants of the French part of Hayti should pay into the French treasury, by five equal and yearly instalments, the first being pay. able on 31st December 1825, the sum of 150 millions of francs, for the indemnification of the ancient colonists. 3d, Under the above conditions, the acknowledgment of the complete independence of the Haytian government. The absurdity of the French king decreeing conditions which he could not enforce, and which were properly subjects of negotiation, is abundantly manifest; but it has to be considered as an attempt to reconcile a practical measure, dictated by common sense, with the ineffably sublime doctrines of the Holy Alliance.

M. the Baron de Mackau, captain of the Circe frigate, was charged to convey the above ordinance, and present it to the Haytian government. The Circe left Rochefort on 4th May, and having been joined by other vessels on the Martinique and other stations, he arrived at Port au Prince on 3d July, where he was received with great ceremony. The President, Boyer, wrote him that he, in name of the people of Hayti, accepted the Royal ordinance; and on 11th July, it was solemnly accepted, and all its conditions sanctioned by a full meeting of the Senate. After many brilliant fetes given to him, the French envoy returned to France, having on board with him three Haytian commissioners, empowered to ratify the conditions of the ordinance.

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Upon the return of M. de Mackau, commission was instituted for investigating the claims of the ancient colonists. And a treaty was entered into with the Haytian commissioners, both explanatory and confirmatory of

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