The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-06 00:00:00

LA PLATA.

(Pan® the Daily b-ms.s.)
Since the affairs of the ltiver Plate btcome month
by month of more general interest, let as examine tho
Instorical sequence of events which produced the
last collision and struggle in tliut part of
the world. The affairs of that i;%er have

for many years engaged the attention of the public;
and of the English, French, and Brazilian cahinets,
yet such have been the contradictions in their conduct,
such the passions and interests they brave excited,
that great as arc our relations with tlh; Plate, then,
aro few in Europe who really comprehend what
is now in progress there • and none, wo venture
to think, can properly understand the resent ques-
tion, without casting, at least, a glance back to past

The Spanish colonies at the mouth of the Plate and
its confluent rivers formed, it will be recollected, a
Vice Royalty of the old Spanish Monarchy, the capital
of which was Buenos Ayres, then—that is in MO—
the largest, most important, and richt st city of South
America. The sanguinary war of their liberation
from Spain was followed by a no less cruel civil
war; and it terminated ill the breaking up of the
provinces of the Vice Royalty. Paraguay sought
peace and safety and material comfort in the
strictest isolation and the severest despotism
under Doctor Fitaseie ; to keep out from its own
troublesome countrymen it for a while renounced
the Society of the whole human race. Upper Peru
split off into the republic of Bolivia; and, to protect
itself front the brigandage, the disorders, asul the
demagogism of the Gaucho chief ARIICAS, the
Portuguese government of Rio occupied the Banda
Oriental. The other provinces, however, fell into a
state of anarchy and confusion, which for a few
years defied and prevented the establishment of any
form of government ; and the effects of which they
still feet.

On the independence of Brazil, Uruguay volun-
tarily became part of that empire, sent deputies to
its Constituent Assembly, and was incorporated in
it as its Cis-Platian province. The antipathies of the
Spanish and Portuguese races, with other causes,
however, soon produced discontent in this new ac-
quisition of Brazil; and, nisisted by Buenos Ayres, it
rebelled. Hence the war of 1826; the object of
which was whether Brazil or BUCIIOS Ayres should
have the Oriental state.

As in other CAA'S, danger produced union ; fur
during this war a Congress met and adopted a con-
stitution for the Argentine states. The federal form
of government was condemned; a unitarian frame-
work was preferred ; and a President of the Repul
lie, one and undivided, was appointed in the person of
lion BERNARDINE VADAVIA, then recently returned
from public service at this court; and whom
ability and virtues have yet to be rivalled iu Spanish
South America. The provinces of Cordova. Santa Fe,
Tuonman, and Rioja unfortunately repudiated this
constitution and pronounced in favour of federalism.
Meanwhile, both unitarians and federalists fought
against Brazil; but such was the predominating con-
fusion, that, whilst General Paz was triumphing over
the federalists of Cordova and Santa Fe, the uni-
tarian government under which he served had fallen
at Buenos Ayres.
In the midst of this anarchy, Mr. CANNlNG,—care-
ful of the new world he had called into existence
to adjust the balance of the old,—insisted on peace
between Brazil and Buenos Ayres; and it was at last
concluded by Lord PoNsuxnv in 1529, on the basis
of Uruguay becoming a republic independent alike
of both.

This war over, Don JUAN MANUEL DE 'IIOSAS
began to rise into importance as a federalist
ender. Those who preferred the unitarian form
of government were, generally speaking, the large
proprietors, the mercantile classes, the wealthy
and educated; whilst the adherents of federalism
were the gauchos, or graziers, the country people
and the ignorant ; all of whom regarded with
aversion the inhabitants of the maritime towns and
foreigners. After the unitarians had been expelled
from Buenos Ayres, a provisional arrangement was
entered into with the other provinces, confiding
to the government of Buenos Ayres the direction fur
all their foreign affairs. They now considered them-
selves a federal state, each having its separate go-
vcrnment ; and a Congress of all the provinces was to
assemble at Buenos Ayres for the purpose of forming
a definitive federal constitution.

This is the provisional state of things that Ito' s,
for his own purposes, has prolonged.
Our present limits do not permit us to trace the
consummate skill with which Ilos.►s for a while
yielded the reins of government, to acquire military
reputation in au expedition against the Indians of
the Colorado river; how he subsequently rehtsed the
government because congress did not give it die-
! tatorial powers ; and how ultimately he acquired all
he wanted by means of a military inburrectiou against
Governor Don JUAN lIALC

Rusts has since exercised a sway in Buenos .lyres
that will be best understood by a few traits of his
rule. Imitating monarchs of old, he kept a
dwarf, a mulatto jester called Crispin. On thelokes
of this wretched deformity frequently depended life
and death ; and dressed up as Governor, to hint were
often paid all the honours of the state. A club of
assassins, called the Mas-lloreas,--or literally More-
hanging —was established, who carried cudgelling real
death into every quarter; and when, the other day,
General 1/11441.: '4.1 declared war against such frenzied
atrocities, twenty-one political prisoners were taken
to Palermo, his country residence, and there shot in
presence of the Hierophant of Tyranny.
Internally, the reign of Rosss has, therefore, been
one of terror. Externally it has been one of con-
stant quarrels with foreign powers. French, Eng-
lish and Brazilian squadrons have rarely been out of
the Plate since he acquired domination at Buenos
Ayres, and each country in turn has been engaged
in a little war with him. Situate at the mouth of
the Plate he has appropriated to himself the whole
customs revenue (collected there) of the Confedera-
tion : he has endeavoured to divert all its trade to
his own, which is not the most convenient port of
the Plate ; he has left nothing undone to arrest the
material progress of the Upper States ; and, in viola-
tion of the peace of 182-3, he has tried to extend his
authority over the oriental side of the river. Elected
for federal purposes, he has never promoted the for-
mation of a federal constitution ; and by keepino.
public rights undefined by laws and rules, ho's
has been able to conduct the elections of
his own province in such a manner, that
those persons only that he nominates can be
chosen ; and that usually by a unanimity of votes.
Thus, confident in the servility of the legislative
corps of the province of Buenos Ayres, he has re-
peated to it the annual farce of resi,gnation • ' and as
often re-assumed the despotism which, in reality, ho
never laid down.
In such a state of things there can be no principle
of stability, and the upper provinces have at last be-
come weary of it. Starting from the point of 1829
at which Rusts arrested their progress, they
desire to frame the federal constitution that was
then decided on; and, accordingly, this year the
Governors of the provinces of Entre Rios and Corri-
entes, Unoutz t and Vftissuito, have announced their
acceptance of Itosss's resignation, so far as the direc-
tion of the foreign affairs of the Argentine Confede-
ration aro concerned. Thereupon Bets is has re-
tracted his resignation ; and they have appealed to
the sword.
In this strange whirligig of South American poli-
ties, the realities of the question at issue have,
it will by this time have been seen, changed.
The government of Ros is, who still calls hint-
, self a federalist, and who denounces all his oppo-
, nents as Savage Unitarians whom it is meritorious to
rid the world of has become the strongest and most
inexorable centralisation, the most stringent example
of unitarian despotism ever seen, whilst the men
held up by him to murder as unitarians have for their
first object the completion of that federal constitution
which ltosss has never attempted to prepare.
The unitarianism which once existed in the
Plate has long since disappeared, and there
is now but one desire on the part of those who
dare to speak, and think, and act ; and it is to estab-
!Wl a moderato federal republic, composed of those
provinces which have now one bond of union,
and that is—hatred of Rosss. That in such
a constitution there would be better guarantees
for peace and order than there have been in the
twenty years of the existing tyranny, can hardly Ise
denied. What we have yet to learn is.srhether there
be material and moral force etto consolidate
the Argentine confederation • 40C1t4 form of
government. Yh
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