The Press.
London, England, 1853-12-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

even likely to increase,—is itself an increasing
danger; and, as the constitution of this power
is anomalous, it may be met with special
precautions. Within our own territories it
pretends to the position of an independent
corporation—independent, while it yields obe-
dience to a foreign prince, whose despotic or-
ders it secretly receives. and silently obeys,
under awful responsibilities ! This status,
with or without corporate independence, is
unique; and there was a time in our history
when it was regarded in the light of invasion.
If that time has past, the time when it could
be regarded with an equally careless tolerance
in the eye of the law with the status of other
sects and churches is passing away also. We
could treat its organisation with contempt
while we looked upon its advance with apathy,
hut we remember it is an exception when we
begin to contemplate it as a peril.

THE LATE GOVERNMENT AND THE
ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION.
WE have received information that the present
Government intend to ratify the treaties which
were obtained by their predecessors. The
appointment of Sir CHARLES HOTIIASI to
another post in which he will be called upon
to perform important political duties had
already indicated their appreciation of the
agent, and adoption of the treaties will
signify their approbation of the acts. This
intelligence is opportune, inasmuch as we
observe a disposition iu certain quarters to
disparage the treaties themselves, or rather, we
should say, evidence of the Whigs discontent
that a triumph has been thus monopolised by
the Government they displaced.
In another column, however, we are enabled
to give all extract from a late number of the
Dropout Albion, which availed itself of some
peculiar sources of information as to the value
of the treaty concluded with LOPEZ, and at the
same time, in a spirit which did honour to itself
AS a political opponent of Lord MALMESBURY,
rendered to that statesman the thanks and
credit which are his due. On the other
hand, we observe that other Whig critics,
without taking note of the common bearing of
these treaties, or of the important channels of
commercial enterprise they have opened to us,
confine themselves to the very unreasonable
complaint. that I: tweak was made a party to
one of them. URQUIZA, says our respected
contemporary the E.rasniner, at the time he
ratified the treaty in question, had been driven
rota Buenos Ayres ; and, to the extent to
which his sovereignty was abridged, he had his
own objects to promote in procuring a recog-
nition of the legality of his position as Chief
of the Argentine Confederation. Yet, accept-
ing this statement. we are at a loss to see in
what sense it impairs the value of the treaty
he signed, and still less how it detracts from
the merits of its authors or negotiators.
To make this sufficiently plain it appears
to us we have only to recall one or two
pertinent considerations. In the first place.
it is forgotten that, when the intention of Lord
NIALMEtidURI to despatch Sir CHARLES HOMO!
was made public, the then Opposition and
theidournals urged the paramount importance
of securing the opening of the tributaries of
La Plata by treaty. No mere decree, it was
then held, could be regarded as satisfactory,
however procured, or from whatsoever power
it might emanate ; but Sir CHARLES HOTHAII.
qerhapa because it was looked upon as impos-
was required to obtain a treaty as the
rest of his success. When Sir CHARLES WAS
lespatched with this especial object he was
not commissioned, in any sense, to meddle
vith the politics of the Argentine Confedera-
tion, and he would clearly have exceeded his
mission had he done so. On his arrival he
round URQUIZA in power, and, though engaged
in civil war, with one of the members of the
Confederation—if we can call the town only
Buenos Ayres by so full a title—neverthe-
less the de facto chief of the remainder, so
that a treaty. if concluded at all, was neces-
sarily concluded with him, because there
Nam simply no one else to treat with.
Now, if this is thought to impair the validity
of the treaty, the presumption may be set at

SATURDAY,

rest by a parallel example. At the present
moment two of the best provinces of the
Turkish empire are occupied and governed
by another power, yet no politician would
dream of contending that a treaty with the
Sultan was therefore invalidated. Or, just as
fairly, to come nearer home, would England
herself be adjudged incapable of concluding a
treaty if she should happen to be visited with
an Irish rebellion? In pursuance of his in-
structions, moreover, we may ask what other
course Sir CHARLES HOTIIAM could possibly
have taken ? If he had abstained from treat-
ing till all the States of the Confederation
were thoroughly tranquil, he would have done
nothing ; and while he was attending this
abnormal dispensation the message for his
recal would have reached him. He would
have returned to England without a single
• guarantee on behalf of our commercial enter-
prise ; while the parties who previously in-
sisted on a treaty would have then exulted
that his mission was a failure.
It is fortunate, indeed, that neither the
value of the treaty nor the merits of those who
procured it are affected by this construction of
their political opponents. The merchants of
Great Britain are aware of the advantages
thereby obtained, and are preparing, as we
gather from the Liverpool Albion, to take some
practical steps towards their appropriation.
The disposition of Buenos Ayres is well un-
derstood, and if its protest serves its purpose
of political capital against URQUZA, by accord-
ing with its desire for a national monopoly,
our merchants are not on that account dis-
posed to forego the benefits of a treaty signed
by constituted authorities, but may insist that,
as it was fairly obtained, it shall be inviolably
respected. For our own parts, if we may ven-
ture on a seasonable counsel, we would suggest
that now is the time, while mercantile interest
is directed to this quarter of the globe, to pur-
sue the advantages already obtained, and to
urge the Government to procure by other
treaties the opening of those tributaries of La
Plata which run westward in the direction of
Bolivia and Peru.