The Express.
London, England, 1865-06-30 00:00:00

TRH WAR AT LA PLATA.

Hardly has one fierce contest ended in the once
peaceful continent of America than another has
begun, which, though considerably smaller in di-
mensions and less weighty in its influence on En_
rope, is yet charsoterised by those manifestations
of bitter feelings and animosities which always
mark the combat of hostile ram. But in truth
everything on the American continent is on the
largest possible scale. The territories of different
states are not measured by hundreds but by millions
of square miles. Rivers, mountains, lakes, are all
on a scale of surpassing magnitude ; and, though
the population may yet be small as compared with
the area, the rate of increase is such as to eclipse
altogether that of any European state. As for
their resources, they are boundless. With produc-
tions of . every zone, and the industry of different
races, with virgin soil capable of any cultivation,
and with that keenness for wealth which always
marked the American colonists, of what increase
are they not capable 1 How much it is to be re-
gretted that states so highly favoured should hinder
their own progress by feuds and wars.
Up to the commencement of the present century
Spain and Portugal still divided among themselves
nearly the whole continent of South America. But
in 1810 commenced that struggle for independence
among the enslaved provinces of La Plata, which
led them one by one to sever all connexions Xtith
the mother countries. First among these were
Buenos Ayres and the states forming the Argen-
tine Confederation, though they had far less diffi-
culty in gaining their independence from Spain
than they had in settling the form of government
among themselves. Brazil acquired her indepen-
dence in 1821, and at once assumed the form of an
empire, with a constitution which has undergone
no change since it was first inaugurated in 1824.
The Banda Oriental achieved her independence to
1814; though, like the Argentine Confederation, the
war of parties prevented her early consolidation.
Again and again has Brasil intervened in her
affairs, and she went even the length of incor-
porating the whole with the empire ; but resistaneet
was offered, and by the mediation of England the
Banda Oriental was recognised as independent,
under the name of Uruguay, in 182& Paraguay,
also an old Spanish posseeriont destroyed that
domination in 1811, and after having been for many
years ender the dictatorship of Francis, was after
his death, in 1840, formed into an independent
republic.
We might have expected that these states,
having by almost similar means and at -.the
same time gained their independence, woOM,
like the states, of North America, have
striven together towards their mutual proteo-
tion and common advancement, but the re-
verse has unfortunately been the case, and from
physical and social causes they seem to have been
always labouring under_ great disadvantages.
Probably nature never intended that the basin of
la Plata should be divided into so many sovereigsi
states. Whatever the cause, the states are aist
satisfied with their present arrangement. Brazil, the
largest of them, for the most part all situate in the
torrid sone, and with her soil more adapted to the
production of sugar, coffee, and tobacco than to
the cultivation of grain or the rearing of cattle, is
naturally compelled toseek elsewhere for a territory
better adapted to her white population, and capa-
ble of furnishing her the means of subsistence ;
whilst with her inland province, stretching so far
in the interior, and without roads or canals, she
swept& with undisguised ill-feeling the fact *Abbe
mouth of la Plats and the rivers Parana e4`
Paraguay are in the hands of foreign states.
The Argentine Republic, more a confoiera-,
lion than a single state, has always Of
girded Monte Video as a rival too forseidabba
in the estuary of La Plata. Buenos Ayres never
looked with favour on the rise of these independent
republics. Paraguay once formed part of the
Argentine Republic, and Buenos Ayres alwsp
protested against her being recognised as ludo. I
pendent. She saw that by the opening of the i
interior through a free river communication,
own monopoly would necessarily be paralysed. The
Rep i him. of Paraguay and Uruguay, oa the (Sing
hand, small as compared with Brazil and the
Argentine Republic, =riots, too, for their own
liberties, and zealous for theirown sovereign risks,
have every reason to regard the movement of the
larger states with distrust. In addition to all these
causes of trouble, nearly every one of these .totes
had the misfortune of harbouring some political
chief, most unscrupulous as to means, rude and
even savage in behaviour, who, under the name of
freedom, committed everywhere the greatest atro-
cities. The names of Bosse, Flores, Bribe, and
many others, might have kured much better
among the bravoes of the middle ages. This being
the normal condition of things in La Plata, it is
easy to understand the reasons and bearings al the _
present war.
For some time past Uruguay bas been the NNW
1:1 :2= civil war, and Venancio Flora, its future
11,
who was at the bead of the Colorado
par•yokrime bard .to benefit by it, if be did not
fitment it. Not content, however, in ani-
mating the internal today )» aimed at acquiring
owe more the mastery of Uruguay, by the support
of Brazil and backed by Brazilian arms. Bordering
upon
eUruguay there is she large province of Rio
do Sul, which once was an independent
State. It was there that Garibaldi founded the
Nate yt rizstiaiis, and wen slavery was tbare