The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-05 00:00:00

FRANCE AND BUENOS AYRES.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE
GOVERNOR OF BUENOS AYRES, CHARGED WITH THE FOREIGN
AFFAIRS OF THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION, AND THE REAR-
ADMIRAL COMMANDING THE FRENCH NAVAL FORCES ON THE
STATION OF BRAZIL.

Frigate Minerve, at anchor in Montevideo.
April 12, 1838.
To his Excellency the Governor and Captain-General of the
Province of Buenos Ayres, charged with the Foreign Af-
fairs of the Argentine Confederation.
Excellent Sir,—The letter which you did me the honour to
address me on the 3d inst. I have just received, and hasten to
answer it.
Your Excellency has already got rid of two of my demands
by acts that have recently taken place; the first is the trial of
Mr. Peter Lavie; the second the discharge from the militia
of the French who had been enrolled in it against their will.
I cannot therefore any longer pretend that you unjustly detain
my fellow countrymen in your prisons or militia. I have
nothing further to demand than guarantees against the renewal
of acts that might be repeated and cause similar demands on
the part of the French Government.
My two first demands have no other object. I entreat your
Excellency to allow me to repeat them, elucidating separately
each of them.
The first relates to the suspension in regard to Frenchmen
of the application of the principles of the Argentine Govern-
ment with respect to foreigners ; and that you should pledge
yourself to treat the French persons and property as are
treated the persons and property of the most favoured nation,
until the intervention of a treaty.
" To engage to treat the French and their property in the
same manner as are treated the property and persons of the
most favoured nation."
This second part of my demand requires no comment ; to
refuse it would show a wish to outrage France, for no-
where has it been pretended to place her in the second
rank of nations respecting the considerations which are due
to her. Nothing is therefore asked in this that might be
detrimental to the Government of the Argentine Republic.
I come to my second demand :
To recognize in the French Government the right to claim
indemnities in favour of the French who may have suffered
unjustly in their persons or property, in consequence of acts
of the Argentine Government.
What is there more just or more moderate than this de-
mand? and how could it be pretended to refuse it? Can it
be said that its object is to impose on the Argentine Govern-
ment exorbitant and arbitrary pretensions ? Undoubtedly not.
In such cases there would be error or bad faith ; because,
if your Excellency's acts are just and legal, it suffices that
you offer the proof of their justice to the Government of the
King of the French, in order to prevent all demands.
If, on the contrary, they were unjust and arbitrary, and you
refuse to indemnify the person who might have suffered by
them, would not this refusal be unworthy your generous
sentiments, and would not your Excellency be the first to ac-
knowledge their injustice ?
Your Excellency cannot imagine, as you have done me the
honour to state, that I have presented myself before Buenos
Ayres at the head of a squadron to impose upon the Argentine
Government by a display of force. I have never conceived
the idea of threatening any one; threats have always appeared
to me useless and unworthy a man of honour.
Your Excellency knows that two French vessels have for
some time past been stationed off Buenos Ayres, that it was
necessary to employ another to convey me thither; conse-
quently, thisjunction was entirely fortuitous, and certainly had
not the object that your Excellency appears to have attributed
to it. I came so convinced of the justice and moderation of my
demands, the good faith and conviction with which I presented
them to your Excellency was such, that I did not even believe
in the possibility of a denial. I had flattered myself with
terminating this dispute, which I deplored ; and in order to
manifest to your Excellency the sincerity of the sentiments I
expressed in the name of the Government of the King of the
French, I wished to offer your Excellency one of the corvettes
under my command, in order to convey to France the person
whom, as I was informed, your Excellency intended to send,
in order to discuss there the interests and affairs of the Ar-
gentine Republic.
If your Excellency is willing to accede to these two demands,
and will be good enough to inform me thereof through the me-
dium of your Minister, the Consul, M. Roger, will resume his
duties, the blockade will immediately be raised, and I shall
leave before Buenos Ayres only one corvette, which I shall
place at the disposal of your Excellency in the event of your
desiring to make use of it, in order to send an agent to the
Government of the King of the French.
I entreat your Excellency to admit the assurance of the high
consideration with which I have the honour to be your Excel-
lency's very humble andobedient servant,
L. LEBLANC,
The Rear-Admiral, Commanding-in-Chief on the
station of Brazil and in the South Seas.
Buenos Ayres, April 26, 1838.
To his Excellency the Rear-Admiral commanding-in-chief
the squadron of his Majesty the King of the French, on the
Brazil station and in the South Seas.
Excellent Sir,—l have the honour to answer the very es-
teemed letter of your Excellency dated the 12th instant, and
considering myself bound by it to reciprocate the friendly
sentiments you have maintained towards me, I feel it to be my
duty also to assure you of my sincere desire to respond to them.
Although your Excellency has already shown yourself con-
vinced that two of your reclamations no longer exist, you,
nevertheless, are under a mistake when you attribute their
non-existence to recent acts of my Administration. The sen-
tence pronounced against Peter Lavie is dated the 21st of
March, previous to your Excellency having presented yourself
with your squadron before this capital ; your reclamation is
dated the 24th of the same month, consequently it was pos-
terior, and was written when the fact to which it referred no
longer existed.
Neither has it influenced the discharge of the French from
the service in the militia, where they might have been en-
rolled. On having the honour to state, as I did to your Ex-
cellency in my former letter of the 3d inst., that in the regular
army, and in the corps of militia, there is no Frenchman
either condemned to serve, or called upon by the chiefs of
regiments to serve, although the laws of this country pre-
scribe it, it was not my object to present you a new and recent
fact produced by the solicitations of your Excellency, but
only to bring before you a correct narration of the real state
of things before your said reclamation. Such was my simple
and categorical answer, and since I cannot refuse entering into
this explanation, I trust that your Excellency, will accept it
kindly, persuading yourself that I am impelled to enter into ,
these details by the opinion I have formed of your noble
frankness during the esteemed private correspondence with
which your Excellency favours me. And on stating to your
Excellency in the official note of this Government, dated the
26th of March, before the declaration of blockade, that you
might confidently receive, if deemed convenient, explanations
and unequivocal proof which, leaving no doubt of the senti-
ments of justice and policy of this Government, would convince
Excellency that it was not my personal will that provoked
your
these events, but the incorrect idea formed of the acts of dig-
nity and justice of the Argentine Government, I proposed to
engage
'our Excellency to examine personally the real state of
the question, according to the facts and most characteristic
circumstances connected with it, which, however easy it would
be to transmit them verbally, it would not be advisable to pro-
duce in writing.
Your Excellency, very far from accepting this friendly and
generous offer, as in harmony with the spirit of sincere friend-
ship I
evinced towards France, as agreeable to the consi-
derations due to theilliunsttrhioeussaiii.derson of your Excellency, re-
jected it, and declared month the port of Buenos
Ayres and all the littoral of the river appertaining to the As..
gentine Republic in a state of rigorous blockade by the
French naval forces under your command, without the facts
on which said blockade was founded having any existence.
Consequently, in persisting in that declaration, and in de-
manding guarantees to prevent the renewal of acts that might
occasion similar demands on the part of the French Govern.
meat, your Excellency has changed the question. It no
longer regards injuries done to Frenchmen, or violations of
any real right of France, but only relates to pretensions which
being necessarily the object a treaty, the Argentine of
Go-
vernment can discuss with the same liberty as any other Go-
vernment, in the manner most agreeable to its interests, and
without its refusal being a just motive for carrying on hostili-
ties against it.
After the elucidation of facts has caused the reclamations of
your Excellency to disappear ; after having obtained from
your answer the most perfect pledge of your justice, in consi-
dering me entirely disposed in favour of your fellow-country-
men, and that I am not animated by any offensive feelings
against France; I consider myself also entitled to expect
that, acting in conformity with your character, and not de-
viating from the friendly intentions of your nation, you will not
permit yourself for a moment to think that I should be able to
consent to those guarantees in a manner that is not in accord-
ance with the use end practice of civilized nations; and the
more so since, being charged with the foreign affairs of a state
whose sovereignty and independence his Majesty the King
of the French has recognized, pledging himself thereby
to give it the homage and consideration which all Govern.
ments in cases of this nature reciprocally pay one an-
other; and if no example can be cited similar to the one
which the disagreeable events between his Excellency the
Rear- Adrair,ll and the Argentine Government actuallo present,
much less ought Ito be considered capable of acknowledging
a principle which is resisted by all Governments—viz.,
that in the highly honourable position which I occupy, of pre-
siding over the destinies of the Argentine Confederation, I
should admit the intervention of your Excellency in your dis-
tinguished character of Rear-Admiral, Commander-in-Chief
of a seuedron of his Majesty the King of the French, when-
ever the interest and security of your countrymen might
re-
quire it; for, conformably to the established practice of
all
netions on the subject, I only recognize in them the right to
appoint Ministers and public agents regularly accredited, who
may remonstrate in the name of their Sovereign against pro-
ceedings which rni(rlit compromise the interests and security of
their feilow-subjects.
I return your Excellency my sincere thanks for the gent rems
kindness with which your Excellency offers me one of the
corvettes under your command, in the event_ of my
desiring
t make use of it to send an agent to the Governmentof the
Kin?: of the French ; and in case that it may be necessary
necessary to
accredit cue, I shall feel highly gratified that he should be
conveyed there in one of the corvettes under your command.
Your Excellency will accept the assurance
v,hii
oefl
es-
teem and particular consideration with • your
Excellency's very obedient and attentive servant,
JUAN MANUEL DE ROSAS.
Frigate Minerve, Montevideo, May 5.
To Brigadh r.. General Don Juan Manuel de Roses, Governor
of Buenos Ayres, charged with the Foreign Affairs of the
Argentine Confederation.
Excellent Sir,—I duly received the letter dated the 26th

of April, by which your Excellency did me the honour to
answer the one I addressed you under date 12th of said month.
The liberation from the service of the militia to which many
of my fellow-countrymen had been forcibly subjected, ❑nd the
liberation from prison of M. Peter Lavie, are two facts avowed
by your Excellency : they have existed; by }our orders they
have ceased. The simple and natural consequence to be de-
duced therefrom is that they can be repeated ; I do not then
change the question, as your Excellency appears to think,
when I demand guarantees against their repetition, and I do
not bring forward a pretension which a treaty can alone conse-
crate. I have the honour of repeating to you that my demand
binds you to nothing definitive, that it is merely temporary,
and that its duration will expire on the day in which the French
and Argentine Governments, after having negotiated in com-
plete liberty, shall have fixed in a positive and definitive
manner their reciprocal rights and relations.
That your Excellency may refuse to acknowledge in my
person the legal character necessary to discuss with your Go
♦ernmcnt the principles of its policy or of its administration;
that you decline all interference on my part in the discussion
of a treaty which cannot be negotiated except by an agent
especially accredited to that effect, nothing is more just or less
disputable; but that you may consider that you can extend
this interdiction to my right of interfering in circumstances in
which the interest or security of my fellow-countrymen may
require it, and still more so when the agent of the Govern-
ment of his Majesty the King of the French has reclaimed in
vain, and that repeated refusals have compelled him to quit
his post, I ask your Excellency's pardon, but in this case you
labour under a mistake : your opinion is contrary to the natu-
ral right exercised by all nations. It is opposed to the natural
laws'of their security ; and to the special orders I have from
the Government of his Majesty. The discussion of your acts
does not appertain to use, they can only be discussed by the
agent who has received from the Government of his Majesty
orders on this subject; but I must demand official guarantees
against the repetition of acts of the nature of those which you
have made to cease ; this is what I persist in doing.
M. Roger, the Consul, to whom the reiterated orders from
the Government of his Majesty prescribe the duty of pursuing
with the Argentine Government demands, the motives of which
your Excellency will allow my not repeating here, is ready
to resume the official duties which he was forced to cease,
and the discussion of the facts that have produced the actual
state of our differences, as soon as you have acquiesced in my
demands.

If, however, your Excellency should persist in the refusal
you have expressed to me, you may address in a direct man-
ner to the Government of the King of the French your obser-
vations, or the representations which you may deem proper to
submit to it. For my part, I cannot deviate from the duties
which have been traced out to me.

My duties compel me to quit the waters of the River Plate,
in order to repair to Rio Janeiro: I leave to the Captain
commanding the blockading division, instructions and orders
to retire with his division, and raise the blockade, under the
conditions which I have had the honour to announce to your
Excellency; I consequently entreat you, in case you may deem
it convenient to accept them, to be kind enough to inform
him thereof.

I pray your Excellency to accept the assurance of the very
high consideration with which I have the honour to be,
Your very humble and obedient servant,
L. LEBLANC.
The Rear-Admiral Commanding-in-Chief on the
Station of Brazil and in the South Seas.