The Sun.
London, England, 1825-11-03 00:00:00

SPANISH COLONIES.

The Argos of the 16th, 20th, and 23d of July,
composing a portion of the file of Buenos Ayres
Papers, the arrival of which we announced yes-
terday, contains a note of Mr. Canning's, ad-
dressed to the Spanish Ambassador in March
last. This note has found its way from the Ame-
rican Journal into a Belgic Paper, and thence it
has again partly been " done into English." It
might have heel' of some interesthad it been pub-
lished in England at the time when it was drawn
..up, but now, since the state of things in which it
was written has eutirely changed, and the Spa-
nish Minister for whose information it was com-
municated has been displaced, that interest has
been much diminished. The following, however,
is a version of the note in question :
COPY OFF A COMMUNICATION ADDRESSED BY MR. CAN-
SING TO SENOR DE LOS RIOS, AMBASSADOR FROM HIS
CATHOLIC MAJESTY TO THE COURT OF ENGLAND.
" Office of the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, March 25, 1825.
" The undersigned Principal Secretary of state for Foreign
Affairs to his Britannic Majesty has been charged by his So-
vereign.to transmit •to his Excellency the Chevalier de Los Rios,
in order that he may communicate it to his Court, the following
reply to the Official Note which M. Zea addressed, on the 21st
of January, 1825, to his Majesty's Charge d'Affaires at
Madrid:—
" A great portion of the Official Note of M. Zea is founded
upon a denial of the facts of which a report had been made to
the British Government, relative to the state of 'the different
countries of South America, and upon the anticipation of events
which the Court of Spain expects to take place in those coun-
tries,-and which would triumphantly refute the reports received
by the British Government. He therefore declares it advisable
to await the issue of those events, rather than to oppose assump-
tions to assumptions, or to reason upon probabilities and con-
jectures. On that decisive event, as it appears to he, the under-
signed :can only say that it will be a great satisfaction to the
I;ritish Government that it takes place before its intentions are
announced respecting the other countries of Spanish America.
These intentions, at least, can have no influence on the result
o f the war in Peru.
" The undersigned is charged to make onlythis single obser-
vation upon that part of M. Zen's note which refers to the sup-
posed inaccuracy of the facts which served as the basis of the
resolution taken by the Britannic Government.
" The questions which remain to be examined are, whether
Great Britain, in negotiating with governments established de
facto and secure from foreign invasion, is violating any principle
of the.rights of nations, or any positive convention.
" To commence with the latter of these points, as being the
principal accusation against us, M. Zea reproaches us generally
with an infraction of treaties; but as he cites only two, those
of 1809 and 1814, it may fairly be assumed that he relies on
those only as the especial support of his accusation.
" First, then, as to that of 1809.
" This treaty was concluded at the commencement of the
struggle of Spain against France, and was entirely directed to
meet existing circumstances; and in express terms it was a
treatyof peace for the purpose of putting an end to the war
which had subsisted between England anti Spain since 1804.
.It is expressly designated, in the first article, as a treaty of al-
liance during the war, in which we were at that time implicated
in common with Spain against France. All the stipulations of
the treaty had evident reference to the declared resolution of
the French ruler, that he would maintain a branch of his fa-
mily upon the throne of Spain, and of both the Indies, and we
were bound indubitably not to lay down our arms untifhis pro-
jects against Spain had failed, and his pretensions in regard to
America had been abandoned—obligations of which England,
as no one can deny, has fully acquitted herself. This end once
obtained, the conditions of the treaty were fulfilled, and the ob-
ligations which it imposed necessarily ceased with the object to
- which they bore reference.
" The war of the Peninsula having been happily brought
to n conclusion, and his Catholic Majesty having been re-esta-
blished, with the assistance of England, on the throne of his
ancestors, the treaty of 1814 was substituted for that of 1809.
And what does this last treaty contain ? First, the expression
of the most earnest desire, on the part of his Majesty, that
Spanish America should be again united with the mother
country ; and secondly, an engament to forbid English sub-
jects from furnishing munitions of war to the inhabitants of
Spanish America.
" This engagement was immediately fulfilled by a Cabinet
.Order, issued in 1814 ; and to extend these objects beyond the
limits of the obligation prescribed by this treaty, an Act was
, passed in 1819, forbidding English subjects from serving in the
_armies of the insurgent colonies.
" The sincerity of the desire expressed in this treaty is
i.droved, not only by the above measures, but by the reiterated
offers on the part of England to become a mediator between
Spain and her colonies. The proposal for this intervention
was not alone founded, as avowed by 111. Zea, on the un-
derstanding that Spain should anticipate her colonies. A
number of years has elapsed since that time, and Spain has
-disdained, upon different occasions which have presented them-
Selves, to negociate upon more favourable conditions, before
:that basis was laid down, as the only one upon which a nego-
tiation could be successfully established.
" No mention was made of it in 1812, when our mediation
-was offered to the Cortes.
. "No mention was made of it in 1815, when Spain demanded
our mediation, but refused to state the conditions to which she
,would be disposed to consent.
" Nor was it touched upon in 1818, in the conferences at
.Aix la Chapelle, when the question as to an agreement be-
tween Spain and her colonies was agitated for the first and last
time among the great European Powers.
" After the total silence which Spain has preserved relative
to the opinion put forth by the Powers who were present at these
-conferences, when this question was proposed to them, two
points were clearly established :—lst. That Spain had not the
serious intention of proposing to the Americans acceptable con-
ditions ; 2d. That the sending this question to be decided by a
,Congress could not be attended by any profitable or satisfactory
results.

" Since that time Great Britain has entirely abstained from
touching on the point of a negotiation with the colonies, until
the month of May, 1822, when Spain itself made a spontaneous
declaration that she wished measures to be taken for the re-esta-
.blishment of peace in the two Americas, upon an entirely new
basis, which however she did not explain.
" In reply to these communications, Spain was requested to
accelerate, as much as possible, its negotiations with the Colo-
nies, as the course of events was so rapid as not to allow of a
further delay ; but no suggestion was made to adopt independ-
ence as its basis.

" The first mention of this basis, which took place in the
month of November, 1822, proceeded in fact from the Spanish
Government itself, and at this period it was intimated to the re-
sident Minister of Great Britain at Madrid, that the tortes were
occupied in bringing about negociations with the Colonies on
basis of their independence—negociations which were in
fact opened, and were attended with a happy result in respect to
Buenos Ayres, though his Catholic Majesty has since rejected
them. It was since this last communication from the Spanish
Government, that England announced her opinion that nothing
was to be hoped front negotiations founded upon any other basis
titan that declared by the Spanish Government itself.
" This opinion, communicated, as has been already stated,
through confidential channels to Spain, was, near a year after-
wards, that is to say, in October, 1823, declared by the under-
signed to the Ambassador of France in London, in a confe-
rence, the tenour of which was communicated to Spain and the
other Powers. It was repeated anti confirmed at a later period
in the communications which the undersigned addressed in Ja-
/away, 1824, to Sir `I m. A'Court.
" Thus nothing can be less correct than the assertion, accord-
ing to which England is made to lay down the basis of inde-
pendence as a condition sine qua non of her co-operation in the
negociations with Spain and her Colonies. _

We now come to the second complaint brought against the
English Government, of having violated the right of nations.
Has it been ever regarded as an axiom, or has any Government
ever considered it a practical maxim, that in no time or cir-

cuinstances, a government de facto can acquire rights to recog-
nition, or authorize a third power to recognize it, that third
power having a great interest in establishing and securing its
relations with the government de facto.
" Such a proceeding on the part of a third power certainly
does not decide the question of right against the mother country.
" The Netherlands separated themselves from Spain long
before the end of the 16th century ; but Spain did not formally
renounce its sovereignty over that state until the peace of West-
phalia, in 1648. In 1640 Portugal declared its independence of
the Spanish monarchy ; but it was only in 1668 that Spain re-
cognized its independence by treaties.
" The separation of the Spanish colonies from the mother
country has neither been our work nor the object of our desires;

it has been caused by events, in which the English Government
took no part, but which, we think, might have been prevented
if our advice had been listened to in time.

" But this separation has produced a state of things to
which the British Government must adapt its measures and its
language, not precipitately, but with mature reflection and cir-

.cutnspection. .
" The continuing to call by the name of a Spanish possession