The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-09 00:00:00

THE RIVER PLATE.

The British Packet, of the 9th ofJanuary, received
in town on Wednesday, gives as follows the first por-
tion of the message of 0-encral liosas

'4 MESSAGE TO THE TWENTY-FOURTII LEGISLATURE.

"To the Honourable Representatives of the Pro-
vince,—l greet you with feelings of the highest com-
placency. In the midst of the rejoicings of the
country and of its national honour, you commence
your august session under the most prosperous
auspices. I congratulate mystlf upon this happy
event, which crowns my most ardent wishes and re-
wards your noble sacrifices and those of the nation at
large.
"The abuse of force l•as not prevailed over the
decision and just rights of the Republic. Memorable
and noble events are interwoven with her brilliant
honour. The rude and unjust attacks of her ag-
gressors have been defeated by magnanimous reso-
lutions and the moral opinion of the world. The
position of the country is lofty and noble. Her
valour corresponds with her high virtue and immortal
celebrity. American sympathies have worthily pro-
nounced themselves in favour of her cause, and she
obtains the just suffrages of the nations of both worlds.
The Argentine Confederation, by adhering to the
persevering moderation of the Government, had
strengthened still more her rights and enhanced the
nobleness of her national character. By your wisdom
you have achieved this imperishable glory. The Om-
nipotent has enlightened your deliberations, and re-
wards your noble virtues. The Confederation, free
and victorious, is safe from national dishonour by the
invincible firmness of her patriotism. Her armies
have achieved fresh and glorious triumphs. The
Confederate Governments and people ardently defend
the national dignity and independence, by the tran-
quil and decided co-operation of their will, their he-
roic valour, and their armies. The enormity and
scandal of an infamous treason overwhelms the ruth-
less Unitarians. I present to you, respectfully, the
homage of my profound acknowledgment; and I
congratulate you with unmingled satisfaction. In
such happy and honourable results I recognise the
visible protection of the Almighty, and offer to Him
the tribute of my most humble and fervent gratitude.
" Assembled by the will and confidence of the peo-
ple you are going to deliberate on the public affairs. I
humbly submit the acts of my administration to your
sovereign decision.
" DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

" The Government solicitously cultivates the re-
lations of the Confederation with friendly states.
Those which it loyally maintained with the Govern.
ments of Great Britain and France still continue un-
interrupted. The latter have, with a tendency to the
re-establishment of peace, signified a change in their
policy. The Government has reciprocated it with
estimation.

" In my last messages I informed you of the at-
tacks made on the independence and honour of the
Confederation by Commodore John 13. Purvis, in
co:ntnand of her Britannic Majesty's naval forces, and
that his supercession by Sir rhornas Sabine Pasley
did not alter so deplorable a situation.
" Subsequently the Government of her Britannic
Mr.jesty confided the command of the River Plate
btati on to Rear-Admiral Inglefield. The latter has
exceeded the injustice of his predecessors and aggra-
vated still more the offences offered to the Confe-
deration.

" I regret to say that the answer given by her
Britannic Majesty's Government to the remonstrance
made by the Argentine Minister at the Court of
London, in conformity with the orders of the Govern•
trent, of which I informed you in my previous mes-
sa,,ze, has not been agreeable either to the principles
of the law of nations, or to the stipulations of the
treaty existing between the Confederation and Great
Britain. The Argentine Minister demanded his
pa sport, and sustained the rights and honour of the
republic uninjured and untarni,‘hed.
" In that state of things, the hope which the Go-
vernment had been inspired with from the official
declarations, the magnanimity and rectitude of her
Majesty, and the honour of the British people were
realised. Owing to this gratifying motive, the Ar-
gentine Minister suspended his departure from the
Court of London.
" it has been satisfactory to the Government to
evince to her Britannic Majesty its constant disposi-
tion to re-establish the relations of both countries on
their former footing of cordial friendship, without
detracting from the national independence and honour.
" The Government of her Majesty set at liberty
various Argentine prisoners, and that of the republic
has made a suitable return for that act of benevolent
moderation. _ . .

" The Government perseveres in sustaining the
perfect rights of sovereignty of the Confederation
over the Falkland Islands.

" Repeated attacks against the sovereign rights of
the republic, committed on the Patagonian coasts
and on the Huano islands, by merchant vessels under
the flag of friendly nations, particularly that of Great
Britain, have seriously called the attention of Go.
verntnent. It devotes to this important subject that
preferent attention which it merits, in order to pre-
serve and maintain the prerogatives of the national
sovereignty and independence.
It is with concern the Government informs you
that in the answer given by that of his Majesty the
King of the French to the remonstrance made by the
Argentine Minister to the Court of Paris, in com-
pliance with the orders of Government, of which I
informed you in my previous message, the laws of
international justice have n A been regarded, nor the
persevering loyalty reciprocated with which the Go-
vernment of the Confederation preserves the relations
of pace and friendship re-established by the Confe-
deration of 1840.

"The Argentine Minister demanded his passports,
and upheld the dignity and independence of the Con-
federation. The high rectitude of his Majesty the
King of the French, in which the Government so
:ustly confided, subsequently presented to the Argen-
tine Minister gratifying motives for delaying his
departure from the Court of Paris.
" It has been pleasing to the Government to respond
with the most benevolent friendship—the rights and
honour of the nation saved—to the just and benevo-
lent spirit manifested by the Government of his
Majesty the King of the French.
Rear-Admiral Leine, Commander-in-Chief of
the naval forces of his Majesty in the River Plate,
has continued uninterruptedly a series of unjustifiable
attacks against the dignity and independence of the Re-
public, with which he has aggravated still more his
former offenrec
" The Government has been solicitous to remove
every motive of complication with those of France
and Great Britain. At the time when the confede-
rate army, unier the command of General Jose de
Urquiza, entered victoriously into the province of
Corrientes, the Government made a protest to the
Ministers of Great Britain and France against any
acts of the Anglo-French naval forces, tending to co-
op-rate with the ruthless Unitarians, or in any
manner to aid them. And it declared to them that,
in such case of assault on the part of these Ministers,
it would necessarily make just and adequate reprisals.
"ten unheard- of' and outrageous event occurred in
the port of Ensenada. Several merchant vessels which
were loading there, where they entered when it was
not blockaded by any Anglo French naval forces,
were burnt and plundered. *f 11;s deed, which is re-
probated by the public law of nations, committed to
the disparagement of the elevation of the Govern-
ments of his Majesty the King of the French and of
her Britannic Majesty, in the presence of their
Ministers Plenipotentiary, imperiously obliged the
Government to make a protest to the Ministers
against so great an abuse of force and all its conse-
quences. It adopted measures with a view to avoid
its repetition, and, in order to curb the actors, it de-
clared that they rendered themselves liable to the con-
dign punishment which the law of nations prescribed
in such extreme cases. The Ministers, in their answer
were led away by a lamentable and irreconcilable spirit
of inhumanity against the Republic. Denying the
justice of the protest of the Government, they declared
they would not receive any fresh communication
which should not have the pacification of the Plata
for its object, with the previous clause of the evacua-
tion of the Oriental territory by the Argentine
auxiliary divisions. And they indiscreetly descended
so far as to accept a distorted fact trumped up by the
mendacious press of Monte Video in regard to the
death of an English officer, a mate, occasioned in the
port of Atalaya, by his own unjustifiable attack and
imprudent proceeding.
" By these means, which are prescribed by civiliza-
tion and humanity, they protracted indefinitely the
war and the unjust aggressions of the Anglo-French
naval forces, at the same time that the Minister of
Foreign Affairs of her Britannic Majesty was having
at the court of London important and friendly expla-
nations with the Argentine Minister. In the course
of these, he declared to the latter that the Govern-
ment of her Britannic Majesty felt disposed to termi-
nate amicably, in a manner satisfactory and honour-
able to both countries, the existing differences, taking
as a basis the minutes which the Argentine Govern•
merit had confidently transmitted to Viscount de
Mereuil, Charge d'Affaires of France, in consequence
of a private and confidential invitation from the latter,
and which were rejected by the Ministers of Great
Britain and France in Monte Video.

"At that very time several conferences were taking
place between the Alinister of Foreign Affairs of his
Majesty the King of the French and the Argentine
Minister in Paris. The Government is sorry to an
nounce to you, that although courteous and benevo-
lent, the explanations of his Majesty's Minister were
not so explicit as those given by her Britannic Ma-
jesty's Minister to the Argentine Minister in London.
" It was about that period that the ringleader Ri-
vera returned again to figure amongst the degraded
oppressors of the unfortunate city of Monte Video.
The bloody scenes which were there enacted on the
arrival of that odious criminal have scandalised the
world. The Anglo-French naval forces have afforded

him protection in his iniquitous plans of bloodshed
and devastation. They conveyed him with his de-
testable foreign adherents to the Oriental coasts, pro-
vided with arms, :irnmunition, and pecuniary subsi-
dies, through the influence of the Ministers of France
and England. Ile had there perpetrated enormous
crimes of horrid cruelty and shameful spoliations.
The Ministers have thus contracte I a heavy respon-
sibility by conduct so much in opposition to huma-
nity, Justice, and the general interest of nations.
" Under those sane circumstances the most unre-
strained robbery was committed in the inland rivers
by the pirate Garibaldi, his colleague Rivera, and
other ruthless Unitarians, with the assistance of fo-
reign outcasts prone to pillage. Under the protection
awl au,pices of the Ministers of England and France,
they have committed exorbitant and infamous depre-
dations. The Government has oriered its Ministers
at the Courts of London and Paris to protest against
such scandalous acts of violence.

"Neither the explicit acknowledgment which the
governments of France and Great Britain have made
of the perfect rights of the Republic to its inland
rivers, nor the reprobation which they have expressed
of the attack against the Parana by the Anglo-
French forces, has preserved the immunity of the
Argentine territory. The British and French vessels
of war, to the grievous offence of the prerogatives of
sovereignty of the confederation, domineer over the
inland rivers, and aggravate still more the scandalous
acts of unheard-of intervention with which the
Ministers of France and England in Monte Video are
chargeable. _ _

"In the midst of such aggressions the Government
has not ceased to testify the most persevering mode-
ration. Sustained by the justice of its cause,
seconded by the heroic eathusiasro of the nation, and
its firm resolution of maintaining its honour and in-
dependence, it tranquilly awaits the issue of so
strange a situation.

" Thomas Samuel Hood, Esq., arrived in this city
encharged with a confidential mission by the Govern-
ments of England and France, to present to the legal
governments of the Confederation and the Oriental
state propositions for peace agreel upon by those
cabinets. I have rendered you an account, honour-
able repretLentatives, of that honourable mission, and
of the correspondence which took place with Mr.
Hood. You are informed of the obstacles which the
Ministers of France and England have recklessly
thrown in the way of a favourable termination of the
pacification. _ _ _

" The Government, for whom it was impossible to
agree to demands irreconcileable with the honour and
independence of the republics of La Plata, was placed
under the indispensable necessity of referring the pro
posals for peace to those of England and France. You
have given your sovereign approval to the conduct of
the Government.

" With a very painful feeling did the Government
communicate to those of France and Great Britain
that their mutual wishes for the pacification of the
republics of La Plata had been frustrated. It mani-
fested to them the circumstances which had caused
this, and the sincere disposition of the Government
of the republic to prosecute the Legotiation on the
proposals presented by Mr. Hood, and accepted in the
manner in which they had cordially been by the Go-
vernment of the Confederation. And, constantly
animated with a spirit of conciliation and of honour-
ab!e peace, it stated to them that if new events occur-
ring subsequently should make it necessary to adopt
some other proposal, it might become the subject of
fresh discussion between the negotiating plenipoten-

" The Government relies with grateful confidence
on the r•iaititude of the Govern►nents of Great Britain
nod France. It hopes that, inspired by a wish for an
honourable peace, suitable to the interests of all par-
tir s, will continue the negotiation set on foot by
Mr. Thomas Samuel [loud, and will remove the difii-
cuities whiai were tbrown in the way of the happy
re,ult of Ibis mission by the ministers of France and
E;mgl :rid in Monte Video.

" The withdrawal from that city of the British
regiments which her Britannic Majesty's Minister
there diverted from their original destination, the
removal of R.ar-Admiral Inglefield from the com-
mand of the British naval station in the River Plate,
the appointment and arrival of Commodore Sir
Thomas Herbert, of such honourable antecedents in
the republics of La Bata, are events which concur to
justify the sanguine hopes of the Government.
" It feels satisfaction in announcing to you that in
Europe and America the most lively reprobation has
been manifested and expressed against the Anglo-
French intervention. So just a demonstration has
augmented the moral strength of the legal Govern-
ments of Ls Plata.

" The Consul-General of her Majesty the Queen
of Spain, in Monte Video, solicited the Government
to exempt from service all her Catholic Majesty's
suljects, who might involuntarily have entered the
ranki of the army of the Confederation, and to
allow all Spaniards freely to leave the republic who
might be &skims of so doing.
The Governments, animated with the most
lively sympathies towards the Spanish nation, not-
withstanding the impediments offered by the want
of an official character near the Argentine Confede-
ration, in the Spanish Consul. General at Monte
Video, did all that was possible in order to tes-
tify the feelings of benevolent friendship which it
cherishes towards her Catholic Majesty. Giving the
correspondence a confidential character it pre-
sented in that same form to her Majesty's Con-
sul General frank and sincere explanations of the
true political position of Spaniards in the Confedera-
tion. It informed him of the kind of civic service ren-
dered by the latter, on the same footing as the natives
of the country, in the militia corps, and of the just
motives of the restraint experienced by some, on
certain occasions, in obtaining their passports.
" Her Majesty's Consul- General insisted on his
groundless demand, and despatched the Commander
of the Spanish naval forces to follow up.thesame on
friendly terms. The Government maintained the
justice of its rights. It evinced towards the Com-
mander the courtesy and consideration due to the
dignity of her Catholic Majesty's Government. lam
sorry to announce to you that that of the Confedera-
tion did not receive a suitable return. The undue
protection afforded by the boats belonging to her
Majesty's yesscl of war lying in the port of Buenos
Ayres to several Spanish emigrants who had run
away from their employers, to whom they were in-
debted for the amount of their pasFage, was well nigh
producing unpleasant results.
" In view of such unjustifiable proceedings, the
Government, with all moderation, avoided disagreable
complications, by adopting suitable measures to pre-
vent the recurrence of such an abuse.

"In the answer given to her Maje,ty's Consul-
General enlarging on the previous explanations, it
ceased not to manifest its kind feeling towards the
Spanish nation and its Government.
" The Government of the Confederation has been
recently informed, by official advises from Europe
that the ux- President of the Republic of Ecuador,
General Flores, an Emigrant in Spain residing in
Madrid, has concerted and prepared a warlike inva-
sion against that republic, with the aid of the Spanish
Government, for the purpose of re-establishing
Spanish dominion under a monarchy which is to be
formed out of the Republics of Ecuador, New Gra-
nada, Peru, and Bolivia, aria is to fall to the lot of a
son of her Majesty Queen Christina and the Duke
de Rianstres, her second husband, which son, scarcely
in his infancy, would offer a many years' regency in
favour of General Flores.
" One of his aides-de-camp was enlisting two thou-
sand Irishmen, who were to join the expedition, for
which purpose he had hired three steamers to convey
them to San ander, where they are to join the Spanish
troops. It was not ascertained whether the large
ivaritity of funds which was disposed of in London
was supplied by her Majesty Queen Christina or by
his 'Majesty of the King of the French.
" General Flores was aided in this treacherous en-
terprise by the odious Spaniard Mora, so well known
•
in the American republics from the co-operation he
afforded in his plans of usurpation to the traitor Santa
Cruz. The latter had arrived at Madrid, from Bor-
deaux, to join the debased General Flores.
" The Minister Plenipotentiary of the republic of
Peru and the Charge d'Affaires from New Granada
at the Court of London, had officially remonstrated
with her Britannic Majesty's Minister of Foreign
Affairs in regard to that strange conspiracy against
the liberty and independence of the states they re-
present, especially with respect to the enlistment in
Ireland, requesting the Government of her Majesty
to prevent it, as was its duty, according to the laws
of Great Britain, and as a friendly and neutral
power.
" The Charge d'Affaires of the Chilian Republic at
the Court of Paris, well informed of this nefarious
project, had repaired to London. and was taking steps
with the Government of her Majesty to the same
effect. In view of the character which that execrable
attempt presents, so outrageous to the dignity and
independence of America, and so much at variance
with the interests of her Catholic Majesty and of the
Spanish nation, the Government has adopted and will
decidedly maintain the position prescribed to it by
the paramount interests of the Confederation, and
Those of the common cause of the other Atnerican
states, in order to resist and repel so unheard of and
irritating an aggression."

(EXTRACT FROM PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.)
BrENOS A YRFS, JAN. 13.—My de-ar Friend—Many
thanks for your kind letter of 4JI Nov., which came
to hand on the 7th inst., per packet, and I can only
hope that your next will contain the pleasing news
that both the British end French Governments have
resolved on removing their present Ministers from
the River Plate: for unless they decide on this, I AM
afraid it will be very difficult, to s.?ttle the existing.
differences, as this Government will not accede to
their preten- ions, and they will throw every obstacle
possiblein the way of a settlement. The question would
easily be settled with new Ministers, but ,A ith. Messrs.