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day it has awaited the failure of the most nefarious designs, nor can the public imagine the confusion which this state of things has caused, so far as the subject which now chiefly occupies our attention, the Portuguese Invasion,-is concerned. If you have done me the cruel injustice to believe that I am capable of coming to terms with Tyrants, Usurpers, and such as reckon upon your humiliation,-if you can so far mistrust your own firmness and ancient valour, as no longer to be certain of confounding, in one energetic moment, all the plots of traiterous, outlawed, and recreant Leaders,-wait but a very few days, and you will witness the overthrow of all those who have tried to deceive you, by infusing into your minds the blackest suspicious against your Government. Unless you are metamorphosed into a gang of Slaves, you have nought to fear it is not a few treacherous Magistrates that can intimidate you. Let it at the same time be remembered, that, in order to penetrate the views of the Portuguese, and to decide, once for all, upon the line of policy to be pursued towards that Nation, an infinite number of important and delicate arrangements are necessary, which it is impossible for the Government to adopt, unless it possess the public confidence. If every operation is to be construed into a collusion with the Enemy,-if it be made to serve as a pretext to Conspirators for bringing contempt upon the Constituted Authorities, and for giving effect to their calumnies,-how, let me ask, will the Government be enabled to direct the public business? Even within these few days, I have had reason deeply to lament the disastrous consequences, resulting from those obstacles by which I am continually embarrassed in the exercise of my functions; and I assure you that, but for my having resolved to sacrifice my existence, if necessary, to the just and faithful fulfilment of the duties of my Station, I should, ere this, have abandoned my Post to the fury of the Enemies of order, and have sought a refuge where no tidings of the ruin of my Country could have reached me; but my resolution, calmly and deliberately formed, is fixed. I have caused the most active and dangerous of the disaffected to be removed out of the Country, a measure which, after having explained the motives of it, I am fully authorized in adopting, by virtue of the powers with which I am invested. It was but for want of power that the degraded parties so punished did not carry into execution their criminal intentions: some time may yet, perhaps, elapse ere they can wield so formidable a weapon; but, in the interim, they will seize every opportuuity of tempting, seducing, and corrupting all the grades of the Army, and even private Citizens, in the hope of making them the instruments of their dark projects. The blow has only fallen upon the Chiefs, and upon those who were resolved, at any hazard, to plunge the State into all the horrors of anarchy. Many misguided Individuals, mistaking the patience of the Government for weakness, were disposed to follow the banners of those who threatened them with assassination. Yes, my misled Fellow-Countrymen, I know

this to be the fact, nor are you ignorant that I do know it. Reflect whether you have not exposed yourselves to great risk, seeing, as you now do, that the Government is determined to act and to maintain order and tranquillity to the last extremity. Should proceedings be instituted for the conviction of crimes, the Government could not protect you from the vengeance of the Laws. It is far from the wish of the Government to be the destruction of those who, in other respects, have rendered their Country distinguished services: too much have my feelings already experienced from my inability to prevent the punishment of those who deserved it, and too painful has been the reflection that their innocent families have necessarily participated in their sufferings. Summary modes of procedure, are, however, in these times, ill-calculated for the discovery of crimes of this description. During a Revolution, one half of the population are congregated together by motives either of ambition, or resentment, and most of them by fear. It is by no means easy to ascertain and classify the causes which have induced them to become accomplices; and the only result of making public the successive steps by which they have, day by day, been led on to revolutionary projects, would be to leave Society without Friends, and to deprive the Government of zealous Citizens, ready to warn it, at all times, of the approach of danger. That hopes were entertained of the immediate outbreak of a Revolution, and that the same means as those which had caused the success of former ones were employed, on this occasion, was notorious; the Citizens lately banished boasted of their enterprize at the moment of arrest, and they even afterwards gåve vent to all their malignity, involuntarily vomiting forth the venom which they had nourished.

Citizens, one Revolution more would plunge the State into barbarism. I am resolved either to prevent it, or not to witness the horrors that it must inevitably produce. I am willing to throw a veil over all the past, if the misguided, however criminal they may be, will return to the path of duty; but if their present impunity should embolden them to fresh atrocities, painful as is the declaration to me, my Oath will compel me to be no longer indulgent.

Serious dangers threaten us, and a vast field is open for the display of our valour and resolution. The Portuguese are not desirous of War: their wish is that the United Provinces should remain indifferent during the aggression made upon one part of our Territory; but War will become inevitable, if they do not quickly satisfy this Government as to their intentions, and if the incursion of Foreign Troops, (and these are more dangerous than any other, inasmuch as they belong to a neighbouring Power,) be not proved to be compatible with our entire liberty and our absolute Independence.

Fellow-Citizens, no Definitive Treaty shall be entered into with the Portuguese, to which your attention has not been previously called

and your assent given. No Army, either of Portugal or of any other Nation, shall set foot upou this Territory, without meeting with the most vigorous resistance. War shall even be declared against the Banda Oriental itself, and the Foreigners shall speedily be driven a way from the Districts and Towns which they occupy, unless we are fully convinced that their remaining there is consistent with our interests and our honour. Be assured that the Government has made no Compact whatever, with any Power on the face of the Globe, and that, so far as the Portuguese are concerned, Affairs are, upon the whole, promising but owing to the machinations of the Demagogues, it has been unable to obtain all the necessary information with respect to their intentions. Such is the embarrassing and painful uncertainty in which the Sovereign Congress, its most excellent Committee, and myself are at present placed, in consequence of suspicions, want of confidence, and calumnies, having compelled the Government to relinquish several steps which were most essential to its purposes, that it might not find itself forced to adopt the measure which has already cost so much to its feelings. Be yourselves the judges, whether it is for this that you have confided to me the Supreme Authority, and whether amidst such obstacles I or any other Man can accomplish aught for your advantage and happiness. Let your own interest render you more prudent, and let me not have fresh cause for afflicting my heart by resorting to severe punishments. Those who talk of Revolutions, do not so talk because they are persuaded of the perfidy of the Government; believe me, they know full well that there exists not an Individual in the Province who is capable of conducting a plan of this nature without its being discovered, and without your full and just vengeance falling on the head of the Delinquent who could so infamously abuse your confidence: they are fully aware that a single Individual, however capable of such dark designs, could never realize them without the co-operation of a certain number of Accomplices, that secrecy is impossible, and the project consequently impracticable. What kind of wickedness is it which employs pretexts such as these in order to produce a Revolution? If it were produced by such pretexts, what innocent blood would not be shed, what families ruined, what deserving Citizens assassinated or proscribed? I shudder Citizens, even to think of it; and for this reason alone am I resolved sooner to cease to exist than permit the ambitious and the lawless to triumph.

Such are the sentiments of the Government, such the motives of my public conduct, and such the reasons which have decided me to decree the punishment which the guilty have drawn upon their own heads, and which was undoubtedly mild in comparison with the treatment they had reserved for their victims. Citizens, order is re-established, do all in your power to preserve it from being again disturbed. A second time, I offer to throw a veil over all the past without any

other condition, than that no new excesses may require to be punished. Let us preserve our Country, threatened as it is with dangers the most imminent. Be assured that I shall henceforth more freely devote myself to this object, in which are alike involved our preservation, our power, and our glory.

Buenos Ayres, 14th February, 1817.

JUAN MARTIN DE PUEYRREDON.

DECREE of the Commander-in-Chief of the Portuguese Forces, for the Punishment of Disturbers of the Peace in the Province of Monte Video.-Monte Video, 15th February, (Translation.)

1817.

Charles FrederICK LECOR, Lieutenant General of the Royal Armies of His Most Faithful Majesty, Knight Commander of the Orders of San Bento de Avis, and of the Tower and Sword, Commander-inChief of the Sea and Land Forces, on the Eastern Bank of the River Plate, &c., &c., &c.

Being desirous to put a stop to the disorders, robberies, and outrages, of every description, which are committed by roving Parties of the Enemy, upon the peaceable Inhabitants of small Towns unprovided with a Portuguese Garrison; and considering, moreover, that all the well disposed Inhabitants, who are oppressed by their own unnatural Countrymen, have a lawful claim to the proffered protection of the Army, which His Most Faithful Majesty has been pleased to place under my orders for the pacification of this Province; I have thought fit to determine as follows:

ART. I. The Individuals belonging to any Band or Party of the Enemy, which shall rob or ill use any peaceable or defenceless Inhabitant or Inhabitants, in his or their house or houses, or in the neighbourhood thereof, shall be treated, not as Prisoners of War, but as Highway Robbers and Disturbers of the public order and tranquillity.

II. When the Bands or Parties aforesaid, after having been guilty of any outrage against the peaceable or defenceless Inhabitants of the Towns, which are under the protection of the Portuguese Arms, cannot be apprehended, the severest reprisals shall be made upon the families and property of the Leaders and Followers of such dispersed Parties; for which purpose strong Detachments from the Portuguese Army shall proceed to burn their dwellings, and conduct their families on board the Portuguese Squadron.

III. A sufficient number of trustworthy Persons shall be employed to watch over the security and tranquillity of the Inhabitants, each of which Persons shall transmit a Separate Report to the nearest Of ficer in Command, (who in his turn shall forward the same to Head

Quarters,) of every excess committed by detached Parties of the Enemy against the peaceable Inhabitants, and of the Persons who compose them, in order that the necessary measures may be forthwith taken with respect to them.

IV. The present Decree shall be transmitted to, and published in, all the Towns which are under the protection of the Portugese Arms. Given at the Head Quarters of Monte Video, 15th February, 1817. CARLOS FEDERICO LECOR.

CORRESPONDENCE between the Government of Buenos Ayres and the Portuguese Commander-in-Chief, relative to the Occupation of the Province of Monte Video by the Portuguese Forces.-1816, 1817. (Translation.)

(1.)—Don Martin de Pueyrredon to General Lecor.

Buenos Ayres, 31st October, 1816.

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT SIR,

As, by the sovereign will of the United Provinces of South America, I find myself charged with the Direction of the State, I cannot be an indifferent Spectator of the smallest danger that threatens the immunity of the rights belonging to it. For a long time past, Advices to be depended upon, from the Court of Rio de Janeiro and from different parts of Europe, have informed me of preparations for a Military Expedition of Portuguese Troops, appointed to take possession of the Eastern Territory of the River of La Plata : its Cantonment in the Island of St. Catherine, and its advance to Rio Grande in order of Campaign, left no room for doubt respecting the accuracy of the information; and Reports, indicating the mysterious object of such movements, coupled with the fact of the relations between Spain and Portugal having been drawn still closer, cast vehement suspicion of duplicity upon the affected preventive employment of the Troops under Your Excellency's command.

Nevertheless, the good understanding which has hitherto been preserved between this Government and that of His Most Faithful Majesty, the loyalty of his respectable Administration, and the obligations of the Armistice, concluded on the 26th May, 1812, between the Supreme Government of the United Provinces of the River of La Plata, and the Envoy of His Most Faithful Majesty, Lieutenant Colonel Don John Rademaker, inspired a rational confidence in the solidity of that Compact; and, being bound on my part to avoid every act inconsistent with the subsisting relations of friendship between the 2 States, I have waited until the progressive movements of your Excellency should tear the veil that appeared to disguise the intentions of your Court.

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