Lords Sitting of 20 March 1828

BUENOS-AYRES AND BRAZIL.
Lord Strangford,seeing his noble friend the Secretary of State in his place, wished to solicit his attention to a matter of the utmost importance to the commercial interests of this country. He alluded to the fatal operation upon those interests, of that most absurd and mischievous warfare which had so long been permitted to subsist between the states of Buenos Ayres and Brazil. Some time ago his noble friend had given hopes to the merchants connected with the South American trade, that the influence of the British government would be used to put an end to the state of things under which the commerce of this country had so long suffered. He could not doubt of the zeal and earnestness with which that influence had been employed; but he feared that hitherto it had produced no effect in restoring peace, for at least one of the parties to that war continued to commit acts, in some instances of such atrocious barbarity against the persons of English merchants, as, he verily believed, were never equalled, unless by the deeds

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of the old Bucaniers. His noble friend would allow him to say, that whatever might be thought of the value of our relations with the New States in South America, he had lived long enough in those countries to be quite persuaded, that there was but one trade with them which was of the slightest real importance to this country,—he meant the trade with Brazil. That trade was, at the present moment, completely suspended, owing to the state of insecurity and uncertainty growing out of this war of pillage and plunder. He happened to know that at that moment goods to the amount of 1,500,000 l. sterling were ready to be shipped to Brazil; but which merchants did not dare to ship so long as this war continued; a war accompanied with circumstances extremely like those which were made a ground of very extreme measures indeed in another part of the world. He understood that there was a capital of 2,000,000 l. locked up in Rio, which the merchants there could not export to this country, because the exchange was against them to the extent of from 24 to 28 percent.
Earl Dudleysaid, it was undoubtedly true, that war had been going on for a considerable time between Buenos Ayres and Brazil, which had been attended with great mischief to the commerce and navigation of his majesty's subjects. He could assure their lordships, however, that almost from the beginning of that war, and ever since he had the honour to hold office, no endeavour on our part had been omitted to produce peace, but on the contrary, efforts to obtain that object had been anxiously made with zeal and diligence, both by his majesty's ministers at home, and his envoys at Buenos Ayres and Rio. Hitherto, unfortunately, those efforts had been without effect, but he could assure their lordships, that he was fully justified in the hope which he held out on a former occasion of the approaching' reconciliation of the parties. Of course it was impossible for him to speak on a subject of this nature with complete certainty; but he could say, that that hope, which had never been entirely extinguished, had been strongly revived by the last accounts which had been received from South America. At the same time he wished to be understood as making that statement with that caution with which all such statements ought to be made. He hoped that in a short time peace would be concluded, and
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he was encouraged in entertaining that hope by the information which he had received. No efforts had been wanting on the part of this country, through its ministers at Buenos Ayres or Rio, to produce so happy a result; but it must not be wondered at if those efforts had not been successful among parties, whose pretensions were so wide, and between whom there was so much bitterness against each other. With respect to the injury to our commerce, he understood it arose from two causes; namely, the privateers and the blockade of the country. With respect to the privateers, no effort had been wanting on the part of government to do whatever the law of nations would allow in such a case. Government had received certain information that privateers had been fitted out under letters from Buenos Ayres, with the capital, and under the management of persons in no wise connected with that country. That was a practice contrary to the law of nations, and instructions had been sent out to his majesty's admiral in those quarters to take such energetic measures as would put a stop to that practice, and to punish the persons so employed. With respect to the blockade, he knew that government had received complaints that that blockade, which was very pernicious to commerce, considering that there was a large quantity of British capital in that country, was not an actual blockade, but only a paper one. As soon as these complaints were received in this country, he lost no time in having those statements submitted to his majesty's law officers, in order to procure their advice, as to whether or not the blockade was effectual, and in the event of its not being found effectual, to provide that it should no longer be considered so. The answer given by those whose opinion upon such a subject the government was bound to consult had hitherto been, that they were not in possession of such information as would justify his majesty's government in treating it as a paper blockade. More information had since been produced, and had been submitted to the same authorities; and whenever the blockade of Buenos Ayres should turn out to be not an efficient one, orders would be given that it should no longer be respected. In the mean time, no endeavour was wanting, either on the part of the minister in this country or in South America, to put an end to the warfare by amicable

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interference only, by suggesting the terms of peace, which terms, nevertheless, however wise they might be, we had no right to enforce.
Lord Strangfordthanked his noble friend for the communication; and though he would think him very ungracious, he must say, that on one of the powers his noble friend could not expect that his recommendations would have any effect. He happened to know, that many of the ministry of that power had become partners in these privateers; and they probably found them too lucrative to put an end to their occupation. They had an interest in keeping up the war. He hoped his noble friend would bear in mind, that of all the new States of South America, only one had been of any service to England. Looking at their acts, and the facts connected with them, from first to last, and seeing that they had swindled us out of twenty-two millions, he must say, that if they were our creation, we had no earthly reason to be proud of them.