PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTI-CORN-LAW |mination boroughs. The Anti-Corn-Law LEAGUE. League was quite willing and prepared to go into the whole question; and he, as an individual, should rejoice in such an inquiry, as preparatory to a better reform of Parliament. In present circumstances, if those who were called protectionists or monopolists went to the constituencies, his firm conviction was, that, from their power over nomination boroughs, and other influences, they might return a party adverse to free trade; but if they did so they might depend upon it that nothing would be more likely to raise into existence illegal or unconstitutional bodies, instead of such safe and legal associations as they now found in the AntiCorn-Law League. LORD DACRE, in presenting a petition from Exeter, for inquiry into the proceedings of the Anti-Corn-Law League, in inducing parties resident at a distance to purchase 40s. freeholds in counties, observed that the present was not the time to enter into a discussion on the general subject; but he could not help reminding their Lordships, that in 1829 so great were the evils in Ireland produced by the 40s. freeholders, that the Legislature were compelled to get rid of them; and, therefore, the proceedings of the League, in the creation of these votes, could not be too much condemned. He did not mean to say that the acts of the Anti-Corn-Law League in this respect were not legal, as they had the authority of almost the first law officer in this country (Lord Chief Justice Tindal); but he consi-culture, said that, in his opinion, the prodered that if they were in accordance with the letter of the law, they were not in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution. He considered, therefore, that this petition was worthy of the attention of their Lordships. LORD REDESDALE, in presenting a petition from Northumberland, praying that protection might not be removed from agri ceedings of the Anti-Corn-Law League, in regard to registration, were directly unconstitutional, although, according to the strict letter of the law, they were legal. The Constitution of this country required that the population and property of each electoral district should return Members to represent that district in Parliament; and the Legislature had more than once interfered to prevent the disturbance of that right by strangers. When, therefore, he saw a body saying that Liverpool and Manchester should secure the representation of Cheshire, he called that an interference with the rights of the people of Cheshire. When, again, he saw the same body, in one of their printed addresses, saying that the inhabitants of London ought to secure Hertfordshire, because it was near to London, he called that an unconstitutional interference with the electors of Hertfordshire. If the Legisla LORD KINNAIRD said, that this was the second time this Session that the noble Lord had called attention to the proceedings of the Anti-Corn-Law League; and he, as a member of the League, agreed with the prayer of the petition for an inquiry. The League courted inquiry. Every thing that had been done by the League was fair and above-board. As to the League's getting hold of the counties, he could assure the noble Lord that he need not be alarmed about the minute subdivision of land caused by the creation of 40s. freeholds. Men of all parties and classes had bought them. If the noble Lord wished to open the whole question of the Reform Bill, he (Lord Kin-ture neglected to do something to put a naird) should be glad to go into it with him; but when they talked of creating large numbers of 40s. freeholders, the nomination boroughs must not be forgotten, which were so openly controlled by Peers of that House. He maintained that the League were acting legally and constitutionally in giving facilities to persons who wished to acquire votes; and they were only doing what had been done by others for worse ends. Why, there was the town of Buckingham, where the proprietor, using the most legal means, could return any Member he chose to the Lower House; and the same thing was done in many other cases by noble Lords on both sides of the House, as both parties were well known to have their no stop to this undue interference with the But, to arise. He repeated that the practice of the League was contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, and could never be followed either for a good or bad purpose, without evil resulting from it. Corn-Law League were in the mean time justified in adopting the same legal means with others for the promotion of their objeet; and he would tell the noble Lord that, if the repeal of the Corn Laws was carried immediately, the Anti-Corn-Law League would be dissolved. It would not be continued for any other purpose, the sole object of the association being to obtain the repeal of the Corn Laws. Perhaps the knowledge of this fact might somewhat relieve the mind of the noble Lord. those of Huntingdon, coming forward and swamping the people of Huntingdon in the election of a Member of Parliament, so that the general interests of that county were, by these means, left unrepresented. If they went on in this way, the consequence LORD KINNAIRD was not lawyer might be that one interest would obtain the enough to know what might be the constirepresentation of every constituency in the tutional rule in this matter; but this he kingdom. If Parliament did not give a knew, that the practice complained of was strong expression of its will in regard to followed by all parties. One of the watchthis matter- unless the practice should words of the party to which the noble naturally drop("Hear.") He under- Lord belonged was, "Register! register! stood the meaning of that "hear," and register!" Well, the League attended to would refer to it again; but in the mean- the registrations, and made legal votes for time, he must say that, unless the Legisla- that purpose in a way much more legal ture interfered, the consequence would be, than was followed by proprietors to an that Parliament would cease to be the most enormous extent in Scotland. He agreed important body in the country. A great with the noble Lord that this was an abuse, deal that was going on in Ireland and in and he was quite ready to go into the whole this country had a tendency to lower Par-matter, and have the entire abuse reliament in the eyes of the country; espe- formed. But he thought that the Anticially the House of Commons, as that branch of the Legislature was more affected by it than that to which their Lordships belonged. People would begin to look to the proceedings of other bodies more than to Parliament; and in process of time would learn to say that they did not care about the House of Commons, but would rather look to such bodies as the Anti-Corn-Law League or the Repeal Association, who could counteract the decisions of Parliament. He must say, therefore, that unless this evil was watched, there was a process EARL GREY observed, that whatever going on in this country, and in Ireland party first commenced the practice of inparticularly for it began there that creasing the constituency far beyond what would tend in effect to alter the whole Con- a country naturally should have, he must stitution of the country. That such a state say that he concurred with the noble Lord of things should be going on without Par- opposite in thinking that the existence of liament interfering without calling forth such a party embodied as the Anti-Cornthe attention of those whose peculiar duty Law League was a serious evil. But when it was to watch over the interests of the he said it was a serious evil, he must also country-without any interference on the say that he thought it was only a symptom part of the Government, was not very cre- of a still greater and still more serious evil, ditable to the parties concerned. As to and that was, the existence of a state of the evil dropping, he knew what noble the law which a large proportion of the inLords opposite meant by that. It just telligent people of this country felt to be an amounted to this-that if they gave those intolerable grievance-a grievance against people what they asked, they would drop which they found it necessary to take even their undue practices. Now, was this the such means as these for relieving themway to meet such a course as that followed selves. The noble Lord had said, and said by those parties? No. It might be said truly, that the manner in which these things that the people were with them, and that were gone about, both in this country and what they asked, therefore, should be con- in Ireland, and in respect to Irish affairs, ceded; but if it was so, why did they not was calculated to lower the authority of let the people alone? The effect of con- Parliament: he cordially concurred with ceding the objects which the Anti-Corn-him in that view. But he would ask, what Law League and the Repeal Association demanded, would just be to encourage any other body of agitators that might choose was the cure they ought to apply to such evils? It was not by adopting any coercive means to prevent such manifestations of AFFAIRS OF THE RIO DE LA PLATA. LORD BEAUMONT rose to move, that the correspondence which had taken place between the Government of this country and of France with respect to the Rio de la Plata should be laid before their Lordships. In making this Motion, he hoped the House would allow him, as briefly as he could, to trace the chief events which had happened in the Rio de la Plata, with the object of showing that the noble Earl at the head of the Department for Foreign Affairs, had not only adopted an impolitic course, but one which was at variance with the principles adopted by this country, and also at variance with its former prac opinion-it was not by adopting any law to prevent the existence of the Catholic Association, or the Anti-Corn-Law League, or preventing the purchase of property to make votes for those not resident in a county-it was not by any machinery of that kind they could formally grapple with this evil; but it was by Parliament taking the lead of public opinion, instead of lagging in the rear-not waiting to be driven by the loudly-expressed wishes of the community to make necessary reforms-not waiting to be compelled by the voice of public opinion that had been roused into agitation by the long continuance of a great grievance and abuse. It was by looking beforehand-by taking timely care to re-tice. Their Lordships were aware that at medy evils before they were felt to be intolerable-it was by Parliament again performing its ancient duty of leading public opinion, instead of waiting to be driven by that opinion, that they could hope to put an end to those evils of which the noble Lord complained. No man could see more strongly than he did the inconvenience of all the great changes of modern times being deferred, till they were passed, not as matters flowing from the judgment of Parliament, but from necessity. He thought they incurred high responsibility who prevented the public from having sooner understood what was required, for having used their influence to perpetuate ancient prejudices and unsound opinions. Those who had done so, misguided, no doubt, themselves; and, shortsighted as to the consequences that were about to follow, it was they, and not the party of the League or the party of the Catholic Association, who were responsible for the great evils that might result from the course complained of by the noble Lord. LORD ASHBURTON observed, that the noble Lord opposite took it for granted that all public opinion was good; that any views which were opposed to public opinion must be wrong; and that, therefore, the latter should be adopted. If public opinion in this case was with the Anti-Corn-Law League, what necessity was there for creating fictitious votes to carry Members in Lancashire and Cheshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire? He regarded the course pursued by the League as fraught with disastrous consequences to the country. It was an evil with which Government could not be dealing rightly unless it proposed some measure to check and stop it. Petition to be laid on the Table. the termination of the war between Brazil and the Argentine Confederation, in 1828, a Convention was made, by which the province of the Banda Oriental was constituted an independent State, under the title of the Republic of Uruguay. He wished their Lordships to pay particular attention to this Convention, because it was mentioned by the noble Lord (Earl of Aberdeen) in the instructions sent by him to Mr. Ouseley; and it was also referred to as an excuse for the conduct of the Cabinet of Brazil on a late occasion. The terms of that Convention were, that Uruguay should be maintained as an independent State, and that its independence should be guaranteed by the parties who signed that Treaty. There was an article in the Treaty which provided that in case of rebellion against the legitimate Government of Monte Video, the contracting parties should aid the Government in putting that rebellion down. The obligation of assisting the lawful President of Monte Video in maintaining his authority, was by this Convention imposed on Buenos Ayres for five years after the establishment of the new republic. The only names, however, appended to the Treaty were those of the representatives of Buenos Ayres and Brazil. England only recommending peace, and her name not being affixed to the Treaty, therefore took no obligation upon herself to support the legitimate Government of Uruguay. England was a mediating, not a guaranteeing Power: she therefore imposed on herself no obligation, and obtained no right. Subsequently to that period, particularly in 1829, and the following years, a sangui. nary civil war raged in the Argentine Confederation between the Unitarians and Federalist party. General Rosas was one of the chiefs of the Federalists, and General Lavalle one of the leaders of the Unitarians. | guay, finding, when he arrived before Monte General Lavalle, after assassinating the Video, that the whole native population of Governor of Buenos Ayres, and attempting the State were in his favour. Still the to assassinate Rosas, became president; but he was afterwards obliged to capitulate to General Rosas, who became president of Buenos Ayres in his stead, and who had done more than any other person to establish the rule of law and justice in that country. In consequence of the defeat of their party, the Unitarians, in 1829, fled in great numbers to the Banda Oriental, and took up their abode in Monte Video. They carried on a war with the Federalist party in Buenos Ayres, and invaded their territories from time to time, but were again and again defeated. In 1837, a misunderstanding took place between France and Buenos Ayres, and the French blockaded the town. At that time General Oribe was at the head of the Government of Monte Video, and the French applied to him for his co-operation in the blockade; but Oribe refused to depart in any degree from the position which he had assumed, and determined to maintain the Convention which had been made in 1828. Very for tunately, however, for the French, during that time a party was raised up against Oribe. This party consisted of the Unitarians who had fled from Buenos Ayres, and strangers who had come to reside in the Republic of Uruguay. At the head of this party was General Riveira, and he suceeeded in driving Oribe out of Monte Video, became president of the Republic of Uruguay, and assisted the French in their blockade of Buenos Ayres. Subsequently to this, in 1840, the French thought proper to make peace with General Rosas; and in the treaty of peace Rosas agreed to respect the Convention of 1828, and the independence of Monte Video. General Riveira, however, and his party did not come to terms of peace with Buenos Ayres, but continued to invade the country of the Argentine Confederation at the head of a band of Unitarians. Riveira was subsequently defeated, and in a short time Oribe succeeded in passing between Riveira and Monte Video. Oribe afterwards invaded the Banda Oriental country, which he did for the sole purpose, as he declared in his proclamation, of recovering his legitimate authority. General Rosas gave Oribe assistance, acting in the spirit of the Convention of 1828, which bound him to assist the legitimate Government of Monte Video in regaining its authority. Oribe gained possession of the whole territory of UruVOL. LXXXIII. {Series) Third town of Monte Video held out against him. In 1842, England offered her mediation between Oribe and Riveira, and, in 1843, France and England offered their joint mediation between the belligerent partiesbut their mediation was refused. In 1843, at the instigation of Viscount Abrantes, they thought fit to interfere. Now, it must be borne in mind, that at that time General Oribe represented the lawful Government of Monte Video. Oribe was in possession of the whole country, except the town of Monte Video itself. Riveira had been defeated in the field; and the party who were cooped up in the town consisted of Italians, French, and Unitarians, only one hundred and fifty natives being in arms against Oribe, and that number had since that time been reduced to fifty natives. At that moment England interfered. For what purpose? Not surely to prevent the effusion of blood, because, had they not then interfered, Oribe would have recovered his power; permanent peace would have been established between Buenos Ayres and Monte Video; and at the same time, according to the bound words of General Rosas, the integrity of the Republic of Uruguay would have been secured. The intervention had prevented that happy result, and had caused the continuance of horrors which before they had tried to prevent, whilst in the distant provinces of the Argentine Confederation it caused the renewal of that frightful war known as the war between the Federalists and the Unitarians. Inspired by the hopes which the intervention raised, General Paz was allowed by the Brazilian Government to traverse their territories and invade Corrientes, a province of the Argentine republic, in which province, as well as in Entrerios, he was endeavouring to raise a revolt against the Government of General Rosas. If, therefore, the cessation of this effusion of blood was the noble Earl's object, this measure had tended to produce the very opposite effect, as peace had been prevented, and a new war commenced, in consequence of the intervention. Another object which had been put forward by the noble Earl for that intervention was the opening of the River Parana, and the other tributaries of the River Plate. Undoubtedly such an opening up of those rivers would be most desirable for the interests of British commerce. But the opening of the River 2 P Parana depended essentially upon General | ject could only be to support an armed reRosas, as it ran through a territory both bellious faction in Monte Video, consisting sides of which belonged to him. We could of Italians, French, and Unitarians, who not force a country, contrary to its own had purchased and sold the public property, desire, to open up its rivers; because, if and who were, through their lying instruwe insisted upon going up the River Pa- ments, the press, raising up every kind of rana, we should be establishing a most evil passion. For them had the noble dangerous precedent, and the Americans Earl interfered against Buenos Ayres and might just as well insist on going down against General Rosas, who could alone the St. Lawrence. Again, England's in- give us command of the River Plate, and tervention was not to prevent a war be- in whose power alone it was to advance tween nation and nation, but a war be- the interests of British commerce. Let tween a faction in Monte Video and the their Lordships look for an instant to the remainder of the State-it was purely an instructions which the noble Earl had sent internal war. The inconvenient conse-out to Mr. Ouseley, the only document quences of that intervention seemed to have struck the right hon. Baronet at the head of the Government; for he said in the House of Commons, in May, 1844— "Let the House only look at the consequences of such a precedent as that of a neutral State, greatly superior in power, interfering forcibly in the foreign relations, and therefore necessarily in the internal government, of another State. Such a right did not exist by the law of nations; and, if such a step were taken, other powerful States might likewise interfere." which the noble Earl had produced to explain his extraordinary conduct. In the first instance, amongst other general instructions, the noble Earl stated that the determination of Her Majesty's Government to put a termination to the war was shared in by the Government of France, and that it was the intention of the two countries to unite their influence, and, if need be, their force for that purpose. The noble Earl said he did not deny the right That was just what the noble Lord did in of Buenos Ayres to wage war like any the Republic of Uruguay. Then, again, he other independent Power, so long as that should wish to know whether there had war should be conducted according to the been a Convention between England and law of nations, and the practice of civilized France to regulate their strange interfer- men. "But," said the noble Earl, "the ence. He believed that there had been war in which the Argentine arms are at no Convention. Yet could anything be present engaged is waged against a State more contrary to the practice of nations, the independence of which Great Britain or more dangerous in its nature as a pre- is virtually bound to uphold." That, howcedent, than that two powerful States ever, was not the case; for, instead of should interfere with States like those of being a declaration of war against the South America, where the minds of people Argentine State, this war had been comwere naturally led to believe that self-menced to support the independence of the interest and aggrandizement were the sole Argentine State against a mere faction of grounds for an intervention where there foreigners. He continued-" and the obwas no Convention to which they could appeal no positive act or instrument beyond an instruction to our Minister, which could be shown to prove that there was no such intention. There might be some understanding between the noble Earl and the French Government; but, if so, let the noble Earl produce the Papers. Instructions sent out to our Minister, and instructions to the French Minister, were not sufficient; for it had been the invariable practice on similar occasions to guarantee all by a Convention. He repeated, he should like to know whether the noble Earl had taken the step he had taken to protect British commerce. Why, it was ruinous to British commerce, as the noble Earl would soon find out from the ruined merchants of Buenos Ayres; and the ob ject of that war is to place the domestic Government of Monte Video in hands other than those to which the consent of the State has entrusted it." How could that be? Was not the election of Oribe a lawful election? He had all the people with him-fifty only of the natives had opposed him; and what did the noble Earl recommend as the means of establishing the lawful power of Monte Video, there being then two Presidents-Oribe, elected lawfully by the people, and Riveira, elected by a faction? Why, the noble Lord said, in his instructions to Mr. Ouseley "With the view, therefore, of setting at rest all jealousy on this score, it might perhaps be well that the conditions of peace should include on one side territory, and, on the other, that any political refugees or other persons, whose presence in the removal of General Oribe from the Monte Videan |