the sine quâ non condition of her counsel and assistance to Spain, in negociation with her Colonies.

To come now to the Second Charge against Great Britain;—the alleged violation of general International Law.-Has it ever been admitted as an axiom, or ever been observed by any Nation or Government, as a practical maxim, that no circumstances, and no time, should entitle a de facto Government, to recognition? or should entitle Third Powers, who may have a deep interest in defining and establishing their Relations with a de facto Government, to do so?

Such a proceeding on the part of Third Powers, undoubtedly does not decide the Question of Right against the Mother Country.

The Netherlands had thrown off the supremacy of Spain, long be fore the end of the Sixteenth Century; but that supremacy was not formally renounced by Spain till the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Portugal declared, in 1640, her Independence of the Spanish Monarchy; but it was not till 1668 that Spain, by Treaty, acknowledged that Independence.

During each of these intervals, the abstract Rights of Spain may be said to have remained unextinguished. But Third Powers did not, in either of these instances, wait the slow conviction of Spain, before they thought themselves warranted to establish direct relations, and even to contract intimate Alliances with the Republick of The United Netherlands, as well as with the new Monarchy of the House of Braganza.

The separation of the Spanish Colonies from Spain, has been neither our work, nor our wish. Events, in which the British Government had no participation, decided that separation,—a separation, which, we are still of opinion, might have been averted, if our counsels had been listened to in time. But, out of that separation, grew a state of things, to which it was the duty of the British Government (in proportion as it became the plain and legitimate interest of the Nation whose welfare is committed to its charge) to conform its measures, as well as its language, not hastily and precipitately, but with due deliberation and circumspection.

To continue to call that a Possession of Spain, in which all Spanish occupation and power had been actually extinguished and effaced, could render no practical service to the Mother Country;-but it would have risked the Peace of the World. For all Political Communities are responsible to other Political Communities for their conduct,—that is, they are bound to perform the ordinary international duties, and to afford redress for any violation of the Rights of others by their Citizens or Subjects.

Now, either the Mother Country must have continued responsible for acts, over which it could no longer exercise the shadow of a control; or the inhabitants of those Countries, whose independent political

existence was, in fact, established, but to whom the acknowledgment of that Independence was denied, must have been placed in a situation, in which they were either wholly irresponsible for all their actions, or were to be visited, for such of those actions as might furnish ground of complaint to other Nations, with the punishment due to Pirates and Outlaws.

If the former of these alternatives,-the total irresponsibility of unrecognised States,-be too absurd to be maintained; and if the latter,the treatment of their inhabitants as pirates and outlaws,―be too monstrous to be applied, for an indefinite length of time, to a large portion of the habitable globe ;-no other choice remained for Great Britain, or for any Country having intercourse with the Spanish American Provinces, but to recognise, in due time, their political existence as States, and thus to bring them within the pale of those rights and duties, which civilized Nations are bound mutually to respect, and are entitled reciprocally to claim from each other.

The example of the late Revolution in France, and of the ultimate happy restoration of His Majesty, Louis XVIII, is pleaded by M. Zea in illustration of the principle of unextinguishable right in a legitimate Sovereign; and of the respect to which that right is entitled from all Foreign Powers; and he calls upon Great Britain, in justice to Her own consistency, to act with the same reserve towards the New States of Spanish America, which She employed, so much to Her honour, towards Revolutionary France.

But can M. Zea need to be reminded, that every Power in Europe, and specifically Spain amongst the foremost, not only acknowledged the several successive Governments, de facto, by which the House of Bourbon was first expelled from the Throne of France, and afterwards kept for near a Quarter of a Century out of possession of it, but contracted intimate alliances with them all; and above all, with that which M. Zea justly describes as the strongest of de facto Governments, -the Government of Bonaparte; against whom, not any principle of respect for the rights of Legitimate Monarchy, but his own ungovernable ambition, finally brought combined Europe into the field?

There is no use in endeavouring to give a specious colouring to facts which are now the property of history.

The Undersigned is, therefore, compelled to add, that Great Britain herself cannot justly accept the praise which M. Zea is willing to ascribe to Her in this respect, nor can She claim to be altogether exempted from the general charge of having treated with the Powers of the French Revolution.

It is true, indeed,, that up to the year 1796, she abstained from treating with revolutionary France, long after other Powers of Europe had set her the example. But the reasons alleged in Parliament, and in State Papers, for that abstinence, was the unsettled state of the

French Government. And it cannot be denied that, both in 1796 and 1797, Great Britain opened a Negociation for peace with the Directory of France; a Negociation, the favourable conclusion of which would have implied a recognition of that form of Government:—that in 1801 She made peace with the Consulate that, if in 1806 She did not conclude a Treaty with Bonaparte, Emperor of France, the Negociaation was broken off merely on a question of terms; and that if, from 1808 to 1814, she steadily refused to listen to any Overtures from France, she did so, declaredly and notoriously, on account of Spain alone, Whom Bonaparte pertinaciously refused to admit as Party to the Negociation.

Nay, further, it cannot be denied that, even in 1814, the year in which the Bourbon Dynasty was eventually restored, Peace would have been made by Great Britain with Bonaparte, if he had not been unreasonable in his demands; and Spain cannot be ignorant that, even after Bonaparte was set aside, there was question among the Allies, of the possible expediency of placing some other than a Bourbon on the Throne of France.

The appeal, therefore, to the conduct of the Powers of Europe, and even to that of Great Britain herself, with respect to the French Revolution, does but recall abundant instances of the recognition of de facto Governments: by Great Britain, perhaps, later, and more reluctantly, than by others, but by Great Britain herself, however reluctant, after the example set to her by the other Powers of Europe, and specifically by Spain. There are two other Points in M. Zea's Note, which appear to call for particular observation.

M. Zea declares, that The King of Spain will never recognise the New States of Spanish America, and that His Majesty will never cease to employ the force of arms against His rebellious Subjects in that Part of the World.

We have neither the pretension nor the desire to controul His Catholic Majesty's conduct:-but this declaration of M.Zea, comprises a complete justification of our conduct, in having taken the opportunity which, to us, seemed ripe for placing our relations with the New States of America on a definite footing. For this declaration plainly shows, that the complaint against us, is not merely as to the mode, or the time of our advances towards those States; it shows that the dispute between us and Spain, is not merely as to the question of fact, whether the internal condition of any of those States be such as to justify the entering into definite relations with them; that it was not merely a reasonable delay for the purpose of verifying contradictory Reports, and of affording opportunity for friendly Negociation, that was required of us: it shows that no extent or forbearance on our part would have satisfied Spain, and that, defer our advances towards the New States as long as we might, we should still have had to make them

without the consent of Spain; for that Spain is determined against all compromise, under any circumstances and at any time, and is resolved upon interminable War with Her late Colonies in America.

M. Zea concludes with declaring, that His Catholic Majesty will protest, in the most solemn manner, against the measures announced by the British Government, as violating existing Treaties, and the imprescriptible rights of the Throne of Spain.

Against what will Spain protest?

It has been proved that no Treaties are violated by us; and we admit that no question of Right is decided, by our recognition of the New States of America.

But if the argument on which this declaration is founded be true, it is eternal; and the offence of which we are guilty, in placing our intercourse with those Countries under the protection of Treaties, is one, of which no time and no circumstances could, in the view of Spain, have mitigated the character.

Having thus entered, with great pain and unwillingness, into the several topics of M. Zea's Note, the Undersigned is directed, in conclusion, to express the anxious hope of his Government, that a discussion now wholly without object may be allowed here to close. The Undersigned is directed to declare to the Spanish Minister, that no feeling of ill-will, or even of indifference, to the interests of His Catholick Majesty, has prompted the steps which His Majesty's Government has taken, that His Majesty still cherishes an anxious wish for the welfare of Spain, and that His Majesty still retains the disposition, and commands the Undersigned, again to renew to His Catholick Majesty's Government the offer, to employ His Majesty's good offices, for the bringing about of any amicable Arrangement, which may yet be practicable, between His Catholick Majesty and the Countries of America which have separated themselves from Spain.

The Chevalier de Los Rios.

The Undersigned, &c.

GEORGE CANNING.

TREATY of Commerce and Navigation between Sardinia and The Ottoman Porte-Signed at Constantinople, 25th of October, 1823.

Publication of the Sardinian Government. NOTIFICAZIONE

con cui

PEcomo. R. Ammiragliato d'ordine di S. M. Pubblica il Trattato conchiuso colla Sublime Porta, le Note dichiarative, e le determinazioni cui diedero luogo le stipulate convenzioni.

(Translation.)

NOTIFICATION of the Most Excellent the Royal Admiralty, by order of the King, containing the Treaty concluded with The Sublime Porte, the Notes Declaratory, and the Resolutions occasioned by the Points agreed. upon.