those who raise the banner of liberty and order, would receive the support of every person of upright ideas and sentiments. I pray, my fellow-citizens, that in the exercise of your rights you may only listen to the well-understood interests of the country, and succeed in harmonizing and securing liberty and order on our soil, so that we may thus see our beloved country advance without obstacle in the career of progress, and occupy a distinguished place among the nations.

MANUEL MONTT.

MESSAGE of the President of Peru on the Opening of the Legislative Assembly.-Lima, July 28, 1860.

(Translation.) GENTLEMEN,

LITTLE more than a year has passed since the extraordinary Congress closed its sessions; and the ordinary Legislature having now assembled in virtue of the decree of convocation issued by the Government in the exercise of its constitutional powers, my mind is pervaded by a feeling of patriotic satisfaction, at finding myself again in this honoured place, and in presence of the chosen of the people.

As the serious circumstances which called for the Decree of 11th July last year are well known to all, it would be useless and out of place to repeat at this time what occupied the periodical press for many days, and was the object of undeserved attacks, as well as of substantial and triumphant vindications, which were perhaps unnecessary for the justification of a measure uniformly approved by the people, who embraced it with good will and prepared to elect their representatives within the period prescribed by the laws.

The reasons which supported the Government were undeniable: they rested on the spirit and letter of the Constitution, on the history of the extraordinary Congress, and on the public conscience. That Congress had been convoked for certain definite purposes; it had fulfilled the most important and principal objects of its mission; it had prolonged its sessions for a number of days more than double that which is granted by the fundamental law, and for this reason, among others, the time appointed for the convocation had long passed away; it had convoked, and had convoked itself, assuming the function of the ordinary Congress, which had not been assigned to it, despoiling the Government of its Constitutional powers, and the people of the essential right, inherent in their sovereignty, of electing their representatives upon every occasion determined by law.

The confusion and disorder which such proceedings might produce in the political mechanism and constitutional movement; the responsibility which an imprudent, weak, and culpable acquiescence might entail upon the Government before the nation, before its own conscience, and before the whole world, did not allow of any hesitation; and after serious consideration, and with mature resolution, it was decided at last to take a step for the safety of the institutions and of public order, by issuing the decree of Convocation, which is now fulfilled to the utmost, and triumphantly justified by your meeting here as faithful agents and depositaries of the confidence of the people: an event which is, of itself alone, an answer to all the invectives hurled at that act of the Government, and which condemns that seditious and anarchical idea, which error or malignity has endeavoured to propagate, that the supreme authority had infringed the constitutional law, and ought to descend from his high position. That very decree, the foresight and watchfulness of the Government, and, above all, the good feeling of the people, have preserved order and domestic tranquillity from one end of the Republic to the other; so that you may, without reserve or auxiety, devote yourselves in the present sessions to the improvements and reforms which experience and the counsels of your constituents have suggested as necessary, and to the enactment of beneficial laws tending to the welfare and aggrandizement of the nation, and to the assurance of its future.

Our peaceful relations and fraternal amity with the other Republics of South America remain, with few exceptions, in a satisfactory state. Peru has had serious and weighty cause of complaint for injuries done to her at various periods, and especially of late, by the Government of Ecuador; and as all the applications and efforts on our part to obtain justice and the recognition of our rights had been disregarded and fruitless, it had become necessary to appeal to arms as the last resource. But fortunately the salutary counsels of reason prevailed in the mind of the supreme authority which had succeeded to the aggressive administration, as well as amongst the generality of the citizens; and a Treaty, preceded by sincere and ample satisfaction and the spontaneous acceptance of the ultimatum, put an end to the old disagreements, re-established the relations of friendship and good understanding between the two Republics, and by ridding us of the serious inconveniences of the actual situation, and preventing those which might occur in future, averted the imminent conflict of war, which would have cost torrents of blood and tears, and the desolation of a fraternal people; and as we were not seeking either blood-stained laurels or easy conquests, but asking for justice and vindicating our rights, when the object was obtained by means of honourable stipulations, our generous and

valiant soldiers returned to the shores of their country, leaving only friendly and grateful recollections behind them among the people of Ecuador, and also leaving the Ecuatorians at full liberty to settle among themselves their domestic difficulties, in which we had been very far from interfering.

It may be stated here that those difficulties, far from having been settled in a more or less pacific manner, have become more complicated from the interposition of an entity foreign to the country, to its political interests, to the popular views and tendencies, and even to the sympathies of Ecuatorian society in general. To this fresh element of disunion and disorder, to the exasperation of parties, to insidious and ignoble machinations, conceived in impotence and spite, will that unfortunate country owe the indefinite prolongation of the civil war, as well as disasters and devastations much more grievous and severe than those which might have been inflicted on her by an external war from which she has just freed herself.

To interest the people by playing upon their candour, and to inflame their passions to their own injury, recourse is had to fraud and imposture; by calumnies and absurd vulgarities it is sought to make Peru odious to them; Peru that has never given them aught but proofs of friendship, that has declined to interfere in their political affairs, that has never defrauded them, but, on the contrary, has poured immense treasures into their territory, whilst her forces were stationed on their shores; and that has finally conceded to them by Treaty such frank and generous conditions, that she has been exposed to some censure arising from a zealous feeling, excusable though excessive.

But neither Peru nor her Government will allow ignoble caprices and senseless aspirations to spoil and overthrow the work of conciliation and peace which has cost such labour and sacrifice, so much time and treasure; they will not allow the interests and rights, the dignity and honour of the nation, and the securities obtained for the future to be trifled with, by returning to the former position of infamous outrages and noisy scandals.

It is painful to inform you that the Cabinet of Bolivia, far from appreciating and showing itself grateful for the proofs of friendship and goodwill which it has ever received on the part of Peru and her Government at all times and under all circumstances; far from satisfying the Republic for the injuries and outrages with which it has so often transgressed our rights, breaking solemn compacts, inundating our markets with base money, and trying our sufferance with imperturbable tenacity in every way; not only has it always disregarded the justice of our demands; not only has it continued insensible to all the applications addressed to it in amicable and conciliatory terms, but setting forth imaginary complaints and

grievances to complicate and paralyze the matters in question, to put off and obstruct every definitive arrangement, and last of all, attributing to us hostile intentions, without being able to charge us with a single aggressive act that could give proof of them, it suddenly launched a decree of rigorous interdiction, which, though it at first injured the commerce of our adjacent provinces, will doubtless injure to a much greater extent the impoverished people and exhausted treasury of Bolivia; without, perhaps, preventing by those imprudent sacrifices, not the blows of Peru, which it pretends to fear in order to obtain support and a favourable reaction amongst its oppressed and exasperated people, but in reality those of a different nature and origin which it well knows and is afraid of.

The Government in the mean time will remark that the Cabinet of Bolivia presents itself before Peru and the whole world as a declared enemy; that it throws down the gauntlet as unexpectedly as arrogantly; and the Government will be prepared in any case to repel and repress any attacks, machinations, or sinister enterprises whatever; and it will not be surprising if the course of events should place it under the hard necessity of bringing an insidious and faithless Government to a strict account, not only for past injustice and wrong, but also for those of the present time. Nevertheless, the Government will still hope that the Cabinet of Bolivia may reflect upon and amend its policy, and we shall not neglect either the means or the opportunities that may occur for reuniting with us, a friendly, fraternal, and neighbouring people in bonds which ought never to have been severed.

With the powers beyond the seas we maintain friendly and courteous relations; we faithfully observe the Treaties which bind us to some of them; we do justice to their demands, and we receive their respective subjects with manifest proofs of goodwill and

esteem.

A question of simple origin, respecting a subject of the French Empire was about to become rather serious, on account of purposely falsified reports, by which endeavours were made to alter its nature, and give it a hateful character. But the Imperial Cabinet, prudent and moderate, came to the well adapted resolution of sending to the Government a noble, intelligent, and sagacious personage, with a commission to arrange the affair in a definitive manner; when this was thoroughly examined with due impartiality, the facts made. known and plainly discussed and cleared up, it was not difficult to arrive at conclusions satisfactory and honourable to both parties; and it is to be hoped that we shall very soon receive notice of the Emperor's acquiescence therein.

Another question, that should have been still more simple, is still pending with the Cabinet of Washington, which demands indemnifi

cation from us for which in truth we are not legally answerable. Two North American vessels, infringing and contemning our laws, our political principles, and our rights and privileges as a sovereign nation, abstracted guano from our islands, taking it against express and decisive prohibitions, decrees and regulations still in force. Having been surprised and captured, they were tried and condemned according to the laws which rule in every civilised country, and in the full plenitude of right. Then an attempt was made to frustrate the action of the laws and to render the executory judgment nugatory; and recourse was had, as an extreme and desperate measure, to diplomatic proceedings, which are certainly free and quite applicable to matters of another kind, but are restricted by right and custom, by justice and reason, and even, it may be said by morality, from facts and cases of such a nature as the present.

But, notwithstanding that civilized nations of South America and of Europe have pronounced in our favour, and that the enlightened Government of Chile has justly and rationally acquiesced in the sentence of our tribunals in an identical case, wherein Chilean vessels had been guilty of the same offence, at the same time, and under similar circumstances, we have not been able to see the end of this strange and unpleasant question. But it is to be hoped that the impartial counsels of a cautious and equitable policy will at last induce the North American Government to acknowledge the incontestible justice which is on our side, either by not insisting on such a demand, or by submitting the matter to the arbitration of some power friendly alike to both Republics. This is an easy and customary means, adopted by all civilized nations to obtain an honourable and amicable solution of still more serious questions, when the parties have not been able to agree; a means the more acceptable and decorous in the present case, as the final object of the controversy is merely pecuniary. And in support of the ideas which I have just expressed, grounded on the caution and equity which must direct the proceedings of North American diplomacy, I think it right to tell you, that as the distinguished and able representative of that Republic is now in communication with the Government on the subject of the pending question, we may reasonably expect a satisfactory solution.

And here I must call to mind, Gentlemen, the disagreeable and humiliating position in which the Government frequently finds itself, from the imperious and violent manner in which strong Powers are accustomed to exact and wrest from it indemnifications, always exorbitant, and frequently not due. In this way Peru has been despoiled of immense treasures, of which no small part has been carried off in triumph by captious and basely covetous speculators, for whose advantage, and as a reward for having trampled on the laws,