The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in London within four months, or sooner if possible.
In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed their seals thereunto.
Done at Buenos Ayres, the second day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.
(Signed) Woodbine Parish.
Manuel José Garcia.
Note.—This was the first treaty entered into by any European power with the new Republics of America;—whilst it provided a necessary safeguard to British subjects resorting to that part of the world, it was of great importance to the Buenos Ayreans, not only in a political but in a moral sense, struggling as they were, in the infancy of their institutions, under the difficult task which they had undertaken of attempting to constitute a Government diametrically opposed in form and principles to the whole system of legislation whereby the country had been ruled for three centuries, and which, notwithstanding all their declarations of independence, still hung like a drag-chain about their necks:—under such circumstances every true patriot and advocate for civilization hailed it as the best possible guarantee of sound and liberal principles, whilst, on the other hand, the supporters of the old Spanish laws were proportionately discouraged, as they saw in it the death-blow to the old colonial policy of the mother-country.
No. 5.
Copy, in the Guarani Language, of the Memorial addressed by the people of the mission of San Luis, praying that the Jesuits might be allowed To remain with them. Dated 28th February, 1768.
I. H. S.
Señor Governador,