FREE NAVIGATION OF RIVERS.

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Who, after having communicated to each other their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles :—

Art. 1. The Argentine Confederation, in the exercise of her sovereign rights, concedes the free navigation of the rivers Paraná and Uruguay, wherever they may belong to her, to the merchant vessels of all Nations, subject only to the conditions which this treaty establishes, and to the regulations sanctioned or which may hereafter be sanctioned by the National authority of the Confederation.

Art. 2. Consequently, the said vessels shall be admitted to remain, load and unload in the places and ports of the Argentine Confederation which are open for that purpose.

Art. 3. The Government of the Argentine Confederation, desirous to provide every facility for interior navigation, agrees to maintain beacons and marks for setting out the channels.

Art. 4. A uniform system shall be established by the competent authorities of the Confederation for the collection of the Custom-house duties, harbour lights, police and pilotage dues along the whole course of the waters which belong to the Confederation.

Art. 5. The high contracting parties, considering that the island of Martin Garcia may, from its position, embarrass and impede the free navigation of the confluents of the River Plate, agree to use their influence to prevent the possession of the said island from being retained or held by any State of the River Plate or its confluents which shall not have given its adhesion to the principle of their free navigation.

Art. 6. If it should happen (which God forbid) that war should break out between any of the States, Republics, or Provinces, the rivers Paraná and Uruguay shall remain free to the merchant flags of all nations, excepting in what may relate to munitions of war, such as arms of all kinds, gunpowder, lead, and cannon balls.

Art. 7. Power is expressly reserved to His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, and the Governments of Bolivia, Paraguay, and the Oriental State of Uruguay, to become parties to the present treaty in case they should be disposed to apply its principles to the parts of the rivers Paraná, Paraguay, and Uruguay, over which they may respectively possess fluvial rights.

Art. 8. The principal objects for which the rivers Paraná and Uruguay are declared free to the commerce of the world, being to extend the mercantile relations of the countries which border them, and to promote immigration, it is hereby agreed that no favour or immunity shall be

granted to the flag or trade of any other nation which shall not equally extend to those of the United States.

Art. 9. The present treaty shall be ratified on the part of the Government of the United States within fifteen months from its date, and within two days by His Excellency the Provisional Director of the Argentine Confederation, who shall present it to the first Legislative Congress of the Confederation for their approbation.

The ratifications shall be exchanged at the seat of Government of the Argentine Confederation within the term of eighteen months.

In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed this treaty, and affixed thereto their seals.

Done at San José de Flores on the tenth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.-ROBERT Schenk-John S. PENDLETON-SALVADOR MARIA Del Carril—José B. Gorostiaga.

In 1858, General Urquiza's Government concluded a convention with H.B.M.'s Minister, Mr. Christie, at Paraná, for payment of damages caused to British subjects during the civil wars, the claimants receiving 6 per cent. bonds.

PUBLIC MEN.

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CHAP. XI.

BIOGRAPHIES OF PUBLIC MEN.

PRESIDENT SARMIENTO.

DOMINGO FAUstino SarmienTO was born in the town of San Juan at the end of February 1811, nine months after the glorious 25th of May that marks the birthday of the Argentine nation. His father, though uneducated, was an enthusiastic patriot, and took an active part in the revolution which emancipated his native country from the Colonial regime. Finding, at every step, the disadvantages of his ignorance, he determined that his son should not share them, and, from the early age of five years, sent him to school. There young Sarmiento, by his application and talent, gave already signs of his future greatness. Being originally destined for the Church, he was sent, in 1824, to the Loreto Seminary at Cordova; but the revolution of Carita, having deprived him of his Latin master, be began in 1825 to study mathematics and land surveying under Mr. Barreau, the engineer of the province. In the same year he went to San Luis with his relation, the Clerigo Oro, to continue the studies which the revolution of the previous year had interrupted. In 1826, returning to his native town, he hired as clerk in a store, but his nights were devoted either to reading or to discussions with his uncle, Father Albarracin, on the Bible. He took an active part in the campaign that followed against Facundo Quiroga in San Juan, and that against Fraile Aldao in Mendoza, which ended in the catastrophe of Pilar, where he rose to the rank of Captain, and where his courage and presence of mind saved him from many

dangerous chances. The victory of Facundo Quiroga, in Chacon, in 1831, obliged him and most of his companions to emigrate to Chile, where he was successively schoolmaster in the Andes, bar-keeper in Pocuro, clerk in a commercial house in Valparaiso, and major-domo of mines in Copiapo. In 1836 he returned to San Juan, poorer than he had left, and suffering from severe illness. He then, in society with Drs. Rosas, Cortinez, and Aberastain, devoted his energies to promote several institutions of great utility for the province cf San Juan, such as a college for girls, another for boys, a dramatic society, and last, though not least, the Zonda, a weekly publication, that tended to improve and instruct the masses. General Benavides, who was then the absolute ruler of San Juan, took umbrage at the influence and position young Sarmiento was acquiring, and, not only suppressed the Zonda, but left no stone unturned, by vexatious persecution, to oblige him once more to emigrate. In this he at last succeeded; and in November 1840, Sarmiento again crossed the Cordillera, doomed to eat for a long time the hard-earned bread of exile. On his second visit to Chile he began to take an active part in the politics of his adopted country, and, both as editor of several papers, and as a writer of literary works, morc especially of education, he acquired for himself a fame which found echo even in the Old World. In 1816 and 1847 he was sent to Europe on a commission by the Chilian Government, to inspect and report upon schools and educational institutions; and on his return wrote an account of his travels, which he published. By his powerful writings in the periodical press, and in his other works, he contributed to the overthrow of the tyrant Rosas, and also took an active part in the final scene that was enacted on the plains of Caseros, where he held the rank of Chief of the Staff of the Grande Ejercito Libertador, and as such compiled the famous bulletin giving the official account of that celebrated action. Having, however, fallen out with Urquiza, he took up his residence in Buenos Ayres, and continued taking an active part in the troubled politics of those days, principally as editor of the Nacional. He was then appointed InspectorGeneral of Schools, and was able by his great experience and profound knowledge to effect vast improvements in the educational system of the country. After the battle of Cepeda he took office with Governor Mitre as Ministro de Gobierno, until the sad news arrived of the tragical death of his school-fellow and friend, Aberastain, and of the invasion of Juan Saa in the province of San Juan. He disagreed with his colleagues as to the action that the Government of Buenos Ayres was called to assume, and resigned. He subsequently took part in the campaign that was decided on the banks of the Pavon, and at the end of December re-entered San Juan, after

TREATIES OF COMMERCE.

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CHAP. X.

TREATIES OF COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.

THE treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between the Argentine Republic and Great Britain bears date 2nd February 1825, and is as follows:

TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

Extensive commercial intercourse having been established for a series of years between the dominions of His Britannic Majesty, and the territories of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, it seems good for the security, as well as encouragement of such commercial intercourse, and for the maintenance of good understanding between His said Britannic Majesty and the said United Provinces, that the relations now subsisting between them should be regularly acknowledged and confirmed by the signature of a Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation.

For this purpose they have named their respective Plenipotentiarics, that is to say :

His Majesty, the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Woodbine Parish, His said Majesty's Consul-General, in the Province of Buenos Ayres and its dependencies; and the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, Sr. D. Manuel José Garcia, Minister Secretary for the Department of Government, Finance, and Foreign Affairs, of the National Executive Power of the said Provinces.