Ayres. Amongst these advantages are the
following:--

The creation of an Independent State on the eastern bank of the River
Plate has given the commercial nations of Europe trading with those vast
countries of South America, whose only means of intercourse with the
rest of the world is through that River, a greatly increased security
against being again cut off from communication with them, as they were
during the Brazilian blockade, in the years 1825, 6, and 7. At that
time, both banks of the river were involved in the war, the city of
Monte Video being in the hands of the Brazilians, and the Province which
now forms the Republic of Uruguay being in arms against them. The
consequence of this state of things was, that the whole of the countries
watered by the great rivers Parana, Paraguay, Uruguay, and their
innumerable tributary streams, as well as the provinces of Buenos Ayres
and Monte Video, were cut off from all communication with Europe for
nearly three years, and that the great commerce which even then was
carried on by England and other nations with those countries, was for
the time destroyed. Some notion may be formed of the inconvenience which
this country alone sustained from the blockade of the river, from the
following facts. In the years 1822, 3, 4, and 5, the four years
preceding it, the average annual value of the exports from England to
the River Plate, was L909,330, whilst in 1826, 7, and 8, during the
blockade, it fell to L279,463, and in 1827, to L150,000, and even that
small remnant of trade was carried on by vessels which broke the
blockade. At a subsequent period, namely, in the years 1838-9, and 40,
there was again a blockade in the River Plate, established by France, a
power much more capable of making a blockade respected than Brazil, but
as the east bank of the river was no longer under the control of Buenos
Ayres, which was the power against whom the blockade was directed, the
evils resulting from it were comparatively small. Foreign ships were
still able to proceed to Monte Video, (thanks to the independence of
Uruguay), and thus, although one line of intercourse with the interior
was cut off by the blockade of the port of Buenos Ayres, the other up
the river Uruguay was kept open. In consequence of this, the evils of
the blockade were, in a great measure, confined to the city of Buenos
Ayres and its immediate neighbourhood, for the eastern bank of the river
flourished more than ever, the c