152 APPKNBIX. 



the Rio de la Plata, to the rights of Great Britain, as asserted in that 

 protest ; but the Buenos Ayrean government persisted, notwithstand- 

 ing the receipt of that protest, in exercising those acts of sovereignty 

 against which the protest was specially directed. 



Tlie government of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata 

 could not have expected, after the explicit declaration which had been 

 so formally made of the right of the cro%vn of Great Britain to the 

 islands in question, that his Majesty would sUently submit to such a 

 course of proceeding ; nor could that government have been surprised 

 at the step which his Majesty thought proper to take, in order to the 

 resumption of rights which had never been abandoned, and which 

 had only been permitted to he dormant, under circumstances which 

 had been explained to the Buenos- Ayrean government. 



The claim of Great Britain to the sovereignty of the Falkland 

 Islands having been unequivocally asserted and maintained, during 

 those discussions with Spain, in 1770 and 1771, which nearly led to 

 a war between the two countries, and Spain having deemed it pro- 

 per to put an end to those discussions, by restoring to his Majesty the 

 places from which British subjects had been expelled, the government 

 of the United Provinces could not reasonably have anticipated that 

 the British Government would permit any other state to exercise aright, 

 as derived from Spain, which Great Britain had denied to Spain 

 herself ; and this consideration alone would fuUy justify his Majesty's 

 Government Lq declining to enter into any further explanation upon 

 a question which, upwards of half a century ago, was so notoriously 

 and decisively adjusted with another government more immediately 

 concerned. 



But M. Moreno, in the note which he has addressed to the imder- 

 signed, has endeavoured to shew that, at the termination of the 

 memorable discussions referred to between Great Britain and Spain, 

 a secret understanding existed between the two courts, in virtue of 

 which Great Britain was pledged to restore the islands to Spain at a 

 subsequent period, and that the evacuation of them, in 1774, by his 

 Majesty, was the fulfilment of that pledge. 



The existence of such a secret understanding is alleged to be 

 proved ; first, by the reservation, as to the former right of sovereignty 

 over the islands, which was contained in the Spanish declaration, 

 delivered at the time of the restoration of Port Egmont and its depen- 

 dencies to his Majesty ; and, secondly, by the concurrent description 



