The trifling amount awarded by Chili, would probably not have been granted at all, but for the earnest remonstrance of Lord Palmerston, warmly seconded by the efforts of the Hon. Mr. Jerningham, British Minister to the Chilian Republic, by whose joint exertions the Government was induced to admit—­that national honour was involved in fulfilling national obligations; though an infinitesimal view of either the one or the other was certainly taken when awarding me the insignificant sum previously mentioned.

In Brazil the case was somewhat different.  It is to His present Imperial Majesty, Don Pedro II. that I owe any investigation of my claims, by the appointment of a Commission (Seccoes), which reported that they ought never to have been withheld, as being my stipulated right.  But even the limited amount awarded in consequence of this decision, was on the point of being further diminished one half by its projected payment in a depreciated currency—­and, had it not been for the intervention of Lord Clarendon, and of the Hon. Mr. Scarlett, British Minister at Rio de Janeiro, of whose zealous exertions in my favour I cannot speak too warmly—­this further injustice would have been perpetrated without the knowledge or sanction of His present Imperial Majesty.

It may be asked, why—­with the clear documentary evidence in my possession—­and now adduced—­I have for so many years endured an amount of obloquy and injustice, which might at any time have been set aside by its publication?  The reply is obvious.  The withholding of my claims by the Governments of both sides the South American Continent, and the ruinous expense to which I was put on account of Chili, entailed upon me many years of pecuniary difficulty.  To have told even the truth—­unbacked as I then was, by the British Government—­would have been to have all my claims set at defiance, so that compulsory discretion was a sufficient reason for my silence.  It was long before I could induce a British Minister to satisfy himself of the rectitude of my conduct—­the soundness of my claims—­or the dishonesty of those who, believing me to be powerless, laughed at reiterated demands for my stipulated rights.  Yet more I have never sought from those to whom I gave liberty and dominion.

There is, however, a reason for the present publication, of which I have never lost sight.  Amidst all the injustice which it has been my lot to sustain, I have ever determined—­for the sake of my family—­to whom my character is an heir-loom—­that no obloquy shall follow me to the grave, for none have I merited.  On the day these volumes see the light, this resolution will be partially fulfilled.  On that day I shall have completed the eighty-third year of a career strangely chequered, yet not undistinguished; and, therefore, the opinions of either Chilians or Brazilians are now of small moment to me in comparison with a reputation which has been demmed worthy of belonging to history.  None of the present ruling