Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderlands 173

 Wellesley wrote on April 26 that Irujo had received word of the
treaty, and "expressed himself to be on the whole satisfied with it."
Wellesley saw, however, what was to prove to be the most signifi-
cant objection to the document on the part of the Spanish govern-
ment.
 I asked him [wrote the British ambassador whether it contained any stipu-
lations binding the Government of the United States not to acknowledge the
Independence of Buenos Ayres. He said that it contained no such stipulation,
but that he was satidied that such a measure was not in the contemplation of
the American Government.1

 One must note that the United States had just informed Eng-
land that it expected soon to recognize the consul-general appointee
of Buenos Aires and would be pleased if Britain would concur.
Castlereagh not only told Wellesley of this; but gave a less explicit
statement of it to the Spanish ambassador at London, authorizing
him to transmit it to Irujo if he wished."
 Possibly Irujo had sufficient judgment to perceive that, with the
 ratification of the treaty hanging in the balance, the United States
 would hardly give the deliberate affront of recognizing an in-
 surgent Spanish colony. It is to be doubted that he knew that the
 British had declined to act in cooperation with the United States
 in the matter, or that he foresaw internal dissensions in the United
 Provinces of the La Plata which were temporarily to weaken their
 claim to recognition. But in his letter of November 28, 1818, Oni
 had written that the reports of Special Commissioners John Gra-
 ham and Caesar Rodney on the condition of the insurgent prov-
 inces, and the delay in the return of their colleague, Theodorick
 Bland, would probably prevent the recognition of Buenos Aires
 in the coming session of Congress." Irujo received this despatch
 shortly before his conversation with Wellesley, and perhaps it ex-
 plains his statement to the latter.
 The British ambassador also on that occasion told of asking
 Irujo
 whether there was any stipulation restraining the trame in warlike stores with
 the Spanish Insurgents. He mid that there was nothing in the treaty to that
 effect, but that effeetual measures would be taken by the Government of the
 United States for preventing any such traffic in future."

 Onks indeed had turned to conversations on that problem with