Manuscript DS, signed “George R,” one page both sides, 9.25 x 14.5, May 10, 1825. Warrant by which King George IV orders Lord High Chancellor John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, to "cause the Great Seal of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to be affixed to an Instrument bearing date with these Presents (a Copy whereof is hereunto annexed) containing Our Ratification of a Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation between Us and The United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, concluded an signed at Buenos Ayres on the second day of February 1825." Prominently signed at the head by King George IV, and countersigned at the conclusion by Foreign Secretary George Canning. The white paper seal affixed at the upper left remains intact.
Bound to the document with a navy blue ribbon is a 23-page manuscript containing the bilingual text of the treaty in English and Spanish, making provisions for friendship, trade, duties, navigation, religious freedoms, and the suppression of the slave trade. The most interesting provision is "Article XIV," in full: "His Brittanick Majesty being extremely desirous of totally abolishing the Slave Trade, the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata engage to cooperate with His Britannick Majesty for the completion of so beneficent a work, and to prohibit all Persons inhabiting within the said United Provinces, or subject to their Jurisdiction, in the most effectual manner, and by the most solemn Laws, from taking any share in such Trade."
"Article XII" provides for religious freedoms, in part: "The Subjects of His Britannick Majesty residing in the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, shall not be disturbed, persecuted, or annoyed on account of their Religion, but they shall have perfect liberty of Conscience therein, and to celebrate the Divine Service either within their own private Houses, or in their own particular Churches or Chapels, which they shall be at liberty to build and maintain in convenient places, approved of by the Government of the said United Provinces." In fine condition.
With this 'Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation' between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces of the River Plata (predecessor of modern Argentina), the UK—the most dominant world power at the time—recognized the 1816 Argentine Declaration of Independence, making provisions for peaceful trade, religious freedoms for British subjects residing in Argentina, and the suppression of the Atlantic slave trade.
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