forbid French imports. Guizot rejected these ideas. He did not consider that Rosas contravened the Mackau-Arana treaty because the Confederation was not actually at war with Uruguay, but was merely supporting one Uruguayan faction against the other. He did not think that the French economy could be further benefited by taking action in La Plata, nor that it was workable to keep a colony in the zone. In respect to humanitarian reasons, he dismissed the purported Rosist crimes because they were based on reports by the Unitarian Florencio Varela, who had no reputation as an impartial reporter. However, Guitoz ultimately agreed to the proposal, in order to foster an alliance with Britain and reduce the popular acclaim of Thiers. Brazilian viscount Miguel Calmon du Pin e Almeida met the British Lord Aberdeen, to request that Brazil join Britain and France in the action against Rosas. But Britain did not have good relations with Brazil at that time, so Aberdeen rejected the Brazilian aid. Aberdeen complained that, if Brazil thought that civilization was tied with free trade, Brazil should accept extending their free trade agreement with Britain before imposing it on Rosas, and that if Brazil was concerned with humanitarian reasons they should start by abolishing slavery in their own country. Then he met Guizot, who was not receptive either. Guizot felt forced by circumstances to join a war where he did not expect to earn anything, and was reluctant to involve French troops in it. Britain would not resort to ground troops either, as the British invasions of the Río de la Plata had proved them ineffective. The viscount informed the Brazilian court of the Anglo-French resolution. The public purposes of the war were to protect the Uruguayan independence against Oribe, defend the recently proclaimed independence of Paraguay, and ended the civil wars at La Plata. He also revealed the secret purposes: To turn Montevideo into a "commercial factory", to force the free navigation of the rivers, to turn the Argentine Mesopotamia into a new country, to set the borders of Uruguay, Paraguay and the Mesopotamia (without Brazilian intervention), and to help the antirosistas to depose the governor of Buenos Aires and to establish one loyal to the European powers. For the viscount, it was an all-losing situation for Brazil: if the intervention was defeated, they would be helpless against the counter-attack of Rosas, Oribe and perhaps the Ragamuffins; and