The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-07 00:00:00

THE CABINET AND IRISH TENANT

RIGHT.
THE conduct of the present Ministry in rela-
tion to the tenant-right question is extremely
culpable. Some of the officials connected
with the Irish department are more particu-
larly liable to censure, and their proceedings
ought to mit for an explanation.

The tenant-right question is only an un-
solved problem in political economy. In
England the landlords make the improve-
ments, and charge rent accordingly ; in Ireland
(for the most part) the tenants make the im-
provements, and the question for solution is,
how to compensate these tenants when thei
leases determine. We regret to say that the
subject cannot be left to the Irish landlord,-,
or to the laissez faire system, or " no.system,"
of modern political economy. The general
laws of trade, of compact between buyer and
seller, do not apply to this particular case. It
is a problem, certainly, but we do not believe
it to be impossible of solution. •
Though it should not be left to such deeply
interested parties as the landlords of Ireland,
neither should it be handed over to the
murder clubs of Ireland. Parliament has left
the question to " Political Economy," and the
agrarian code has accordingly been enacted in
its bloodiest form in several counties of
Ireland.

Now, let us see what the present Govern-
ment has done, and not done, upon this sub-
ject of twenty years' standing. The question
was to be brought before the House on Wed-
nesday. Mr. GEORGE MOORE was identified
with it, and his antecedents ought to have
taught the Government that they should have
been prepared to meet him. Ministers were
napping ; Mr. HORBEAN was " elsewhere." Mr.
GEORGE MOORE succeeded in getting a most
equivocal bill, with many dangerous provi-
sions, read a second time by a majority of $8
to 59. What then takes place?
On the next morning (Thursday) a reck-
lessly-penned article appears in a favorite
organ of the Cabinet, written in a remarkable
style, and urging on the House of Commons
to fling overboard the measure which it had i
approved of the day before. A newspaper s
appealed to in order to atone for the ladies of
the Government! Then Mr. HoasmAs gots
down to the House of Commons on Thursday
night, and abuses the "Tenant League" of
its
resources. and contemptuously derides
resources. The good easy man forgot that
the agrarian disturbers had long since Iva-

I

JUNE 7, 1856;

dered the Tenant League impotent. Mr.
HoRsMAN was called to order under extra-
ordinary circumstances. It is not the first
time that he has been " disorderly " in his
proceedings, and we surmise that his art-
parliamentary mismanagement of this serious
subject will not improve his relations with the
House of Common•.
It deserves, also, to be noticed that Mr.
Jour D FITZGERALD, the Attorney General for
Ireland, was not in his place to speak on
Wednesday. We have reports now before us
of proceedings in Ireland where this gentle-
man took a very decided part. Does Mr.
FITZGERALD recollect a meeting of Irish Mem-
bers, at Dublin, in 1852, and also another
assembly in London, just before Lord
DERBY S Cabinet fell from power? We recol-
lect these meetings, and we cannot account
for the line now followed by the Member for
Ennis. But Mr. FITZGERALD, though Attorney-
General, is a man of small account. He has
little of an orator, and less of a statesman, in
his intellect. What we censure is the im-
proper conduct of the Cabinet in leaving such
a question to " Agitators."
The subject could be dealt with practically,
if Ministers were in earnest. But on this, and
every other question, Lord PALMERSTON has no
other public object than to bide over the
session, and leave everything exactly as it is !

THE UNITED STATES'
DIFFICULTIES.

OCR relations with the United States have now
assumed so critical and threatening an aspect
that it is desirable to review the proceedings
which have led to the rupture that has taken
place. Two Blue-books have been lately pre-
sented to Parliament—one containing the
" Correspondence with the United States
" respecting Central America," t" other
giving the " Papers relating to Recfuiting in
" the United States." In these books we
shall, if anywhere, find facts to guide our
judgment as to the causes of the complica
tions which exist. We enter on their examina-

tion with no other desire than to grasp the
material points in each case, and to set them
fairly before our readers. As the Central
American question comes first in order of
time, we begin with the Blue-book relating
to it.

THE PRESS.

Governments being brought into collision on account
of this intrinsically worthless country.

In the subsequent communications on the
part of our Government with Mr. CLAYTON and
Mr. LAWRENCE, the United States Minister to
the Court of St. James, it was most expressly
stated that the United States Government
desired no exclusive advantages of any kind
in Nicaragua, and that the Government was
most anxious to conclude an agreement with
Great Britain, that neither country would
" settle, annex, colonise, or fottify," any part
of Central America. The wish of the United
States Government was, that the projected
communication between the two oceans should
be open on equal terms to the whole world,
and the United States Government gave the
best assurance that could be desired of its
sincerity by disavowing the Treaty concluded
by Mr. HIRE, and by forming another Treaty
with Nicaragua for the security of the pro-
posed canal Communication to be executed by
the enterprise of such private capitalists of all
nations as might be disposed to engage in it.
But a difficulty with respect to this Treaty
presented itself. The State of Nicaragua
claimed the whole territory across the isthmus
frogs ocean to ocean, and on that pretension
the treaty with the United States for the
formation of a canal had been founded, while
the British Government supported the claim
of the King of Mosquito to a portion of the
Atlantic coast, and to the territory at the
mouth of the river San Juan, where the town
of Greytown was situated, and where it was
proposed that the canal should commence.
The protectorate of the Mosquito claim by the
British Government was regarded with great
jealousy by the people of the United States,
and the question was—how could this diffi-
culty be got over.
Sir HENRY BIILWER, who was sent by our
Government to negotiate a satisfactory settle-
ment of the question, proposed early in
January, 1850, that the dispute between the
Mosquito King and the State of Nicaragua
should be left aside, and that the Governments
of England and the United States should confine
themselves to a guarantee of the security of
the proposed communication, to be open on
terms of equal advantage to the commerce of
all nations. He wrote to Lord PAL3IERsToN,
February 3, 1850 :
In this view of the case, the protectorate which
her Mtkjesty exercises over the Mosquitos, instead of
being prejudicial to the aforesaid enterprise, may be
an essential element in its favour, and all that
seemed to be required in order to brig Great Bri-
tain and the United States to a perfect understand •
ing is, that both should abandon every particular
advantage, the one such as might be derived from
the protectorate over the Mosquitos, and the other
such as might be derived from any contract or treaty
with Nicaragua ; and, to make the fact that they do
so clear and palpable, taking as their basis of their
thorough good understanOing the construction of
that canal which offers benefits common to the two,
and droppiricr as a point of controversy those disputes
as to the Nicaraguan and Mosquito territory, on
which it is next to impossible that they should come
to any arrangement

It was on this basis that the Bulwer-Clay-
ton Treaty Was It 'med. But it «•ill be seen
that the main difficulty was cushioned not
removed. The United States Government
perceived, and could not help perceiving, that
so long as the Mosquitos retained possession
of part of the Nicaraguan territory, and so
long as the British protectorate over the Mus-
quitos remained in force, the British Govern
ment might Jo covertly, what it covenanted
not to do openly, as the governing council of
the Mosquitos was entirely composed of Eng-
lishmen. Sir H. BITLWER wrote to Lord PAL-
MERSTON, Feb, 18, 1k.1.50:
I ought not to disguise from your Lordship that
this question is becoming, the longer it remains in
abeyance, the more intricate and perplexing ; and
that it contains within it, if not the seeds of actual
war, the seeds of such hostile and angry excitement
as render war always possible, and very often pro
duce many of the evils of war, even when war itself
is not produced.
The United States Government constantly
and consistently wished for some arrange-
ment by which the Mosquito Indians might
be induced to resign their claim, ample com-
pensation being given to them, and the British
protectorate be thus absolutely put au end

531

to. But Sir H. BULWER was of opinion that it
was

impossible for us now to give up the country
claimed by the Mosquitos to the Nicaraguans on
any pretext, or in any manner whatsoever, or to
abandon this Feople for any object. or under the
asp.ct of any danger, to extermination, or to the
hostility of any class of enemies.

Hence, when the Bnlwer•Clayton Treaty was
concluded, the seeds of war were suffered to
remain, though at the suggestion of Sir
HENRY their vitality was as far as possible
neutralised by a declaration that

the British Government had no intention to make
use of the protection which Great Britain affords to
the people of Mosquito for the purpose of doing,
under cover of that protection, any of the things the
intention to do which is disclaimed.
The Treaty itself, in reference to its main
purpose of securing the neutrality of the pro-
posed shin-carnal, declared in its first article
that the Governments of Great Britain and
the United States agree—
That neither will ever occupy, or fortify, or colo-
nise, or assume, or exercise, any dominion over
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any
part of Central Amer►ca.

Before this convention was ratified, Sir H.
BULWER received instructions from Lord PAL-
MERSTON to make a declaration to the Secre-
tary of the United States that nothing con-
tained in the Convention should apply to " her
" Majesty's Settlement of Honduras or its de
" pendencies." This declaration was accepted by
Mr CLAYTON without dispute; and it is on the
meaning to he attached to the above clause in
the Convention, and to the phrase " Honduras
and its dependencies," that the dispute on the
Bulwer Clayton Treaty has arisen. Mr. CLAY-
TON stated to Sir H. BULWER that the Conven-
tion was not intended on either side to apply
to British Honduras, or "to the small islands
"in the neighbourhood of that settlement
" which may be called its dependencies."

Since the Convention was signed in April
1850 until the present time, the Governments
of England and the United States have been
constantly engaged in negotiations to effect
some settlement of the port and town of Grey-
town, either by yielding it to the State of
Nicaragua, in consideration of a fixed payment
or a scale of duties, or by annexing it to the
State of Costa Rica, or by declaring the port a
free port, under guarantee of England and the
United States,—regard being always had to the
claims of the Mosquito Indians for compensa-
tion. From a variety of causes, and principally
from the obstinate refusal of the State of
Nicaragua to agree to any proposed terms, no
settlement has been made, and meanwhile
serious difficulties have occurred from the
anomalous position in which Greytown was
placed,—as when H.M.S. Express compelled
the American steamer Prometheus to pay the
duties demanded by the port authorities, and
when Captain HowNs compelled the Coun-
cil of Greytown to refrain from interference
with the station of a United States Company,
which the Council asserted to be in their
jurisdiction. In reference to the latter pre.
ceeding, Lord CLARENDON wrote (April 29,
1853), pressing for a settlement of

the hazardous question of the future position of
Greytown, the Mosquito kingdom, and Central
America generally Until the matter be
finally disposed of . . .
continue to assert the title of Mosquito to those
boundaries which have always been claimed by that
territory, and in so asserting those boundaries Great
Britain must still repel any aggression within those
limits which may be committed by Nicaragua, Hon-
duras, or any other Central American Power.

A new source of difficulty had shortly before
arisen. In July, 1852, a proclamation was
issued by the Governor of British Honduras,
that certain islands off the coast of Central
America, comprising Ruatan and Bonacca, were
to be formed into a British colony under the
title of the Bay of Islands. When this act
was brought under consideration of the Go-
vernment of the United States, the right of
Great Britain to these islands was contested,
while the answer of our Government was, that
they were included under the title of depen-
dencies of the [colony of British Honduras.
The United States Government reply that the
position is untenable, as the principal islands

I

, . . . .
JUNE 7, 1856; THE PRESS. 531
dered the Tenant League impotent. Mr. ' Governments being brought into collision on account to. But Sir H. BULWER was of opinion that it
HORSMAN was called to order under extra- of this intrinsically worthless country. was
ordinary circumstances. It is not the first In the subsequent communications on the impossible for us now to give tip the country
time that he has been " disorderly" in his part of our Government with Mr. CLAYTON and claimed by the Mosquitos to the Nicaraguans on
proceedings, and we surmise that his un- Mr. LAWRENCE, the United States Minister to any pretext, or in any manner whatsoever, or to
parliamentary mismanagement of this serious the Court of St. James, it was most expressly abandon this Feople for any object, or under the
subject will not improve his relations with the stated that the United States Government aspect of any danger, to extermination, or to the
House of Common,. desired no exclusive advantages of any kind hostility of any class of enemies.
It deserves, also, to be noticed that Mr. in Nicaragua, and that the Government was
Hence, when the Bulwer-Clayton Treaty was
Joins D FITZGERALD, the Attorney-General for most anxious to conclude an agreement with concluded, the seeds of war were suffered to
Ireland, was not in his place to speak on Great Britain, that neither country
would
remain, though at the suggestion of Sir
Wednesday. We have reports now before us " settle, annex, colonise, or foitify," any part HENRY their vitality was as far as possible
of proceedings in Ireland where this gentle- of Central America. The wish of the United neutralised by a declaration that
man took a very decided part. Does Mr. States Government was, that the projected the British Government had no intention to make
FITZGERALD recollect a meeting of Irish Mem- communication between the two oceans should use of the protection which Great Britain affords to
bers, at Dublin, in 1852, and also another be open on equal terms to the whole world, the people of Mosquito for the purpose of doing,
assembly in London, just before Lord and the United States Government gave the under cover of that protection, any of the things the
DERBY S Cabinet fell from power? We recol- best assurance that could be desired of its intention to do which is disclaimed.
lect these meetings, and we cannot account sincerity by disavowing the Treaty concluded The Treaty itself, in reference to its main
for the line now followed by the Member for by Mr. HISE, and by forming another Treaty purpose of securing the neutrality of the pro-
Ennis. But Mr. FITZGERALD, though Attorney- with Nicaragua for the security of the pro- posed ship-canal, declared in its first article
General, is a man of small account. He has posed canal communication to be executed by that the Governments' of Great Britain and
little of an orator, and less of a statesman, in the enterprise of such private capitalists of all the United States agree—
his intellect. What we censure is the im- nations as might be disposed to engage in it. . That neither will ever occupy, or fortify, or proper conduct of the Cabinet in leaving such But a difficulty with respect to this Treaty
colo-
n question to " Agitators." presented itself. The State of Nicaragua nice, or assume, or exercise, any dominion over
Nicaragua,
Central
Rica, the osquito coast, or any
The subject could be dealt with practically, claimed the whole territory across the isthmus part of merica.
if Ministers were in earnest. But on this, and frogs ocean to ocean, and on that pretension
every other question, Lord PALMERSTON has no the treaty with the United States for the Before this convention was ratified, Sir H.
other public object than to bide over the formation of a canal had been founded, while BULWER received instructions from Lord PAL-
session, and leave everything exactly as it is! the British Government supported the claim MERSTON to make a declaration to the Seere-
of the King of Mosquito to a portion of the ttaryedof. theti United
tStates_ thatld nothing
,chon-
ieConven Convention apply'to` er
THE UNITED STATES' Atlantic coast,. and to the territory at the
mouth of the river San Juan, where the town " Majestn,y's Settlement of Honduras or itsde
" pendencies." This declaration was accepted by
DIFFICULTIES. of Greytown was situated, and where it was
proposed that the canal should commence. Mr CLAYTON without dispute; and it is on the
The protectorate of the Mosquito claim by the meaning to he attached to the above clause in
OUR relations with the United States have now British Government was regarded with great the Convention, and to the phrase " Honduras
assumed so critical and threatening an aspect and its dependencies," that the dispute on the
jealousy by the people of the United States,
that it is desirable to review the proceedings and the question was—how could this diffi- Bulwer Clayton Treaty has arisen. Mr. CLAY-
which have led to the rupture that has taken culty be got over. TON stated to Sir H. BULWER that the Conven-
tion was not intended on either side to apply
Sir HENRY BIILWER, who was sent by our
place. Two Blue-books have been lately pre- to British Honduras, or "to the small islands
Government to negotiate a rettisfactory settle- . ,
sented to Parliament—one containing the :` in
.tne neighbourhood of that settlement
ment of the question, proposed early in
" Correspondence with the United States January, 1850, that the dispute between the • which may be called its dependencies."
" respecting Central America," t" other Mosquito King arid the State of Nicaragua Since the Convention was signed in April
giving the " Papers relating to Recruiting in should be left aside, and that the Governments 1850 until the present time, the Governments
" the United States." In these books we of England and the United States should confine of England and the United States have been
themselves to a guarantee of the security of constantly engaged in negotiations to effect
shall, if anywhere, find facts to guide our the proposed communication, to be open on some settlement of the port and town of Grey-
judgment as to the causes of the eomplica• terms of equal advantage to the commerce of town, either by yielding it to the State of
tions which exist. We enter on their examina- all nations. He wrote to Lord PALMERSTON, Nicaragua, in consideration of a fixed payment
lion with no oche: desire than to grasp the
February 3, 1850 : or a scale of duties, or by annexing it to the
In this view of the case, the protectorate which State of Costa Rica, or by declaring the port a
material points in each case, and to set them her Majesty exercises over the Mosquitos, instead of free port, under guarantee of England and the
fairly before our readers. As the Central being prejudicial to the aforesaid enterprise, may be United States,—regard being always had to the
American question comes first in order of
an essential element in its favour, and all that claims of the Mosquito Indians for compensa-
seemed to be required in order to brig Great Bri- Lion. From a variety of causes, and principally
time, we begin with the Blue-book relating tarn and the United States to a perfect understand •
from the obstinate refusal of the State of
to it. ins is, that both should abandon every particular
Nicaragua to agree to any proposed terms, no
CENTRAL AMERICA. advantage, the one such as might be derived from
settlement has been made, and meanwhile
the protectorate over the Mosquitos, and the other
At the commencement of September, 1849,
be derived from. any contract or treaty
Mr. HISE, the Chargé d'Affaires of the United suchwith Nicaragua; might anomalous position in which Greytown was
and, to make the fact that they do
States at Guatemala, concluded, on his own so clear and palpable, taking as their basis of their placed,—as when H.M.S. Express compelled
responsibility, and without the sanction of the thorough good understanOing the construction of the American steamer Prometheus to pay the
United States Government, a treaty with the that canal which offers benefits common to the two, duties demanded by the port authorities, and
State of Nicaragua, by which the latter grants and droppirig as a point of controversy those disputes when Captain HoLLINS compelled the Conn-
to the " United States an exclusive right of way as to the Nicaraguan and Mosquito territory, on cil of Greytown to refrain from interference
" across her territories, including therein the which it is next to impossible that they should come with the station of a United States Company,
" river San Juan, for the purpose of joining to any arrangement which the Council asserted to be in their
" the two oceans by a canal across the It was on this basis that the Bulwer-Clay- jurisdiction. In reference to the latter pre.
" isthmus." In this Treaty the United States ton Treaty was Ir caned. But it will be seen ceeding, Lord CLARENDON wrote (April 29,
were made to guarantee to Nicaragua for ever that the main difficulty was cushioned not 1853), pressing for a settlement of
the whole of her territory, and promised to removed. The United States Government the hazardous question of the future position of
become a party to any defensive war in perceived, and could not help perceiving, that Greytown, the Mosquito kingdom, anti Central
which that State might become engaged to so long as the Mosquitos retained possession America generally Until the matter be
protect her territory The Government of of part of the Nicaraguan territory, and so finally disposed of .. .
General TAYLOR, then President, acted with long as the British protectorate over the Mus- continue to assert the title of Mosquito to those
the greatest openness to the British Adminis- quitos remained in force, the British Govern• boundaries which have always been claimed by that
tration. Mr CLAYTON saw Mr. CRAMPTON, our ment might Jo covertly, what it covenanted territory, and in so asserting those boundaries Great
Minister at Washington ;he explained to him not, to do openly, as the governing council of Britain must still repel any aggression within those
the difficulty in which this Treaty had placed the Mosquitos was entirely composed of Eng- duras, or any other Centralmits which ma be committed by Nicaragu
.a, Hon-
theAmerican Power
United States Government. as it was most l;sa i
men. Sir H. BIILWER wrote to Lord PAL-
desirous not to acquire any rights of an exclu- MERSTON, Feb, 18, 1850: A new source of difficulty had shortly before
sive character which might bring it into colli- arisen. In July, 1852, a proclamation was
I ought not to disguise from your Lordship that
sion with any other Power. But, said Mr.
this question is becoming, the longer it remains in issued by the Governor of British Honduras,
CLAYTON— abeyance, the more intricate and perplexing ; and that certain islands off the coast of Central
You are aware of the opinion which, whether that it contains within it, if not the seeds of actual America, comprising Ruatan and Bonacca, were
right or wrong, is generally entertained in this cowl- war, the seeds of such hostile and angry excitement to be formed into a British colony under the
try of the claim of the Mosquito Chief to any part of as render war always possible, and very often pro title of the Bay of Islands. When this act
the terri ory claimed by Nicaragua ; and you can duce many of the evils of war, even when war itself was brought under consideration of the Go-
form an idea of the eagerness with which the party is not produced. vernment of the United States, the right of
opposed to the Government will avail themselves of The United States Government constantly Great Britain to these islands was contested,
the opportunity of either forcing us into collision
with Great Britain on this subject, or of making it
and consistently wished for some arrange- while the answer of our Government was, that
appear that we have abandoned, through pusillani•
ment by which the Mosquito Indians might they were included under the title of depen-
tnity, great and splendid advantages, fairly secured be induced to resign their claim, ample corn- dencies of the [colony of British Honduras.
to the country by treaty. It will require great caution pensation being given to them, and the British The United States Government reply that the
on both sides, said Mr. Clayton, to prevent the two protectorate be thus absolutely put au end position is untenable, as the principal islands
Al

ii