The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-04 00:00:00

AIAGAZINES, see.—(CONTINUED.)

ELIZA COOK'S JOURNAL. Part
Tree fourth monthly part of this Journal !pens with
A Sons to my Readers," in which Eliz Cock
gracesully and gratefully thanks- her numerous
readers for their very gratifying patronage, and
promises

"that the future shall better the past;
That devotion shall sweeten my labour;
That my working shall be to set human love free,
And make each one at peace with his neighbour."
Such has been the object of the Journal hitherto, and
it will be difficult, we should say, for its future to
better the past or the present. Eliza Cook's contri-
butions to this fourth number are, besides the " Song
to my Readers " " The Bird in the Stoi m," " Our
Pother," and `:Early to Bed and Early to Rise." The
latter is a beautiful and forceful illustration of the
homely proverb—
" Full many a day for ever is lost
By delaying its work till to-morrow;
714 c minutes of sloth have often cost
Long years of bootless sorrow."
We shall be glad to meet with many similarly useful
and beautiful elaborations of the popular proverb.
It is a theme well suited to the pen of Eliza Cook,
whose muse ever loves to combine the utile and the
,
"ulce• Among the prose contents of this part are
Inooy most interesting tales, some of them founded
on facts, such as " The Heiress of the Spaldings."
" The Poachers " is a tale of game-preserving, fraught
With a terrible interest. "The Young Lady who
Was not Punctual " tells of a young lady who lost
her lover owing to her bad habit of losing her time;
Such a lesson cannot fail to produce good effect.
"Preparations for Plessure" gives an amusing ac-
count of the miseries of a pic-nic party. We cannot,
however, particularise all the interesting contents of
four numbers of Eliza Cook's Journal. Silverpen
has contributed an article on Ragged Schools, written
with her accustomed earnestness, and another of her
beautifully natural home-pictres, " John Ashmore
of Birmingham." We notice with pleasure, among
the contributors to this part, Julia Kavanagh, the
authoress of that heart-touching tale of the triumph
of perseverance, " Madeleine of Auvergne," which
last season delighted so many readers. With such
additions to its original staff, Eliza Cook's Journal
promises to redeem its pledge, and, if possible,
to "better the past."

NICARAGUA AND THE 111TJS-
_ QUITO TERRITORY
(From the Post.)
There is no doubt of the insatiable craving and
intolerance of democratic ambition. There can be
no reason then for surprise should the United States,
her appetite whetted by the spoil-of Mexico and the
golden prize of California, desire to reserve in store
the Musquito territory, and to reject by an arbitrary
mandate all notion of British protection. It is not,
however, the rich vegetation and prolific resources of
the eastern shores of the central American isthmus,
or the promise which these offer to the perseverance
of the industrious emigrant, which tempt her cupidity;
recent annexations have already added to the Union
vast domains of no inferior fertility, which it may
require centuries to people.
A. far grander purpose seems to be stirring up
republican bile. To monopolise the commerce of
`,lle Pacific, to become the supreme arbiter of the
_nestinies of nations and people occupying the coasts
athed by the wide-spread waters of that extensive
ocean—these are imperial conceptions, and a bold
though unscrupulous venture to obtain their realisa-
tion is more consistent with the character of the
present American Executive than that course of
peddling intrigue which stamped with infamy all
concerned in the Texan affair.
We have before us in this question no matter of
°Peculation on which to argue, but a broad material
Interest and plain right to sustain. The United States
ettaive now obtaieed a permanent footing and practi-
cally a present dominion over the Isthmus of Panama.
Once the contemplated railway completed, the only
the
transit passage for heavy merchandise from
the Atlantic to the Pacific will be under their sole
On this fact have been based their
calculations. As long as no intermediate route
11all exist, the facilities which will be afforded
for traffic across Panama between Europe and
Lae Pacific, China, India, the Eastern Archipelago,
Australia, and New Zealand, promise to make this
the great channel of mercantile intercourse. The
Power of regulating the terms of that intercourse,
the tolls or transit dues to be charged, have become
the right of a company of United States citizens.
Already have the Government proposed preferential
tolls and fares in favour of American trade. They
likewise claim, and will no doubt exercise, the right
of transport across Panama for United States troops,
and government stores and munitions of war. These
are no secret matters, they were openly mooted at the
last meeting of Congress, and were no doubt duly
represented to the Foreign office by our minister at
Washington, or he signally failed in his duty. We
know not whether Lord Palmerston remonstrated.
The Isthmus of Panama forms yet nominally a
Part of the independent state of New Granada.
course proposed to be pursued by the
United States was instructive, and the remedy
lay pretty nearly in our own hands. The means of
forming an intermediate route, either for land car-
riage or shipping, through the Mosquito territory,
and Nicaragua or Costa Rica, offered a safeguard
against undue encroachments or injury to British
interests.
This subject merits, from the prominence it is
likely to attain, to be well understood. With this
assurance we shall need no apology for here referring
our readers to the interesting and valuable informa-
tion which appeared upon it in our City article of
Saturday.
As regards the question of international right, the
etainl made by Nicaragua to the mouth of the St.
John—nay, we believe, to the whole Mosquito ter-
ritory, and to our colony of Belize besides--is un-
usually preposterous. The pretensions of Nicaragua
incredible as it may seem, are oanded simply on
this, that she is a revolted colony of Spain, and that,
Inasmuch as Spain claimed the Mosquito territory,
and it adjoins Nicaragua, the latter has a right to it
in the character of an inheritance.
This illusory fabric, however, will quickly disap-
Pear before a simple historical statement of the facts,
which are briefly these. Spain never subjugated the
liosquito Indians, and never was able to establish a
permanent footing on any portion of the coast ex-
tending from Cape Honduras to the Chiriqui Lagoon;
but, on the contrary, a perpetual warfare and deadly
hatred "existed between the Spaniards and these
Indians. Moreover, at the time when the ancient
kingdom of Guatimala, of which Nicaragua formed
Part, threw off the yoke of Spain, no portion of the
coast was in the occupation of even a temporary
force. And had there been—as there neither was
nor ever has been—on that coast either a Spanish
settlement or native population which has been sub-
jected to Spanish rule, so no revolt from Spain could
give any rights to Nicaragua, who can only lay claim
to such territory as may have been possessed or occu-
pied by her inhabitants when Spanish rule ceased over
that portion of the American isthmus.
The position of Great Britain in the matter is very
simple. The origin of her connexion with Mosquito
dates from the alliances of the buccaneers with the
Mosquito Indians, whom they supplied with fire-arms
and assisted in their warfare against Spain. This
was succeeded by frequent proffers of surrendering the
whole country and placing it under the dominion of
the Sovereign of England, made by the king and chief
of those Indians.
These proffers were refused, but the country was
taken under our protection, and the Kings of Mos-
quito have ever claimed to hold under allegiance to
England. The Mosquito territory became in this
fashion annexed as a kind of dependency of Jamaica ;
the King of Mcsquito, on each new reign, having
habitually gone through the ceremony of a solemn
coronation either at Jamaica or Belize.
When, some years since, the Nicaraguans took pos-
session of the port of San Juan, now Grey Town,
Mr. Chatfield, our Consul-General at Guatimala,
was instructed to remonstrate; and Lord Aberdeen
subsequently sent a consul-general to Mosquito to
Watch over British interests in that quarter ; and
finally, in 1847, the encroachments of Nicaragua and
Honduras to the north increasing with impunity,
Lord Palmerston took the necessary steps to prevent
a recurrence of their aggressions.
What, then, we would ask, is the claim of Spain
which Nicaragua pretends to inherit, and on behalf
of which the United States, it is said, are about to
interpose ? The Pope, by a bull, in the sixteenth
century, gave to the exclusive dominion of Spain the
whole of the lands and adjacent territories which her
navigators might discover ! We wish the United
States joy of the new title they will have to sustain ;
but it is well they should consider that if it be a sound
one, then their tenure of California, under a Mexican
title, wants the de jure right, while it has the same
de fa, cto existence, with that of Great Britain at Mos-
quito ; and that in like manner as they would know
how to sustain the goodness of their title
_against all
claimants, this country is quite equal to maintain her
own against all corners.

The following is au extractirom the article referred
to The sulject of the Panama Railroad and a
canal communication from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Ocean is creating new attention since the appearance
of the very proper and necessary letter of the English
Consul at New York, and the excitement which inte-
rsted parties in the United States have endeavoured,
but with small avail, to raise upon the matter. There
is one thing, however, in which the Americans have
been successful, and that i, in exciting considerable
interest in this country upon a subject which is be-
coming now understood. The United States have
secured for themselves exclusive rights and privileges
itt Panama, by which British trade to the Pacific
must, while the Panama railway continues the sole