The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-28 00:00:00

NEWSPAPER

• S
:orritoriai limits, revived those treaties between§reat PA*
Lida And Spain which had previously existed. •-•
Her Majesty's Government, in stating this fact, declared
distinctly, at the same time, that it has no projects of po•
litical ambition or aggrandisement with respect tp the set.
Cement referred to ; and that it will be its object to come
to sorneprompt, fair, and amicable arrangement with the
States in the vicinity of British Honduras for regulating
th3.limits which should be given to it, and which shall not
henceforth be extended beyond the boundaries now as-
signed to them.
A,,s to Ruatan and the adjoining islands, all that can be
debateable as to them is, whether they are island depen-
dencies of Belize, or attached to some Central American
State.

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Now it cannot be disputed that whenever Ruatan has
been permanently occupied, either in remote or recent
times, by anything more than a militaryguard or flagstaff,
the occupation has been by British subjects. '
It is tree that the Republic of Central America declared
that it had a flag flying in that island from 1421 to 1839 ;
bnt this feet merely rested on that Republic's declaration,
and all that is positively known is that when the British
Government were aware that a foreign flag was flying at
Ruatan, a British ship of war was sent to haul it down, and
since that time no attempt has been made to re-establish
it; but, on the contrary, when on two or three occasions
complaints have been brought by the citieens of Central
Aniericin States against the settlers in Ruatan to the com-
mandant of Truxillo, the commandant has referred the=
to Belize, telling them that the island was British.
It is, moreover, a fact that Ruatan has been of labs years')
Without Lneinstigation on the part of her Majesty's Go-
vernment, spontaneously occupied by British subjects, and
that the superintendent of Belize has been in the habit of
visiting the island, appointing the magistrates in it, and
generally managing its affairs. In going back to an-
cient times it is also well known that in 1742 the English
were formerly settled at Ruatan, and that in the atlas of
the West Indian islands published by Jefferies, the King's
geographer, in 1796, Rattan or Ruatan is coloured as a
British possession ; and although this island and that of
Bonacca have doubtless been at various times left unoc-
cupied, and at others claimed or held by other powers, it
it certain that in 1838, 1839, or 1810, Great Britain
_pot
only asserted her right to the same, but declared her in.
tention to maintain that right by force.
nom circumstances, without enter ing further into the
subjec;;, will at least prove that the pretensions of Great
Britain to consider Rnatan and Bonacca dependencies of
Belize are of long standing, and existed certainly at the
period of the treaty of 1850. Indeed, Mr. Buchanan, in
his statement, observes that Ruatan was occupied in 1850
by Great -Britain. But if Ruatan was at that time known
to be o cupit d by Great Britain as a settlement of Belize,
and the United States' Government notwithstanding con-
sidered it to have been a portion of Central America, and
thereby comprehended in the treaty—which Belize and its
dependencies were not—the United States' Government
would beyond doubt have openly stated that it did not
consider Ruatan included in the term "island dependen-
cies;" and Great Britain was therefore justified, since no
such exception was made, in deeming that her claim to
Ruatan, as a part of the Belize settlement, was not about
to be disputed.
Her Majesty's Government deems that it has by the
foregoing observations furnished an adequate reply to the
statement of Mr. Buchanan, and proved that the obliga-
tions of the treaty have in no respect being infringed.
But having performed this ,duty, her Majesty's Govern-
ment desires to say that it woold be far more to its satis-
faction to arrange on fair terms any differences of opinion
with the Government of the Uai,ted States than to prolong
discussion and argument rtspecta‘ng such differences.
has also no difficulty in adding tract although it did not,
by the treaty of 1850, abandon the right of Great Britain
to protect the Mosquitos, yet it did ';intend to reduce and
limit the exercise of that right.
Tile practical difference between Gras Britain and the
United States, with regard to the only neutually important
portion of Mosquito—namely, that portion to which the
construction and condition of the canal, which formed the
origin and basis of the treats of 1850, applies„ is very small
i :deed. Th..t difference does not turn up eekt the point
whether GreA Britain should retain her pr-stoction over
the port and town of San Juan, and the norther. a bank of
that river, but upon the conditions on which ,heat protec-
tion should be withdrawn.
In short, the practical qrestien at issue rolativ e grey-
town, and that part of the Mosquito country botieriag
upon the river San Juan, is not whether Great 'l3."ltain
should, directly or indirecil,-, exercise domini of owe r the
same, but whither Nictraeu , or some other equally hide-
pen,leut state, should obtain possession there'd. in a, m"-
nor consonant with the hone irable obligati( as of Great
Brit an the peace xif the central American continent, and
the safety from persecution of the Mosquito Indians; 42r.
n the other hand, whether Nicaragua should be put in
possession of that tertitory in a manner almost certain to
produce hostilities but Weeu Nioaragua and Costa Rica, an
to lead to the persecution and destruction of the Mosquito
people; au alternative to which Great Britain could not
conseat, and which the Government of the United States
c, ul.t have no motive iu requiring.
It, is true that in that mole remote portion of the Mos-
quito territory where the chief or King of the Mesquites
himself resides, a British tonsil or agent also resides ; and
this I, silent may oftentimes be called upon to give his
opinion or advice to the Mosquito Government, as is usual
when weak G vernments are in alliance with strong ones,
more especially when those strong ones have agreed to pro.
tea the weak ones from external aggression. and may there-
fore reasonably expect to have such influence over their
policy as may prevent them from giving just pretext for
invasion.

It, is true also that Englishmen ma thus be in the coun-
cils of .the King of Mosquito, acting as his Ministers ; but
Englishmen and Americans both hold the same position in
the. Sandwich Islands, the government of which is carried
on by foreigners, but is nevertheless (and the race is Indian)
considered and treated as independent. To alter this state
of things might at the present moment be impossible, but
her Majesty's Government woufd be ready and willing to
enter into such engagements as should prevent Great Bri-
tain from.receiving any privileges or advantages from the
Mosquito Government not granted,to other States.
Her Majesty's Gpvernment can 'hardly anticipate any
difficulty at this time with the United States respecting
the continental establishment of Honduras, the limits of
which, in 1830, were so well known, anti can be so easily
ascertained, and which will not be extended ; but having
shown that its pretensions to the islands •of Ruatan and
BODEICCM are of no recent date, and that they were unques-
tioned by the United States Government in 1850, her Ma-
jesty's Government cannot admit that an alteration in the
internal form of government of these islands is a violation
of the treaty, or affords a just cause of remonstrance to the
United States.

There are at all limes two modes of dealing with matters
of business between nations ; the one calculated to excite
mutual irritation, the other to mitigate it ; the one tending
to prolong and increase differences, the other to diminish
and remove them.
The latter is the mode which her Majesty's Government
earnestly desires in the present instance to adopt and to SW
adopted, for it can hardly be necessary to say that there is
no Government with which the people and Government of
Great Britain more sincerely desire to live in intimate and
friendly relations than that of the United States.. It is in
accordance with the spirit which her Majesty's Government
thus distinctly avows that her Msjesty's Government thus
proposes to that of the United States :
That the twa Governments of Great Britain and the
United States should at once endeavour to oome to some

friendly understanding as to the government which should
be definitively formed at Greytown, in order to admit of
the Mosquito authority being withdrawn therefrom ; and
as to the engagements which such Government should
enter into with regard to the claims of Costa Rica, and the
future non-molestation of the Mosquitos ; and that the
two Governments should endeavour, in the same manner,
to come to some friendly understanding as to the mode by
which protection may be most effectually afforded to the
Mosquito Indians.
It is the desire of her Majesty's Government, not only
to maintain the Convention of Isso intact, but to consoli-
date and strengthen it by strengthening and consolidating
the friendly relations which it was calculated to cement
and perpetuate. Her Majesty's Government regrets that
any misunderstanding should have arisen with respect to
its terms ; but it entertains the firm belief that, by the
explanations it has now given, and the proposals it makes,
that misunderstanding will bs completely removed.
(Signed) CL.LBENDOS.
Foreign•offrce, May 2, 1864.