The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-21 00:00:00

VIZ CENTRAL AMERICAN qViSTION.

The Washington Daily Union of the 3d inst. pub-
lishes the documents from the Department of State,
transmitted to Congress by the President of the United
States, which relate to controversies with Great Britain
respecting the proper construction of the Clayton and
Balwer Treaty. Of these papers,which occupy 22 columns
Of that journal, we subjoin a brief abstract.
In a despatch dated, " Department of State, Washing-
ton, July 2, 1853," addressed to Mr. Buchanan, Mr.
Marcy states that Great Britain has fora long period
had possession of a district of country on the shores of the
Bay of lionduras, called "The Belize," the right she
has to hold it being sterived from a grant by Spain, and
being limited to a single purpose, with an express prohi-
bition against using it for any other. " A possession so
restricted as to its use," says Mr. Marcy, " could never
be considered a British colony. While she confines her-
self to the boundaries specified in her treaties with Spain
in 1783 and 1786, and uses tie district or country de-
scribed only for the purposes stipulated therein, we have
no right to complain that she is infringing our policy; but
when she extends her occupancy by encroachments far
beyond the prescribed bounds, and changes its tenure
by exercising over it civil authority, a very different
character is given to this settlement ; it then becomes a
new colony on this continent." Mr. Marcy delares that
since the acquisition of California Great Britain has
manifested a more matured design to change the Spanish
licence to cut dyewood and mahogany at the Belize
into a British dominion, and goes on to state that the cha-
racter of the British settlement at the Belize is shown by
acts of the British Parliament, passed in 1817 and
1819, which expressly admit that Belize is not a
British dominion. "In 1826," he says, " Great
Britain renewed in her treaty with Mexico the special
grant made to her by Spain in the treaties of 1783 and
1786, to enter into and occupy the Belize upon the
same terms and with the same restrictions as those
Imposed upon her by Spain. The United States while
they concede that Great Britain has rights in the
Belize, positively deny that the Belize is a British pro-
vince, or any part of the British dominions ; and in
maintaining the policy referred to they are bound to re-
sist any attempt to convert it into a British colony.
" The protectorate which Great Britain has assumed
over the Mosquito Indians is a most palpable infringe.
ment of her treaties with Spain, to which reference has
just been made ; and the authority she is there exercis-
ing under pretence of this protectorate is in derogation
of the sovereign rights of several of the Central Ame-
rican States, and contrary to the manifest spirit and in-
tention of the treaty of April 19, 1850, with the United
States.
" Though ostensibly the direct object of the Clayton
and Bulwer Treaty was to guarantee the free and com-
mon use of the contemplated ship canal across the Isthmus
of Darien, and to secure such use to all nations by mutual
treaty stipulations to that effect, there were other and
highly important objects sought to be accomplished by
that convention. The stipulation regarded most of all
by the United States is that for discontinuing the
use of her assumed protectorate of the Mosquito In-
dians, and with it the removal of all pretext what-
ever for interfering with the territorial arrangements
which the Central American States may wish to
make among themselves. It was the intention, as it
is obviously the import, of the treaty of April 19,
1550, to place Great Britain under an obligation to
cease her intrepositions in the affairs of Central Ame-
rica, and to confine herself to the enjoyment of her
limited rights in the Belize. She has, by this treaty of
1850, obligated herself not to occupy or colonise any
part of Central America, or to exercise any dominion
therein. Notwithstanding the stipulations, she still
asserts the right to hold possession of, and to
exercise control over, large districts of that country
and important islands in the Bay of Honduras, the
unquestionable appendages of Central American States.
This jurisdiction is not less mischievous in its effects, or
less objectionable to us, because it is covertly exercind
(partly, at least) in the name of a miserable tribe of
Indians, who have, in reality, no political organisation,
no actual government—not even the semblance of one
except that which it created by British authority and
pheld by British power.
"This anomalous state of things is exceedingly annoy-
ing to the States of Central America, and but little less
so to the United States, for through the Bay of Hon-
duras and across some of these States lies one of the
most desirable routes to our possessions on the Pacific.
This interference, it will be recollected, did not assume
a marked character until our acquisition of California.
" Great Britain should be frankly assured that the po-
licy to which I have alluded, and to which the United
States mean to adhere, is exclusively political. As re-
lates to commerce, this Government neither aiges at, nor
desires, any advantage in our intercourse with the na-
tions on this continent which it would not willingly see
extended to the whole world.
" The object which it is hoped you may be able to ac-
complish is to induce Great Britain to withdraw from
all control over the territories and islands of Central
America, and, if possible, over the Belize also, and to
abstain from interweddling with the political affairs of
the Governments and people in that region et the world
That object is the more earnestly desired by the. United
States as it is apparent that the tendeney of events in
that quarter is to give a foothold to British power there,
in contravention of the policy which this Government is
resolved to sustain.
" With your ample knowledge of the facts, it is be-
lieved that it will be easy for you to satisfy the Govern-
ment of Great Britain that it has no right to intervene
in the political affairs of Central America, founded upon
any dominion she can fairly claim in any part thereof,
and that no obligation of duty or interest is imposed
upon her to become a volunteer in the matter."
Mr. Marcy then proceeds to define his views of the rights
actually possessed by Great Britain, under the treaties of
1783 and 1786; and, after giving a summary of a debate
which took place in the House of Lords, with reference
to the latter treaty, on the 26th of March, 1787, he thus
winds up his despatch :
" Nothing could be more fatal—not the treaty of 1786
itself—to the pretensions set up by Great Britain for her-
self and the Mosquito Indians than this debate, and the
vete on the motion to censure the treaty of 1786. The
Lords who supported the vote of censure by the Admi-
nistration for having made the treaty assert, it is true,
that Great Britain and her ally, the Mosquitos, had rights
before the treaty of 1786, but admit that these rights
were given up by that treaty. This position destroys the
pretensions of Great Britain, both for herself and the
Mosquitos, of having rights there after that treaty. On
the other hand, Lord Thurlow, in his defence of the Ad-
ministration, denied all claims on the part of the Mos-
quito Indians, as well as on the part of Great Britain,
except what was given by the clause relative to the Be-
lize ; his position, which was concurred in by nearly the
whole House of Lords, is, therefore, equally fatal to these
pretensions of the British Government. In one view or
the other, the vote of the whole House of Lords is an ac-
knowledgment that Great Britain, after 1786, had no
rights whatever in Central America, or in that vicinity,
except the limited usufruct to a small tract of country—
the Belize—not claimed as a part of Central America,
and that the Mosquito Indians had no sovereign rights
is any territory whatever.
"The acts of Parliament show that Great Btitain had
no dominion there ; none even in the Belize ; and by
four treaties—three with Spain and one with the United
States (that of the 19th April, 1850)—she has precluded
herself from interposing in the affairs of Central America,
I therefore trust you will encounter but little difficulty
in inducing her to abandon unfounded pretensions, and
to respect those solemn treaty stipulations."
On January 10, 1854, Mr. Buchanan, addressed a de-
spatch to Mr. Marcy, in which be stated that he had bad a
long interview with Lord Clarendon at the Foreign-office,
when the noble lord informed him that belled presented to
the Cabinet the suggestion of the American Government
that Nicaragua should treat the Mosquitos within her
limits as Great Britain and the United States treated
their own Indians under similar circumstances. After
some discussion on this subject, Mr. Buchanan adds
that a discursive and rambling conversation took place,
embracing the Ruaten and Belize question, the Clayton
and Bulwer Treaty, and other matters, in the course of
which Lord Clarendon stated distinctly that that treaty
was, in the opinion of the English Government, entirely
prospective in its operation, and did not require them to
abandon any of their possessions in Central America.
" In regard to Belize," Mr, Buchanan says, "there was
not the least appearance of yielding on the part of his
lordship. He repudiated the idea with some warmth that
any person should suppose they had surrendered this set-
tlement under the Clayton and Bulwer Treaty. The time
pan therefore arrived when it becomes indispensable that
I should receive the President's instructions on this point.
In forming his opinion, it may be worthy of considera-
tion that the British have been in the actual posses-
sion of Belize, under treaty, for more than 70 years ;
that no period was fixed when they should withdraw
from this possession ; that Spain declared war against
Great Britain on the ,11th of October, -1796 ; that au
attack was made from yuca.tan on Belize in 1798, which
was repelled by the British settlers ; and that for nearly
a quarter of a century it has been under a regular colo-
nial Government without attracting the notice of the
United States.
A statement of the views of the-United States' Go-
vernment with reference to the various questions in dis-
pute, dated Jan. 6, 1854, was placed by Mr. Bueleenan
in the bands of Lord Clarendon ; and in a lenghty reply,
transmitted by the noble Earl to the American Minister
on the 22d of May following, he observes that the sub-
stance of the case submitted to her Majesty's Govern-
ment by Mr. Buchanan may be briefly stated as
follows :-
1. That Great Britain, prior to April, 1850, was
in possession of the whole coast of Central America
from the Rio Hondo to the port and harbour of San
Juan de
.Nicaragua, except that portion of it between the
Sarstoon and Cape Honduras, together with the adja-
cent Honduram island of Ruatan.
" 2. That the Government of the United States does
not understand under what title Great Britain, having
abandoned the graatar part of those possessions in 1796
resumed them eubeequently ; *or does it know psee,emy
at what period the protectorate of Great Britain over
Mosquito was re-eetabliehedS the first intimation which
the United States' Government had received on the sub-
ject being from an American agent in 1842 ; and that,
moreover, Captain Bonnycastle and other authorities hail
never represented the Mosquito share as extending as
far as the river and town of San .Than de Nicaragua,
which latter the Spaniards had considered a place of
much importance and the key to the Americas.
" 3. That it appears to the United States' Government
that Spain, in virtue of the treaty of 1786, had a right to
object toGreat Britain establishing herself on the Mosquito
coast or assuming the protectorate of Mosquito ; and that
Great Britain had, by her treaty with Mexico, recognised
that the former colonies of Spain stood in the same posi-
tion with respect to other States as Old Spain herself,
and inherited the advantages of the azalea treaties of
the (nether country; that the United States' Govern.