New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-09
England in Central America.

Assurance, or Sir Henry BulWer OeTS"S
Yankee Newspapers" which seems
strangely cut of place in such "a work.
We are impelled to allude to it only be-
cause The Tribune is made its text under
the following circumstances On the 4th OF
December, having heard Of the outrages
committed on an American steamboat by
British officials at GraytOwn or San Juan de
Nicaragua, we spoke of those outrages IN
the terms they deserved, drawing theretrom
the natural inference that Great Britain did
not mean in good faith to fulfill the stipula-
tons of the Nicaragua Ship Canal Treaty.
But the next day we received information
which left no doubt on our mind that our
former inference, natural and justifable as
it was, did not accord with the fact-that
in fact the outrages at San Juan were not
authorized nor justified by any instructions
from the British Government since the
Clayton Treaty was ratified, but that, on
the contrary, repeated dispatches from
Lord PaImerston had been transmitted to
San Juan (which must have arrived there
very soon after the preparation of the out
RACES complained off, ordering the British
officials thereabouts to refrain from any In
reference with or assertion of authority
over American vessels in those waters or
American citizens on their shores. This
information entirely changed the aspects of
the case. Instead of evincing deliberate
and fragrant perfdy toward our Country, in
violation of a recent and solemn Treaty,
the affair at San Juan was reduced in its
dimensions to q mere effervescence of NOR
tilted pride and natural insolence by certain
British subjects eager to vent in some way
their chagrin at the surrender by their Gov
eminent of the claims to dominion which
they had preferred and looked to their Gov
eminent to maintain. All the facts since
transpired have strengthened our convic-
ton that this is the real truth-that Great
Britain does not mean to assert pretensions
Of sovereignty San Juan or Gray
town. or any part of Central America, ny
reason of her alleged Protectorate Of Mos
quito Regarding the terms and objects of
the Clayton Treaty as most honorable to
both parties and conducive to Human we'll
being, we are anxious to see them carried
fully into effect, and rejoice at each sue
ceeding indication that both Governments
sincerely and ardently desire that result.
Now the only inconsistency between our
articles of the 4th and 5th ult. respective
" inheres in the facts as they were known
to us on those days respectively. We
spoke on the 4th precisely as the then fresh
information from San Juan impelled and
justified; we spoke on the 5th as the ex-
PLANTATION of the British outrages at San
Juan subsequently afforded US rendered
just and proper. 1t would be quite as sensi-
Bile and smart to attempt cOnvicting US of
inconsistency by quoting one OF or Edi-
torials on the prospects of Hungarian indie
tendency month before the development
of Gorgey's treason and contrasting it with
one written after that disastrous villainy.
And the impertinences which the Review
writer has grounded on his exhibition of
the two passages aforesaid-his talk OF
"the newspaper prOletdtre or talking
class" of being obliged "to descend from
our dignity ~ 1.-THE falling of The
Tribune" &c.-are alike unjust and RI
dicuious.
With his succeeding pages of assump-
ton that Lord Palmerston, Sir Henry Bull
wer and other high British functionaries
are in fact swindlers of the lowest grade
liars so careless of their reputation as to
assert and place on record the most glazing
untruths with a full knowledge that
month or two at furthest must expose them
to the indignant gaze of the civilized world
we do not care to NEEDLE. We know
that this style of composition, if we'll gar
nished by buster and rigmarole, and forti-
tilted by perpetual sheer at the verdancy
of the innocents who suppose that Foreign
Ministers and ambassadors can be anything
else than thimblerigs-has a fascination for
a considerable class of readers, though we
had not supposed this class likely to mus
ter strongly among the patrons of the
American Wing Review!
We let all this pass, with the attacks on
the two last Administrations. and the more
covert attack on the present, as unfaithful
to American interests and insensible to
American honor. We only say in passing
that these limitations are utterly unfound-