Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1852-08-18

THE LoBos. ISLANDS AND THE GUANo
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES OF WAR
WITH ENGLANH ~
On Monday mopning the 9th Inst, in the United
States Senate, MIR. .'Hamn offered resolution,
which was adopted, calling for copies of all the
correspondence withSthe government of Peru re-
garding the Lobos Islands and copy of the in
structions to the commander of the United States
squadron in that quarter, the subject of vessels
loading with guano at those islands.
The Lobos islands, recently discovered to be val
liable on account of their deposits of guano, lie
some forty-fve miles to the westward of the re-
ruvian coast Peru has laid claim to them. Eng
land has recognized her claim, and the only re-
manning difficulty is, whether the United States
government has recognized, or should or will re-
cognise, the pretensons of Peru, although sustain
ed in these pretensions by the government OF Eng
land A very brief statement, we apprehend, will
settle this question.
IN the year 1916, the bonds of the debt of Peru.
due to her English creditors, amounting to some
eight or ten millions of dollars, stood at the re-
spectable figure of 81 1-2 per cent. Shortly there
after, the Peruvian government, in legal heredita
nv possession of the Chncha islands, lying within
a maratime league from the main coast, and rich
in their deposits of the first quality of guano-ap-
propriated the proceeds of the removal of these
deposits to the liquidation of the English debt
Peruvian bonds rose at once in the English mar
ket, for the penguins and other seafowl had left
substantial security upon the islands for their re-
demption. Thus far, this guano business is all
plain sailing, and the forty-fve dollars per ton,
exacted by the Peruvian government of all COM
ers for this manure, was simple arrangement of
legitimate trade between the rghtful possessor and
the purchaser.
But the assumption of the sovereignty of the Lo-
hos Islands, by Peru, is another affair. Itinvoves
the question of an unlawful usurpatlon, the part
of Peru, and of selfish connivance in the act, by
the British government. Lord Malmesbury has
declared, that ''however advantageous it might be
to Great Britain, to appropriate these islands, or
to declare them common property. that it is i'm
possible for her Maesty's government to violate
international law for national interests - and,
therefore, the claim of possession, set up by Peru,
must be conceded. About the last of May, or the
first June of the present year, her Majesty gov
eminent, having accordingly decided upon recog
nizing the sovereignty of Peru, sounded Mr.. Alb
bolt Lawrence, our Minister in London, upon the
subject, and the result, we regret to say, is not
very creditable, either to his vigilance, his pru-
dence, or his sagacity. Ignorant, perhaps, of the
real merits of the case, MIR. Lawrence is under
stood to have consented on the part of the United
States, to the mutual monopoly of the Lobos
concession being made known, the Peruvian bonds,
in favor of England, which had been down to 81 12
per cent, rose to the premium of l06 per cent;
for the guano of the Lobos Islands, added to that
of the Chincha Islands, had been set apart by Pc
ru, at S45 per ton, more or less, for the redemp-
ton of those bonds.
But while such was the satisfactory complexion
of this business in London to the English Peruvian
bond holders, and the Peruvian government, the
act of usurpaton of Peru met with different re-
ception in Washington. About the first of June
last, Capt James c. Jewett, master of the bark
Philomela, in behalf of himself, and citizens of
the United States generally, addressed letter to
Mr.. Webster, Secretary of State, inquring
whether citizens of the United States might take
guano from the Lobos Islands, without infringing
upon the rights of the citizens, or subjects, gov
eminent, of any other nation. The official reply
of Mr.. Webster, after deliberate cabinet con-
sultation, was clear and conclusive in support of
the doctrines of the stcommon property OF all ma
tons in the guano of those islands.
Under the guaranty of this letter of Mr.. Web
ster, some thirty vessels from the United States
principally from New England andtN. Y.-almost
Immediately sailed for the Lobos islands, it being
well understood that under Mr.. Webster's recon-
mendaton, the Secretary of the Navy had ordered
avesselof war, under Commodore McAuley. ofthe
Pacific station, to be on the ground. 1t appears,
lso, that information of the views and decision of
our cabinet having reached London, through leak
in the house of Barring & Co., the Peruvian bonds,
which had risen to 1O6, declined to SO per cent
Now we are on the eve Of bringing this matter
to the same crisis as the Nova Scotia fishery
question. We learn that the government of Peru
has steam frigate and brig of war stationed at
the Lobos islands, to enforce her monopoly in con-
junction with England, upon all other nations !;
and that our vessels destined to the guano grounds
are in the same danger of seizure and coniscation
as you Yankee fishing smacks on the banks of the
Newfoundland. The probabilities of collision
with the Peruvians are even more imminent than
with the British colonial coast guard of the fish
ing grounds for if we are correctly informed, at
least one Of our trading vessels have gone to Lo-
bos islands, armed and equipped sufficiently to
cope with a Peruvian man-of-war, and ready to
fight it upon sufficient provocation.-.NsaO York
Herald.