Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-02-19
THE HONDURAS QUESTION.

With the view of conyicting the Administration
of President TAYLOR OF having, by secret arrange
ment between the negotiators &c the Clayton and
Bulwer treaty. excluded from the operation of that
treaty. a portion of the Central American territory
which the treaty reserved from the occupation Or
colonization of either party the Washington Union
labored long to make out that the British settle
nent of the Belize or British Honduras, SO called
is situated in and part of the Central American
States and therefore comprehended in the terms
of the treaty Our readers will recoect that before
exchanging the ratifcations of the treaty Secretary
CLAYTON received from the Hon. w. r. KING,
chairman Of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of
the Senate, note stating it to have been the clear
understanding of the Senate when that body rati-
fed the treaty that it did not include the Belize, or
British Honduras. This note of Senator KINGS
was SO explicit and authoritative that would
have supposed the question to be settled and that
our contemporary, the Union, would have frankly
yielded to the weight of testimony against it. That
however, it did not fit to do. On the contrary,
it persevered in its geographical absurdity. It
might indeed have succumbed to the united testi-
mouy of all the writers on American geography, all
the gazetteers, and all known maps which we cited
last week against it; but fortunately, we should
rather say unfortunately for it, the Committee of Fo
reign Affairs of the Senate days ago made re-
port on the subject assuming strange to say the same
general ground which the Union had so enormously
contended for. With an auxiliary respectable and
so weghty, the Union has returned to the discus
sion with increased vehemence and apparent con-
fdence
Let us examine for moment the nature of the
support which the report of the committee affords
to the positions of the Unaon. 1t appears to con-
sist mainly in the following passage, which the
Union trumphantly quotes in its number Of the
10TH and it is therefore fair to presume that it is
the strongest which the report furnishes:
The committee from the information before them,
entertain decided opinion that the British settlements
at Belize defined by the treaties with Spain lie within
the territory of the republic Of and SO equally
constitute part of Central America Should such be
the fact whilst the committee not prepared to say
that the engagements of the treaty Of 1850 would require
that those settlements shall be abandoned and dscon
nued the part of Great Britain, yet this Government
would have just of complaint against any extension
Of the limits Of these settlements beyond those prescribed By
SPAIN further allowed by the republics where they
may be found and that in any manner to enlarge or
change the character of those settlements by any mode of
Jurisdiction, would be in violation of said treaty"
We are entirely willing to concede to the Union
all the support which this passage of the report
gives to it. The committee, it is true, expresses a
decided opinion, but that opinion is subsequently
qualified, and the whole argument is hypothetical,
and neutralized by the admissions which follow. 1t
is further neutrazed in another part of the report
where the committee say that they have conducted
their inquiries reference to the Belize settlements
the assumption that they lie altogether oiaia the
territory of Guatemala, (Which assumption they
are aware may not pass unquestioned." Truly it
may not, and cannot.
The strong card of the Union, however, is the
following extract from letter addressed by Secre
tary WEBSTER, in l841, to Mr.. MURPHY, confden-
tial agent of the United States to Central America
which is inserted in the report of the committee.
ain 1885 the Government Of Central America asked
the mediation of this Government with that Of Great
Britain with view restrain the British settlers ut Be-
Ie in Honduras from the passing upon territory beyond
the confines allotted to them by the treaties between Great
Britain and Spain in regard to that settlement Central
America far as its territory was embraced by the
limits mentioned in those covenants, HAVING OF COURSE,
SUCCEEDED TO ALL THE RIGHTS OF SPAIN"
We confess our surprise that the committee or
the Union should rely on this despatch to sustain
their opinion that the Belize settlements are within
the State of Guatemala" If we are not incapable
of constituting plain English, the argument involves
a clear non seguitur. Analyze the language of Mr.
WEBSTER, and what is its true Interpretation The
Government of Central America asks for our media
ton with Great Britain to restrain the British set
tiers at Belize, in Honduras from passing upon
territory beyond the confines allotted to them by
Spain; that is, from passing from the Belize which
they had occupied for century, into the territory
Of Central America If the honorable committee
had not quoted this despatch of Mr. WEBSTER in
support ofather opinion, we should say that it was
directly against them, and proves the contrary.
It,would be a misapplication of space, even if we
had time for the task to pursue the Union through
all it's sephstres this subject In the face of the
concurrent testimony of geographers statesmen and
diplomatists, it will doubtless argue still, and still
insist removing the Belize from Yueatan to Cen
trail America. We leave it to this profitable labor
and turn to matter of more immediate interest to
ourselves; one in which our own accuracy has been
impeached by the Union, and which we must crave
the patience of our readers to put right.
Our contemporary, in its issue of Saturday last,
complains that have charged the Administration
of President Polk with having known and ac-
Nuiesced in the British expedition which, under
Captain Lock, attacked and took the town Of San
Juan de Nicaragua on the Sth of February, a64S,
I'D the Fort Serapaqui On the 18th of the same