The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-05-11

e undertook yesterday to demonstrate that the
possession of Ruatan and the Bay Islands by Great
Britain is rot in contravention of the CLAYTON
BULwER treaty, and therefore ground for its
abrogation in the summary manner proposed by
Mr.. CLINGMAN. This proposition think that we
proved conclusively. We did so, by showing that
these islands neither politically geographically
belong to the Mosquito Coast, but to Honduras,
and that the English title to them, such as it is is
derived not from the sham protectorate exercised by
England over the Mosquito Indians, but was origi-
nally acquired by right of conquest from the
Spaniard In describing Ruatan and the Bay
Islands as properly and geographically part of Hon
duras, within thirty miles of whose coast they
lie, though claimed by England as political DEEPEN
denotes of Belize, inadvertently claSsed Belize
with them as also belonging to the State of Hondu-
ras, whereas, as everybody knows, Belize though
called BelizeHonduras, part of Yucatan and with
N the political limits of the ancient viceroyalty of
Guatemala. Our proposition is simply this, that
the title to the whole of Central America and the ad-
jacent islands originally in the Spanish Crown,
by virtue of the right of discovery and that except
where has since been Invested by actual conquest
by another Power, formal cession ON the part of
Spain, it has descended unbroken and unimpaired
to the Central American Republics. Whether in the
particular case of the Bay Islands, the Spanish title
has been so Invested, we did not pretend to deter
mine. Certainly there has been no act of cession
on the part either of Spain or Honduras. The
English title if any there be, must rest exclusively
upon the fact of the conquest of the island, and
its subsequent appropriation and colonization
by Admiral VERNON. Even this PRESUMPTION.
though strengthened on the one hand by many
years OF long-continued and adverse possession is
greatly weakened on the other by the fact that in
March, 1881, a Spanish force landed upon the
island, where at the time, the English had built g
fourishng town of five hundred houses and three
forts mounting fifty cannon, and destroyed the
town and dismanted the forts. Down to this dev,
the English aggression has always been maintcined
under protest on the part of the Spanish and Cen
trail American governments, and we may safely
assume that nothing but the utter inability of G
feeble State like Honduras to cope with a great
nation like the English, has prevented a second
forcibe expulsion of the latter from the island OF
Ruatan. The question, however, as in the case
of the English claim to 3eliZe-Honduras is not
between England and ourselves, but between Eng
land and the Central American Republics, whose
sovereignty she has violated whose territories she
has appropriated, and of whose weakness she has
taken advantage Our dispute with England
arises from the doubtful construction of the Clay
ToS-BULwER treaty, and the charge of bad faith
preferred against her on account of her continued
nossession of the Bay Islands. This charge we
think that we have successfully disposed of by
showing its utter groundlessness, and demonstra-
ting that whatever defects there may be in the
BULwER treaty, there exists no justification
whatever for its abrogation on the score that its
covenants have been broken.