Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-11-03
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

OIL the Northern cities always covetiDg mares
nest with gusto comU .ensurate to the wonder
nnOngcriDg taste of uleir readers of these times,
are all agog about the rumor that Britain and
France have notified this Government of the
intention on their part to ''protect" the Belly.
contract, under the provisions of the Clayton
Dul"er treaty. Our own notion is that this
alleged notification is most essentially stretched
oy the Washington correspondents into the
proportions of a humbug and, further, that IL
there Is the least foundation whatever for the
fumor, Britain and France are essentially
humbugging themselves in imagining that this
Government will submit to any action what
ever on their part squirting at European
protectorate over either isthmus route between
the Atlantic and Pacifc-sides States Of the
American Union. Since the ratification of the
Clay n-Bulwer treaty circumstances have
occurred in our own domestic affairs-the un.
exampled and at that time unexpected growth
OF our national interests on the Pacific side
which make it duty to ourselves that we
should regard the letter of the Cha ton b ulwer
treaty, where our in terests are concerned, as
lightly as England as regarded it under SINH
lar circumstances. So, We have not the least
idea that its provi sions, where standing in the
way oil the consuInnation of what have become
American rights and interests since that treaty
was made, would weigh feather in controlling
the policy of the National Administration
But In this case We judge that there can be
nothing Growing out of that treaty in issue
between Britain and the United States, and
therefore doubt the correctness of the news.
of oot; ,ofD
and France
In the first place-the Belly contract is neither
more nor less than waste paper-a promise of
certain franchises in Nicaragua in case of the
lapse OF franchises granted to American citi-
zenS, which this Government, long snce-and
again in the Presidents proclamation pro
mulged on Monday last-declared unforfeited
and the right to which it thus signi6od its de-
termination to defend. Those to whom those
franchises were granted have now entire pos
session OF the Transit-its river, lake and road
are stocked with their steamers coaches teams
&c; Its steamships are now in place on the Pa
chic side, and another of its steamships leaves
New York on Saturday next, taking the first
freight of through passengers to pass over the
reopened Nicaraguan isthmus Britain and
OF this state of things, well as they certainly
know that in according protection to the Amer
ican company hOldin. the right to run this
isthmus route, the United States Government
design keeping it as free for the use of the
citizens and subjects of all other nations as for
the people of the United States, and upon pre-
cisely equal and identical terms That is to
say, that there is nothing whatever in the at
htude assumed by this Government towards
the enterprise of reOpening the Nicaragua
isthmus transit, incompatible with the entire
equality and immunity of European travel
over and use of it, Under such circumstances.
when it is as clearly the interest of England
and France, and all other trans Atlantic COM
mercial countries, that all feasible Central
American isthmus routes should be kept open.
as the United States desires they shall be, we
are unbclieyers in the story that those two
Governments have stepped forward to pick a
quarrel with the United States, nominaly in
behalf of the crazy speculation Of the man.
Beily, which is simply a moon scheme, and
nothing more.
We believe that when the truth about this
rumored English and French Notice becomes
KNOWN it will be found to be neither more nor
less than an entire fabrication or gross exag-
geration on the part Of emissares of rival
steamship owners designed to deter the public
from patronizing tho company who are to run
the Nicaragua route, and sending their FIRST
steamship from New York on the 9th inst, rs
explained above. The public are by this time
well aware OF the desperate shifts to which
some Of the steamship owners resort in their
war upon each other; for it is now we'll known
that nine-tenths of the monstrous falsehoods
and absurd exaggerations concerning Central
American affairs that have startled the world
ON this side Of the herring pond from its pro-
priety, almost weekly, for year past, were sto-
ries coined to aid in carrying the points of rival
steamship owners or spectators. By mems
OF such appliances, it was, that the rs-opening
Of the Nicaragua route has been delayed up to
this time, when it being as certain as that the
sun will rise tomorrow, that on the 9th inst. a
fine steamship will leave New York on that
errand, this desperate resort of a rumored
English and French governmental Notice ia
fallen on to deter passengers from going out to
California and Washington and Oregon Terri
tories, in her. Tho calculation of its authors
is, doubtless, that the utter falsehood of their
roOrDacK cannot be made generally known
until after the steamer Of the 9th shall have
sailed with but score of passengers or so
that the hundreds proposing to go in her
will back out, being deferred from embarkinv
upon her by the rumor aforesaid 1t :sa trick
worthy OF the gambling spectators in rival
isthmus transit enterprises, &c. Its, however,
utterly impossible that it can win, we take it.
p 5. Since writing the above We have salts
fed ourself of the entire correctness Of our i'm
preston that the story of the joint Notification
of France and England to this Government is
made Of whole cloth. On the contrary, we
have every reason to feel assured that Count
Walewski has formally assured Mr.. Mason, in
Paris, that he had refused to see Belly upon the
subject of his alleged scheme and grant from
Nicaragua ; and that the French Minister of
State, under whose supervision the affair would
the ,F