The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-10-29

TerritOr al Acquisition In Central Amei l.
ca-The Example OF Grcst Britain.
We have now b fore US the official text OF
The c0nvcu o. emily concluded between
Great Britain and Guatemala, respecting the
territory known as Belize or British Honduras.
II strictly conforms with the summary of its
provisions as first published In the HERALD,
and justi6es our remark that ait secures to
Great Britain not only all the territory within
which she exercised qualified rights in virtue
Of her treaties with Spain of 1888 and 1885, but
also all the territory over which she has since
on one pretext or another, set up pretensions'
The treaty of 1888 gave to British subjects the
right to cut wood within certain is to
say between the Rio Belize and the Rio Hondo,
a coast line Of about eighty miles, that of 1876
extended the area wherein this right might be
exercised from the Rio Belize downward to the
Rio Sibun, an additional extent of about twenty
miles, following the coast. The sovereign
ty over all this territory was, however
exclusively reserved to Spain. The rights
Eng land were limited to the simple permission
TO cut dye woods under certain close restric-
tons. After the independence of the Spanish
American colonies, Great Britain sought to
secure the continuance Of these rights by SINH
lar treaty stipulations with the republics
which succeeded to the sovereignty of Spain in
that part of the world; but, owing to several
causes not necessary to name here, she was I'M
successful. She nevertheless kept up her staht
quo in the territory defined by the treaties re-
ferred to, not, however, without protest from
the republic of Central America.
| But at no time was any pretence of rights
pelmissive or otherwise, set up over territories
beyon those defined by the Spanish treaties
until 1886, when letter appeared from Sir
! George Grey claiming the whole country as far
south as the Sarstoon river, an additional coast
| line of upwards of one hundred miles,
but giving no justification of the claim,
which was simply bold, interruptions at
tempt towards robbing Guatemala of territory
incontestably hers, and over which her title had
never been called in question. These preten-
sions were at once Indignantly repealed by the
| States interested in the question; and when Mr..
| Clayton made his notable exception lin the
| form of an er post facto and private note) OF
the establishment of Belize from the operations
| of the famous Clay ton Bulwer convention, he
took care to so frame it as to apply only to the
establishment of Belize, as defined in the
Spanish treaties. We allude to this in order to
show that even if that exception were allowed
to stand as part of the convention, Great Bri-
tain could have no color OF right to claim its ap-
plication to the territory between the Sibun and
Sarstoon rivers. That territory, whatever might
be said of the region above the Sibun, was re-
garded by the American government from the
first as part of Central America, and as such
subject to the provisions of the Clayton Bulwer
convention, which excludes Great Britain as
we'll as the United States from acquiring terri
tory or exercising dominion in any part of
Central America.
Said Mr.. Marcy, in his instructions of June
IL, 1854, to Mr.. Buchanan, then Minister in
London. "While you will abstain from claiming
the surrender Of the possession of Belize,
under the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, you
will resist the pretensions of Great Britain to
regard it as colonial possession with sovereign
rights, or to extend it beyond the limits
designated in the original grants-the Spanish
treaties OF 1883 and 1885," Again, in his
despatch Of August 6, 1885, Mr. Marcy said-
1.-THE United States have right to in
sist, and do insist, that the possessions
Of the British government at the Belize
shall be restricted to the limits and objects
specified in the Spanish grant, and that all be-
You'd those limits, falling within Central Anne
RIGA, shall be relinquished.'
Mr.. Buchanan did not fail to enforce the
views contained in these instructions in an un-
answerable manner on the British government.
| In his elaborate reply to Lord Clarendon, Of
May 2, 1854, he said:-"Whether the conven-
| ton embraces the entire isthmus, geographic
| cally known as Central America, or the five
States formerly composing the republic of that
name, in either case the country between the
Sarstoon and the Sibun is included in Central
| America, and is expressly covered by the con.
yention. This is geographical fact which it
| is presumed will not be denied"
Such has been the construction put on the
| Clayton Bulwer convention by the government
of the United States; such is the just construc-
ton of that document and yet the British
government, which is just now lecturing us on
international comfy, in connection with the
San Juan Island affair, goes to work deliberately
to give practical effect to its own construction
and consummate its own pretensions, through
the means of a treaty negotiated surreptitious-
| ly and in a corner with the State of Guatemala
Leaving the merits of the case aside, and for
getting for the moment that all the British pre-.
tensions over the country in question are
fagrantly fallacious and unfounded, we find
| the Palmerstonian government, without con-
sultation or even the poor courtesy of advice,
in an er parte and underhanded manner, and in
way to suit its own views and purposes I'M
| dertaking to settle question of greatest