, 1888-06-30

dicial privileges in and over it, for years
past, the Magistrate and the CommiSsary
of the PomerOon district holding it in
charge under their respective commits
sions /; but now, the Government consider
that the North western territory is of i'm
pOrtance enough, in a fiscal point of view,
to require the services of a resident Com
missary, and hence the new district. A
police station with a posse of c~onstables
under an Inspector has also been provi-
ded, by which order in the district will
be assured, and protection against the
lawless interference of Venezuelan tramps
or generals will be afforded. The Govern
ment have thus disposed of the boundary
question in this quarter in a statesman
like fashion and it remains now only to
settle it in a similarly definite manner,
in the Cuyuni and Yuruari quarters. 1t
is absurd t. allow Venezuela to keep this
important question lying open to suit its
own time for a settlement. Tn weak
ness of that country is certainly a very
powerful reason why the British Govern
ment should give it the fullest limit of
consideration, but we think that limit has
been reached, and the time has arrived
for a settlement, whether Venezuela is
ready for it or not. The vapOuringS of
our neighbours hat have found express
sion in their own newspapers and i'll GER
tain papers of questionable repute i'll New
York are not to be taken in a serious
light ; they are so intensely ludicrous that
the more sensible of the VeneZueIans
must be ashamed to see them in print.
Fortunately, the bOmbast will not infu-
ence Great Britain in her disposal of the
boundary question nor need any OF
our readers Shudder over the thought OF
Bolivar and Carthagena being levelled to
the ground in return for an attack made
upon the capital of British Guiana. The
men who can utter such outrageous non
sense as we have seen of late III the lit
erature of the boundary controversy are
those who would rather avoid physical
collision with our colony knowing full
we'll as they do, that one pellet aimed a.
gainst Georgetown by a Venezuelan wea-
pon would be followed by a storm of re-
tribution, fierce and relentless, in which
even the nationality of Venezuela might
disappear. The British Ministry however
should not allow the Boundary question
to remain any longer the possible subject
of such mock herOicS as those TO which
we nave referred. The notice recently
advertised in our Official Gazette diSpu.
ClHS Iu6 lIShC VI ' eIeHueId 10 lHe 1uIud-
ii valley cannot be ignored without bling
ing the Imperial Government into con
tempt and another reason why the work
of settlement, by whatever way it is to
proceed, should not be delayed, is the
prospective Importance of the gold indus
try TO this colony,-an industry which
cannot be developed until the boundary
dispute no longer exists. If the Court of
Policy members had been charged with
the right spirit of progression and enter
prise, it would not have been possible for
a Minister to say in the House, as was
said recently, that there was no diSsatiS-
faction in Demerara over the ~insolent
bearing of Venezuela, when it turned
Commissioner McTurk out of the Yu-
Tuari valley, as an interlOper who had no
business there.