Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-09-25
TROUBLE IN HONDURAS.
A Struggle Similar to That Of Balmaceds'a
in Chill.


in Chilli
PANAMA Sept. 16.-The Star and Herald pub
fishes the following account of difficulty in
progress at Belize, British Honduras, between
the administration and the legislature:
After protracted struggle between the gov
eminent and the popular element of the legis-
lature, not unlike that between Balmaceda and
the Gillian congress, the. representatives
| vacated their seats in q body. The gov
| ernor, who was in no way disconnected,
certain officials whom he designated ''unofi-
| cial' members, inasmuch as they did not occupy
| their seats ex-officio.
There wac at that time February LAST no
one to gainsay him. and from February to July
the colony was practically run under the Bal
not like 1t. but could not well help it. Their
| little congress had retired, indeed, but could
not do more. They could not tight. Even
could they have raised improved rifles
| their little dictator that would have but made
| matters Verso, since Great Britain has a habit
of treating revolutionary tendencies as thigh
treason" the penalty of which is apt to bring
| on an attack of suspended animation.
But the little colony not altogether do
| serted by fate. She possesses the handspring
Of British rights and privileges, a supreme
| court. Truly it is nots SO grandly supreme a
| court Of ultimate appeal as the same named in
stitution in the United States, but it answered
the purpose ut this crisis
During five months the administrator and
his own elected legislature had it all their own
way, piled up the taxes aud voted tariffs
galore. At one bound the import
tariffs jumped from 10 to so. The colo
nists groaned aloud and petitioned the home
sarcastic comfort that they had their own repre-
| sentatives to thank. Having incontinently with
drawn from their conceded share in tho govern
ment they must abide the consequences. But
| the Observation-Disclosures did not see it in that
| light, and the happy thought occurred
| eventually to Messrs- Heven Bros. Il Co.
| that there was constitution somewhere
| in the archives of the colony. and SO the firm
consulted their lawyers, with the result that
| an action was laid in July against the collector
| Of customs to recover duties alleged to have
| been illegally exacted, on the ground that the
colony possessed no constitutional legislature,
either at the present time or when
| the new tariff was voted. The government
| went into court and defended itself. Chief
Justice Anderson was in a quandary for prece.
the empire no similar case could
be found on the ruling in which he could
base his decision. So he crossed the Atlantic
and fell back on the United States institution
| of the Supreme Court. QuOth the chief
justice. 'This is the law in America, but it has
never been declared SO in any Of her majesty 8
dominions." He had promptly decided that
the legislature was unconstitutionally formed
and that its acts we're consequently invalid, but
the Alexandrine knot. to be unrayeled was
whether he had any authority to so declare and
invalidate those acts. But, quoth he:
There is no doubt that there ought to be,
must be some restraining power upon colo
| NAL legislature, and SO, as he could not judi
cially unravel the knot, he cut it
with the trenchant blade Of sound COM
mon sense and gave judgment for
the plaintiffs, thereby overruling the lie gis-
lature and practically declaring the country
without a legislative branch OF government,
and annulling moreover by that decision all
the laws SO happily sprung on the country since
February.
| The nonplussed government, crippled and
astounded. has appealed to the privy council OF
the empire, but it is difficult to see how that
body can help it out Of the dilemma. The judge
might not really have the Jurisdiction to act
in the case, of that he admitted his own uncer-
tainty, the case being SO unprecedented. but it
seems absolutely certain that the result must
be the giving OF competent constitutional
Legislative body to the country.
| In the British empire nothing is above the
Law. the law being above everything. and the
high-handed proceedings OF the colonial gov
eminent and the even more reprehensible In
dorsement thereof by the imperial authorities,
will now Of surety be set right. e.,