The San Francisco call., 1898-12-09


 ing and leading up to the making of the
 Clayton-Bulwer treaty and the reasons
 that made it apparently necessary and l desirable as we'll as the several efforts 1 that have since been made to have 1t mutually declared invalid and abrogated form very interesting chapter in the history of American diplomacy.
 1 The treaty was signed at Washington April 19, 1850, by MT. Clayton, Secretary of State in President Taylor's administra- 1 ton, for the United States, and Sir H. l.. | Bulwer, the British Minister at Washing l ton. for Great Britain.
 l The opening of interoceanic communi cation had become matter of paramount | importance to the United States, on ac- | count of the vast rush of population to | the newly acquired California, where the discovery of gold had closely followed the | formal transfer of the territory from the | possession of Mexico to that of the United | States by the treaty of Gaudaloupe | Hidalgo, May, 1S4S. | Already in December. 1S46, there had | been ratified treaty between the united | States and New Granada (now Colombla), 1 by which a right of transit over the lsth- mus of Panama was given to the United States and free transit over the isthmus from one to the other sea" guaranteed by both of the contracting powers Under the shelter of this treaty the Panama Railroad Company, composed of citizens of the United States and Work1ng with capital supplied from the United States, was organized in 1850 and the road put in full operation In 1885.
 In 1S49. however before this company had taken shape, the United States en- tered into a treaty with Nicaragua Tor the opening of a ship canal from Grey town (San Juan) on the eastern coast, by way of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua to convenient point on the Pacific Coast.
 Greytown was then, however, virtually in possession of and occupied by British settlers, mostly from Jamaica, and the whole of the eastern coast of Nicaragua, so far as the terminus of such a canal was concerned, was held, so Great Brit ain maintained, by the Mosquito Indians, over whom she claimed to exercise pro- tectorate.
 That the Mosquito Indians had no set tied rights over such territorial site and that, even if they had, Great Britain had no such protectorate or sovereignty over them as authorized her to exercise any dominion or control over their soil, was at the time insisted on by the United States, and that position has since been repeat edly affirmed.
 But the mere fact that pretension and claims, baseless as they were, had been set up, and that any attempt to force canal through the Mosquito Indian coun- try might precipitate a war, induced Mir. Clayton to ask, through Sir H. l.. Bulwer, the then British Minister at Washington, the administration of Lord John Russell Uord Palmerston being Foreign Secre- tary) to withdraw the British pretensions to the coast, so as to permit the con- struction of the canal under the joint auspices of the United States and Nica- ragua.
 This the British Government declined to do, but agreed to enter into a treaty for a joint protectorate over the proposed canal. After some long discussion the treaty was drawn and signed in April. 1850, and notifications were exchanged on the 4th of July following. The provi- sions which it is now sought to abrogate are embodied in the first article, in the following language:
 The governments of the United States and Great Britain hereby declare neither the one the other will ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control of said ship canal; agreeing that neither will ever erect or main tain any fortifcation commanding the same or in the vicinity thereof, occupy or fortify or colonize or assume or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast or any part of Central America; nor will either make use of any protection which either affords or may afford or any alliance which either has may have, to or with any state or people for the purpose of erecting main- tainng any such Notifications, or occupying fortifying or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast any part of Central America; or of assuming exercising domin- ion over the same nor will the United States or Great Britain take advantage of any inti- macy or use any alliance connection or in- fuence that either may possess with any state or government through whose territory the said canal may pass for the purpose of acqur- ing holding directly or indirectly for the citizens or subjects of the one any rights or advantages in regard to the commerce or navi- gation through the said canal which shall not be offered on the same terms to the citizens or subjects of the other.
 Since the execution of the treaty there have been many controversies and much diplomatic correspondence between the two Governments respecting the inter- prato tiop of fhe nrincjpa1 c1oucee Graot