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sons or company shall have a priority of claim over every other person, persons, or company, to the protection of the Governments of Great Britain and the United States, and be allowed a year from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this convention for concluding their arrangements, and presenting evidence of sufficient capital subscribed to accomplish the contemplated undertaking, it being understood that if, at the expiration of the aforesaid period, such persons or company be not able to commence and carry out the proposed enterprise, then the Governments of Great Britain and the United States shall be free to afford their protection to any other persons or company that shall be prepared to commence and proceed with the construction of the canal in question.

I should here state to your lordship that, when the treaty was placed under the notice of the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate, a gentleman of great weight and of the more importance since he belongs to the dominant party in the chamber of which he is a member, considered that it would only be fair that the two governments should give an open and avowed preference by name to an American company which had first conceived and taken steps to carry out the proposed undertaking. This I objected to; but I deemed there could be no objection to giving to any company, under certain fair conditions such as are specified, the preference that was sought, although those conditions applied to a company that was American. In this manner a sort of compromise was effected.

The third alteration adopted is in Article VIII, the whole of which article is remodelled.

This alteration, I must say, was the effect of the joint opinion of Mr. Clayton and myself, both thinking that the article, as amended, was better and more clear, referring especially to two lines of communication which seem the most likely to be adopted, and securing thereby a considerable support to the convention in general, many persons being interested in the Panama and Tehuantepec projects.

The only other change which it is worth while remarking upon occurs the first in the body of the treaty, but was the last mooted or adopted. Your lordship will perceive it by casting your eye over Article I, in which a passage is inserted between the words "Central America,” which close the second line in the page, down to "nor will Great Britain or the United States take advantage of any," &c., which occurs in the third line from the bottom of the said page, some few words having been left out to admit of the aforesaid passage. The manner in which this change was effected was as follows:

It struck me that the declaration or note mentioned by your lordship bound our government as to its protection over the Mosquitos, but did not bind the United States Government as to its protection over such other states, even Nicaragua, as it might hereafter form an especial alliance with. Moreover, the pledge that we would not do covertly what we had declared we would not do directly, seemed to me a pledge that it would be more suitable and becoming that both parties should take than that one alone should take.

With these views instead of presenting the note, I embodied in the treaty the substance of the declaration given by your lordship to Mr. Lawrence, constructing that declaration so as to apply to any government or people we do or may protect, and also to any government or people that the United States Government do or may protect. Some discussion took place on this matter, but finally it was so arranged.

As the case now stands it is clearly understood that Her Majesty's Government holds by its own opinions already expressed as to Mosquito, and that the United States does not depart from its opinions also already expressed as to the same subject; but the main question of the canal

being settled on an amicable basis, and the future relations of the United States and Great Britain being regulated in all other parts of Central America, the discussion of this difference, which has lost its great practical importance, is avoided in an arrangement meant to be as much as possible of a perfectly friendly character.

I need not say that should your lordship wish to make any further statement as to the views of Her Majesty's Government with respect to the protectorate of Mosquito, that statement can still be made; nothing in the present convention is affirmed thereupon, but nothing is abandoned.

I trust that after this statement your lordship will approve of the course I have pursued.

There are various small and verbal differences between the original project and treaty which I have not enumerated, because they leave the general sense the same, and have only been adopted to express that sense more clearly. The word "fortify" is inserted between "occupy and colonize" in the second line from the bottom of the page in Article I, but this word had been used in your lordship's note to Mr. Lawrence, and only imposes in that place an obligation which had already been agreed to and stated elsewhere. The word "blockade" is inserted before the words "detention or capture" in Article II, at the request of several influential persons, but only signifies what detention and capture had already expressed.

Viscount PALMERSTON, G. C. B.

H. L. BULWER.

26.-Declaration made by Sir Henry Bulwer at the Department of State, June 29, 1850, prior to the exchange of the ratifications of the ClaytonBulwer treaty.

In proceeding to the exchange of the ratifications of the convention, signed at Washington on the 19th of April, 1850, between Her Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, relative to the establishment of a communication by ship-canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans:

The undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty's plenipotentiary, has received Her Majesty's instructions to declare that Her Majesty does not understand the engagements of that convention to apply to Her Majesty's settlement at Honduras, or to its dependencies.

Her Majesty's ratification of the said convention is exchanged under the explicit declaration above mentioned.

Done at Washington, the 29th day of June, 1850.

H. L. BULWER.

27.-Memorandum touching Sir Henry Bulwer's declaration filed by Mr. Clayton in the Department of State at Washington, July 5, 1850.

The within declaration of Sir H. L. Bulwer was received by me on the 29th day of June, 1850. In reply I wrote him my note of the 4th of July, acknowledging that I understood British Honduras was not embraced in the treaty of the 19th day of April last, but at the same time carefully declining to affirm or deny the British title in their settlement

or its alleged dependencies. After signing my note last night I delivered it to Sir Henry, and we immediately proceeded, without any further or other action, to exchange the ratifications of said treaty. [* The blank in the declaration was never filled up.] The consent of the Senate to the declaration was not required and the treaty was ratified as it stood when it was made.

JOHN M. CLAYTON.

N. B. The rights of no central American state have been compromised by the treaty or by any part of the negotiations.

28.-Charter granted by the State of Nicaragua to the Accessory Transit Company.

The supreme government of the Republic of Nicaragua, fully authorized by legislative decree of the 13th instant, have agreed, by means of their commissioners, Don Fruto Chamorro and Don Mateo Mayorga, with the sole object of facilitating the construction of the maritime canal, and in accordance with the desires expressed by the company of the said canal, represented by Joseph L. White, esq., to divide and separate from the contract of the 22d of September, 1849, relating to the construction of the said canal through the Isthmus of Nicaragua, the part therein relating to the navigation by steam of the waters of Nicaragua, and to that effect they have agreed to the following convention:

ARTICLE I.

The Repubic of Nicaragua authorizes the American, Atlantic, and Pacific Ship-Canal Company to divide and separate from the powers, privileges, and rights granted by the treaty, signed by said government on the 22d September, 1849, and amended the 11th of April, 1850, all the powers, privileges, rights, and duties designated in the Articles 6, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 32, 33, 34, and all other articles relating to the navigation of the waters of Nicaragua, not essential to the construction or use of the said ship-canal.

ARTICLE II.

Said company is equally authorized to form another company, distinct and separate, comprised of the same members as the former. This new company shall enjoy the powers and be subject to the duties inserted in the articles aforesaid, provided they are not in contradiction to the rights granted, and to the duties imposed upon the Ship-Canal Company.

ARTICLE III.

The company newly created shall proceed to execute and accomplish the objects of its incorporation, as set forth in the said articles above alluded to, and shall have a right to, and shall have the protection of the Government of Nicaragua, within the same limits and to the same

The words in brackets appear in the original in ink, but are marked out by leadpencil marks across their face. When they were so marked is not known. The blanks in the original declaration are filled up with "29th" and "June," written with a different kind of ink from the original.

extent which have been stipulated in the primary charter of the 22d September, 1849, and its amendments of the 11th of April, 1850, relating to the construction of a ship-canal. All the acts and things which may constitute an infraction of the rights of the Ship-Canal Company, shall equally be considered an infraction of the rights of the company newly created in all that refers to the objects of its institutions.

ARTICLE IV.

The new company, when organized, shall be designated by the name of "The Accessory Transit Company." They shall be a body corporate and politic, with perpetual succession during the time of their legal existence, and they shall have full powers to use their rights and privileges and accomplish fully the duties designated in the present convention and in the aforesaid articles in such manner as may seem to them most convenient and proper, provided that it be not in contradiction to the privileges and duties inserted in the primary charter of the 22d of September, 1849, and amendments thereto of the 11th of April, 1850.

ARTICLE V.

Said company, forming a body corporate and politic, may elect and remove their officers and agents according as they may deem it for their interest; they shall have the faculty of passing and adopting such laws and regulations as they may consider conducive to the better administration of their affairs, in view of securing the enjoyment of their privi leges, and for the entire fulfillment of their obligations.

They may fix the amount and value of stock to be issued, and increase the same if necessary; provide the mode of transferring the same, and do all acts and things which are proper and necessary to carry out strictly the purposes of their institution, and according to the above-mentioned articles.

ARTICLE VI.

The company, forming a body corporate and politic, shall elect a board of directors and a president, and shall fix the number of the members thereof, the majority of whom shall determine and adopt all resolutions necessary to carrying out the purposes expressed in the preceding articles, and such others as refer to the right of transit and are not inconsistent with the right of constructing and using the canal. The company may adopt a common seal, and change it if necessary. They may sue and be sued before the tribunals of the state as if they were a natural person.

ARTICLE VII.

All the property, choses in action, things, rights, credits, and effects of the new company shall be free from all charges and duties whatsoever during the existence of the grant, within the limits expressed in the primary charter of the 22d September, 1849, and amendments thereto of the 11th of April, 1850, conceded for the construction of a ship-canal, and for other purposes.

ARTICLE VIII.

This convention, and all the rights and privileges secured by it to the company and conferred by it, shall cease whenever the primary charter

of the 22d of September, 1849, shall expire by its own limitation, or shall be otherwise forfeited or annulled.

ARTICLE IX.

It is understood and agreed by and between the contracting parties that no expression used in this convention can be or shall be construed as relieving either party from the performance of all the obligations imposed upon them respectively by the charter of the 22d of September, 1849, and amendments thereto of the 11th of April, 1850.

Done and signed in duplicate in the city of Granada, of Nicaragua, the fourteenth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and fiftyFRUTO CHAMORRO,

one.

[SEAL.]

MATEO MAYORGA,

J. L. WHITE,

Counsel to and Representative of the American

and Atlantic and Pacific Ship-Canal Company.

164.]

29.—Mr. Lawrence to Mr. Webster.

[Extract.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, February 27, 1852. (Received March 13.)

SIR: The report of Colonel Childs is looked for with deep interest, and there does not appear any difficulty in associating persons of both countries able to accomplish so great a work whenever a satisfactory survey shall have been completed.

I have, &c.,

ABBOTT LAWRENCE.

168.]

30.-Mr. Lawrence to Mr. Webster.

[Extract.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

London, March 26, 1852. (Received April 9.)

SIR: Since my dispatch, No. 164, relative to the proposed survey for a route for a canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, I have heard nothing further from Messrs. Vanderbilt and White, nor have I received the report of Colonel Childs. *

*

As there can probably be but one canal, as that one should be constructed as well for the wants of the future as those of the present, and as it will doubtless absorb in its construction as much of the private capital of both countries as mercantile persons will desire to invest in it, I am anxious that a preliminary survey like the present should be made in such a way as to insure its completion and excite jealousy in neither country.

It is equally the interest of the United States and of Great Britain to connect the two oceans at the earliest practicable period by the best route, without reference to private interests, even though at an aug

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