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12.

Déclaration, relative à l'interprétation du traité précédent, faite par le négociateur anglais à Washington, le 29 juin 1850.

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 Settlernent at Honduras, or to its dependencies.

Her Majesty's ratification of the said Convention is exchanged under the explicit declaration above men. tioned.

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

13.

Réponse de Mr. Clayton à la déclaration précédente, signée à Washington, le 4 juillet 1850.

Department of State, Washington, July 4, 1850.

Sir, I have received the declaration you were instructed by your Government to make to me respecting Honduras and its dependencies, a copy of which is herewith subjoined.

The language of Article I of the Convention concluded on the 19th day of April last, between the United States and Great Britain, describing the country not to be occupied, etc., by either of the parties, was, as you know, twice approved by your Government, and it was neither understood by them, nor by either of us (the negotiators),

to include the British Settlement in Honduras, commonly called British Honduras, as distinct from the State of Honduras, nor the small islands in the neighbourhood of that Settlement, which may be known as its dependencies. To this Settlement and these islands the Treaty we negotiated was not intended by either of us to apply. The title to them it is now, and has been my intention throughout the whole negotiation, to leave, as the Treaty leaves it, without denying, affirming, or in any way meddling with the same, just as it stood previously.

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The Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, the Hon. William R. King, informs me that the Senate perfectly understood that the Treaty did not include British Honduras." It was intended to apply to and does include all the Central American States of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, with their just limits and proper depen

dencies.

The difficulty that now arises seems to spring from the use in our Convention of the term „Central America", which we adopted because Viscount Palmerston had assented to it, and used it as the proper term, we naturally supposing that on this account it would be satisfactory to your Government; but if your Government now intend to delay the exchange of ratifications until we shall have fixed the precise limits of Central America, we must defer further action until we have further information on both sides, to which at present we have

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means of resort, and which it is certain we could not obtain before the term fixed for exchanging the ratifications would expire. It is not to be imagined that such is the object of your Government, for not only would this course delay, but defeat the Convention.

Of course no alteration could be made in the Convention as it now stands, without referring the same to the senate and I do not understand you as having authority to propose any alteration. But on some future occasion a conventional Article, clearly stating what are the limits of Central America, might become advisable.

There is another matter still more important, which the stipulations of the Convention direct that we shall settle, but which you have no instructions now to determine; and I desire you to invite the attention of your Nouv, Recueil gén. Tome XV.

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Government to it ,,the distance from the two ends of the canal within which ,, vessels of the United States or Great Britain, traversing the said canal, shall, in case of war between the Contracting Parties, be exempted from blockade, detention, or capture by either of the belligerents".

The subject is one of deep interest, and I shall be happy to receive the views of your Government in regard to it, as soon as it may be convenient for them to decide upon it.

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Note finale du négociateur anglais, en réponse à la note précédente, signée à Washington, le 4 juillet 1850.

Sir,

British Legation, July 4, 1850.

I understand the purport of your answer to the declaration, dated the 29th of June, which I was instructed to make to you on behalf of Her Majesty's Government, to be, that you do not deem yourself called upon to mark out at this time the exact limits of Her Majesty's Settlement at Honduras, nor of the different Central American States, nor to define what are or what are not the dependencies of the said Settlement; but that you fully recognize that it was not the intention of our negotiation to embrace in the Treaty of 19th April whatever is Her Majesty's Settlement at Honduras, nor whatever are the dependencies of that Settlement; and that Her Majesty's title thereto subsequent to the said Treaty will remain just as it was prior to that Treaty, without undergoing any alteration alteration whatever in consequence

thereof.

It was not the intention of Her Majesty's Government to make the declaration I submitted to you more than a simple affirmation of this fact, and consequently I deem myself now authorized to exchange Her Majesty's

ratification of the Treaty of 19th April for that of the President of the United States.

I shall take the earliest opportunity of communicating to Her Majesty's Government the desire which you express to have determined the distance from the two ends of the canal within which vessels of the United States or Great Britain traversing the said Canal shall, in case of war between the Contracting Parties, be exempted from blockade, detention, or capture by either of the belligerents, and I will duly inform Her Majesty's Government of the interest which you take in this question. I avail, etc.

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Base d'un arrangement des affaires de l'Amé– rique centrale, convenue entre la Grande Bretagne et les États-Unis, le 30 avril 1852, et proposée à la Costarica et à la Nicaragua.

The Undersigned, Daniel Webster, Secretary of State of the United States, and John Fiennes Crampton, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Her Britannic Majesty, having taken into consideration the state of the relations between the Republics of Costa Rica and Nicaragua in respect to the boundaries between those Republics, and between the Republic of Nicaragua and the territory claimed by the Mosquito Indians, and being mutually desirous that all pending differences respecting those questions should be amicably, honourably, and definitively adjusted, do, in behalf of their respective Governments, earnestly 'recommend to the respective Governments of the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica an accommodation and settlement of these differences upon the following basis:

Art. I. The Mosquito Indians may reserve to themselves, out of the territory heretofore claimed or occupied by them on the eastern coast of Central America, a district of country, and the jurisdiction over the same, to be bounded as follows, namely: beginning on the

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shore of the Caribbean Sea at the mouth of the River Rama, which is (according to Bailey's map of Central America, published in London in November 1850) in 11° 34' north latitude, and 83° 46' west longitude; running thence due west to the meridian of 84o 30' west longitude from Greenwich; thence due north on said meridian to the River Segovia, Fantasme, or Wanx; thence down said river to the Caribbean Sea; thence southerly along the shore of said sea to the place of beginning; and all the rest and remainder of the territory and lands lying southerly or westerly of said reservation heretofore occupied or claimed by the said Mosquitos, including Greytown, they shall relinquish and cede to the Republic of Nicaragua, together with all jurisdiction over the same, in consideration of the nett receipts for a period of three years from all duties levied and collected at Greytown at the rate of 10 per cent. ad valorem on all goods imported into the State. The period of three years to commence on the day when Nicaragua shall formerly take possession of and enter into the occupancy of said town. And the said nett receipts shall be payable quarterly, or every three months, to such agent or agents as may be appointed to receive them.

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And the said Republic of Nicaragua hereby agrees not in any way to molest or interfere with the Mosquito Indians within the territory herein reserved by them.

It is also understood that any grants of land which may have been made by the said Mosquitos since the 1st of January, 1848, in that part of the Mosquito territory hereby ceded to Nicaragua, shall not be disturbed, provided the said grants shall not interfere with other legal grants made previously to that date by Spain, by the Central American Confederation, or by Nicaragua, or with the privileges or operations of the Atlantic ShipCanal Company, or Accessory Transit Company, and shall not include territory desired by the Nicaragua Government for forts, arsenals, or other public buildings.

II. It is also understood that nothing in the preceding Article shall preclude the conclusion of such voluntary compact and arrangements between the State of Nicaragua and the Mosquito Indians, by which the latter may be definitively incorporated and united with

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