neither of the contracting parties in this convention have any just cause to object, and the said persons or company shall, moreover, have made preparations, and expended time, money, and trouble, on the faith of such contract, it is hereby agreed that such persons or company shall have a priority of claim over every other person, persons, or company to the protection of the governments of the United States and Great Britain, 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 the United States and Great Britain 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. ARTICLE VIII The governments of the United States and Great Brit ain, in entering into the present having not only desired, in en convention, have not only desired to accomplish a particular object, but also to establish a general principle; they [therefore] hereby agree to take under their consideration any project for a canal or railway, which may be submitted to them, and which may have for its purpose to connect the Atlantic and Pacific, or to shorten and expedite the transit of persons, ships, or merchandise, between the two great oceans; and should either of the two governments deem it to be beneficial to the general interests of commerce and civilization to extend its support, encouragement, or protection to such railway or canal, it will forthwith invite the other of the two governments to be a joint party in affording such protection, support, or encouragement; and will neither request nor accept from any persons, company, or state any advantages or privileges for its own citizens or subjects with respect to such, railway or canal which shall not be open for all other governments to obtain for their citizens or subjects upon the same terms as those which are proposed to or accepted by itself. tering into this convention, extend their protection, by treaty stipulations, to any other practicable communications, whether by across the isthmus which connects North and South America, and especially to the interoceanic communications, should the same prove to be practicable, whether by canal or railway, which are now proposed to be established by the way of Tehuantepec or Panama. In granting, however, their joint protection to any such canals or railways as are by this article specified, it is always understood by the United States and Great Britain that the parties constructing owning the same shall impose no other charges or conditions of traffic thereupon than the aforesaid governments shall approve of as just and equitable; and that the same canals or railways, being open to the citizens and subjects of the United States and Great Britain on equal terms, shall also be open on like terms to the citizens and subjects of every other state which is willing to grant thereto such protection as the United States engage to afford. or ARTICLE IX J. M. CLAYTON, The ratifications of this convention shall be exchanged at Washington within six months from this day, or sooner if possible. In faith whereof we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed this convention, and have hereunto affixed our seals. Done at Washington, the nineteenth day of April, anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and fifty. JOHN M. CLAYTON, HENRY LYTTON BULWEB. With the project of the treaty, Bulwer forwarded to Lord Palmerston the following agreement: If this project be approved of by the government of her Britannic Majesty and the Government of the United States on or before the tenth of April next (1850), it shall then forthwith be converted into a solemn treaty binding between the two states. But if, on the contrary, it should not be fully approved of by either or both these governments on or before the 10th of April, 1850, it is then fully agreed, understood and declared by the undersigned that the said project is to be considered as altogether null and void; and that all that has passed relative thereto shall be held as if it had never taken place. J. M. CLAYTON. IV THE PROTECTORATE UNDER THE In his letter transmitting the treaty to Palmerston, Sir Henry Bulwer said: having heard of the very serious illness of Mr. Lawrence and been informed by Mr. Clayton that, if this gentleman recovers, he will not be able to transact public business for a considerable time, I deemed that I stood in one of those positions in which it is necessary for a public agent to take upon himself a certain degree of responsibility for the sake of the public service; and consequently when Mr. Clayton after informing me of Mr. Lawrence's severe indisposition and explaining to me the very critical position in which he himself stood, added that he must either deliver up the whole subject to popular discussion and determination or come to some immediate settlement upon it, I entered with him into a full consideration of the affair, and finally agreed to submit to your Lordship's sanction the enclosed project of convention . . . its object being to exclude all questions of the disputes between Nicaragua and the Mosquitos; but to settle in fact all that it was essential to settle with regard to these disputes as far as the ship communication between the Atlantic and Pacific and the navigation of the River San Juan were concerned.1 1 The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was thus purely commercial. It was not formed to settle the Mosquito question, but to prevent the Mosquito question being an obstacle to the completion of the American canal. (Quart. Rev. Vol. XCIX, 1856, Article by H. L. Bulwer.) Thus Bulwer and Clayton agreed to concentrate their attention on the requirements of the canal. The problem of ousting Great Britain from objectionable occupancy in Central America irrespectively of the canal, was to be put off to an indefinite future. The different attitude taken toward this matter by Abbot Lawrence was probably of more weight than the state of Lawrence's health in determining Clayton to transfer the negotiations from London to Washington. Before the project of the treaty could have reached England its provisions became known in the United States, and Clayton was given reason to believe that the Senate would not approve of his attitude toward the general question of Mosquito sovereignty. On that subject it agreed with Lawrence rather than with Clayton. As a consequence Clayton perforce adopted the view of the Senate, that British influence was to be abolished throughout the Mosquito Coast, and he applied himself to prevailing upon Bulwer to do likewise. This was to propose that Bulwer do the very thing which he was bent on preventing-that he commit himself to failing in his mission. Clayton was insistent. Bulwer was immovable. In vain did Clayton threaten to defeat what he supposed was the common object of the negotiators. Bulwer with an air of injured innocence, protested against Clayton's inconstancy. It ended in Clayton's leaving the Mosquito question unsettled as be |