120 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



The Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Eelations of the 

 Senate, the Honorable W. K. King, informs me that the Senate 

 perfectly understood that the treaty did not include British 

 Honduras. 



With this last presentation of " declarations," ratifications 

 were exchanged the same day (July 4), and the treaty was 

 proclaimed as law the day after. 



It appears to have been understood by both Mr. Clayton 

 and Sir Henry Bulwer that any amendments, alterations, 

 or qualifying statements in the treaty subsequent to its 

 ratification by the Senate would be considered of no force 

 whatever. Such being the case, these various statements on 

 the part of the negotiators, made just before the final 

 exchange of ratification, will serve only to show the inten- 

 tion of the parties who framed the instrument, but may 

 scarcely be accepted as part of the res gestce of the negotia- 

 tion. From the varying shades of meaning expressed 

 throughout these negotiations, particularly as both negoti- 

 ators were not only sparring to gain advantage one over the 

 other, but were also endeavoring to shield their designs from 

 publicity it is not easy to interpret the precise under- 

 standing of either. But it now seems reasonably certain 

 that Mr. Clayton did not anticipate British withdrawal from 

 Mosquitia as obligatory under the terms of the treaty, though 

 he expected such action to follow as a natural consequence of 

 the British promise not to fortify, etc., any point in Cen- 

 tral America, and also because he conceived Great Britain's 

 sole object in retaining her hold upon Nicaragua to have 

 departed upon ratification of the treaty. It is equally cer- 

 tain that the Senate did anticipate an immediate withdrawal 

 of all British claims on the Nicaraguan coast. Sir Henry 

 Bulwer's acceptance of Secretary Clayton's u counter-declara- 

 tion " would indicate that he had wavered in his determina- 

 tion to save Mosquitia for Great Britain; and yet, on the 

 other hand, his whole attitude, from the opening of the 

 negotiations to their close, demonstrates a fixed and dogged 

 purpose to the contrary. There can be but little doubt that 

 the Bay Islands were considered by both Mr. Clayton and 



