132 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



Islands a free territory, coming partially under the sover- 

 eignty of Honduras, and yet free in the sense that it could 

 not be taxed, nor its subjects be called upon to perform mili- 

 tary duty, other than in their own exclusive defence. It 

 will be seen, therefore, that the ratification of the Dallas- 

 Clarendon agreement would oblige the United States to 

 acknowledge the Bay Islands to be a free territory, over 

 which a British protectorate would continue virtually to- 

 exist. 



It has been thought not a little remarkable that the execu- 

 tive, representing a party so radically anti-British, and so- 

 positive in its demands that England should abandon, under 

 the terms of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, all her Central 

 American possessions, should have accepted this convention 

 with favor. In his last annual message the following 

 December (1856) President Pierce said that the "occasion 

 of controversy on this point [British pretensions in Central 

 America] has been removed. . . . Should the proposed 

 supplemental arrangement be concurred in ... the objects 

 contemplated by the original convention [Clayton^Bulwer 

 treaty] will have been fully attained." 



Obviously, this convention was a compromise which left 

 Great Britain firmly establishe4_in__Belize, doubtfully so in 

 the Bay Islands, but did away entirely with her influence in 

 Nicaragua. The Senate did not share the President's opti- 

 mism, but promptly condemned the instrument, though 

 finally, after considerable discussion, ratified it with certain 

 amendments. The most important of these amendments 

 struck out the clause making the treaty conditional upon 

 the acceptance of the British-Honduran treaty of August, 

 1856. This particular amendment, however, was unsatisfac- 

 tory to Lord Clarendon, for, by making an unconditional 

 surrender of the Bay Islands to Honduras, he alleged it 

 would leave unprotected a large number of British subjects 

 who had taken up their abode there with the natural expec- 

 tation of protection from the home government; however, 

 since the Senate could not accept the conditions placed upon- 

 the retrocession of the Bay Islands, as already set forth, he 



