I9I3.] OF THE UNITED STATES. 239 



both governments should approve of any charges or conditions of 

 traffic, — that is to say, tolls, — which might be imposed, and that no 

 such tolls should be imposed, in fact, which had not the approval 

 and consent of both governments. 



The United States government considered that it had entered 

 into an agreement that was both just and equitable toward both par- 

 ties, as a definition of the rights and duties of each and a basis upon 

 which the isthmian canal should be built as a benefit to the commerce 

 of the world. 



And further, we not only held ourselves to be bound by the stipu- 

 lations of this agreement, but we called upon Great Britain to sus- 

 tain her part of it by a very strict interpretation of the law, quite 

 beyond what the British Cabinet had expected in entering into the 

 engagement, and a good deal more than it was willing at first to 

 concede ; for we contended that by the provisions of the treaty both 

 nations had promised not: "to make use of any protection or alliance 

 which either has or may have with any state or people for the pur- 

 pose of fortifying or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito 

 Coast, or any part of Central America, or of assuming or exercising 

 dominion over the same." And we called upon the British govern- 

 ment, under this provision, not only not to extend its political influ- 

 ence in Central America but also to give up such claims as it might 

 already have acquired in British Honduras, the Mosquito Coast and 

 the islands of the sea. 



This was not at all what Great Britain had understood to be her 

 position under the treaty, and Lord Clarendon declared, (1854) that 

 the contracting parties did not intend to include within its action 

 " either the British settlement in Honduras nor the islands known 

 as its dependencies," that whatever claims or influence Great Britain 

 may have had there previously should remain undisturbed, — that 

 the only question which might arise in regard to this was one relat- 

 ing to the boundary line of Honduras, — as to what was British 

 Honduras and what was not. 



" To this settlement and these islands the treaty we negotiated was not 

 intended by either of us to apply, — and the British government is more 

 warranted in this conclusion from the fact that the United States sent a 



