Doc. No. 75. 



223 



[Enclosure.] 



Bruxelles, le 11 Janvier, 1849. 



Monsieur le Charge d'affaires: J'ai I'honneur de vous faire c<^m- 

 liaitre, en reponse a votre derniere communication , que le Koi, mon 

 august souveiain, consent volontiers a interposer sa mediation eutre les 

 Etats de Nicaragua et de Plonduras et la Grande Bretagne, pour le regie - 

 ment des difficultes qui se sont produites dans les derniers temps. Vous 

 etes des-lors autorise, Monsieur le Charge d 'Affaires, a vous mettre directe- 

 ment en rapport avec le cabinet particulier de sa Majesle. 



Agreez, &c.; <fcc.; 



DE HOPFSCHMIT, 

 Le Ministre des Affaires Elrangtres, 



A Monsieur de Marcoleta, 



Charge Affaires, 6fc., ^c.,^*c. 



Mr. Bancroft to the Secretary of State, 



[Extract] 



United States Legation, 



London, March 9, 1849. 

 The public mind in England is rapidly coming to the conclusion that 

 this kingdom has too many colonies; that by their excessive number they 

 are burdensome. The opinion is spreading that the Canadas must be 

 independent; and if they could exist separately from us, and as our rivals 

 the number of friends to their emancipation would increase. Yet with all 

 this tendency to new and more liberal measures, Great Britain often fol- 

 lows her old traditions of a policy of aggrandizement. As in the Medi- 

 terranean Gibraltar, Malta^ and the Ionian isles form her military stations^ 

 so she flanks us by a strong fortress at Halifax, seeks to overawe us by 

 another at Bermuda, and now, as we are gaining greatness in the Pacificj> 

 under pretence of protecting the Mosquito tribe of Indians, she has seized 

 the key to the passage to the Pacific by the lake of Nicaragua, and has 

 changed the name of the town of San Juan de Nicaragua to Greytown. 

 This subject is important^ because the route to the Pacific which that 

 town commands, is here esteemed the best of all. The representative of 

 Nicaragua, who is here, is in great perplexity, and may well be in doubt 

 what to do. The opinion in France is, I believe, adverse to the whole- 

 sale encroachments of England; but France is too busy at home to think 

 much of Central America. The Nicaragua minister would very gladly 

 seek advice from the United States. 1 have always made answer to him 

 that I am not authorized by my government to give him advice; that I 

 can only communicate to the American government whatever facts he 

 may desire to make known to it. My instructions warrant not much 

 more , 



I have seen the agent or minister from Costa Rica. He made on me a 

 very favorable impression. He was educated in the United States. His State 

 has a boundary strife with Nicaragua; but he assured me it was not his in- 

 tention to place Costa Rica under the protection of Great Britain. At the 



