consul or envoy in Central America. Should this proposition be accepted by the consul, or any other mode of proceeding be adopted presenting the chances of an impartial arbitration, my government will be perfectly satisfied with it; and it therefore waits for a reply from your consulate.

In conclusion I beg to inform you that the President, being desirous to avoid all occasions of being compelled to return a reply which might prove disagreeable, and wishing to prevent the occurrence of fresh grievances and demands, has instructed me to return, unanswered, all such commu. nications as the consul may address which, instead of being written in decorous language, as it is proper they should be, may contain expressions derogatory to the respect which is due to the supreme government.

I renew to the consul the considerations with which, before now, I have had the satisfaction of subscribing myself his obedient servant, RAFAEL PINO.

To her Britannic Majesty's CONSUL

in Central America.

[No. 1.]

GUATEMALA, August 26, 1850. MY FRIEND AND MOST ESTEEMED SIR: The extraordinary express, Maximo Rivera, came in at half-past ten in the morning, when he, accom panied by one of the officers of this department, immediately called at the house of Mr. Frederick Chatfield, chargé d'affaires of her Britannic Ma jesty, for the purpose of delivering into his hands the package brought by said courier; but that gentleman returned it to me, saying "that he would not receive it, because it had not been sent through the agency of Mr. Idigoras, English vice consul in that State."

Under these circumstances, having neither reply nor receipt to send by Rivera, the latter is sent back this very day in charge of this, and the aforesaid package directed to Mr. Chatfield, under cover and seal.

Wishing you and your estimable family the finest health, I remain, as I have always been, your very devoted servant and friend, &c., &c., MARIANO CORDOVA.

Don ESCOLASTICO ANDRINO.

[No. 2.]

DEP'T RELATIONS AND OFFICE SUPREME GOV'T STATE OF SALVADOR, Gov't House, San Salvador, April 18, 1850. I have acquainted the President of the State with the contents of your esteemed note, dated from San José de Costa Rica, the 16th of last February, who, after deliberation, has ordered me to return the following reply:

It would be very pleasing to the government of Salvador to find itself compelled by the justice of the demands which have been pressed by the consul to do away with the regret which he says he feels in consequence of this government's not having complied with the compact made on the 12th of November, in the port of La Union; but said government has the misfortune to think that such regret is entirely without cause, and that it does not even originate in a mistaken idea.

The note addressed to the consul by this department, under date of the 21st of last November, demonstrates, to a certainty, the absence of all foundation for the claims which have not been recognised by this government, the payment of which had been agreed upon in the above-mentioned compact. Nor can the consul be ignorant of the fact that it is the spirit of the representative government which is in force at Salvador; that the legislative chambers alone have the power to ratify such compact, and that this could not be effected until the period of their re assembling, because it is not of such importance as to require the calling together of an extraordinary session, and because this delay cannot militate against the fulfilment of such compact, if orce ratified.

There is no cause for complaints, therefore, because the aforesaid compact has not been approved of with the same promptitude which the consul used in raising the blockade he had effected, for the purpose of compelling such an arrangement. This was an act of violence-it was an act of molestation committed by the consul, which he could put an end to without inconvenience, and, undoubtedly, with advantage to himself. The aforesaid compact having been referred to the legislative body, the latter authorized the government to take whatever measures it thought proper to adopt in the premises, and said government has approved of it, with such modifications as are specified in the decree of this date, of which I send you an authenticated copy. If the consul has any reasons with which to combat the objections that have been raised against certain portions of the compact, and which I shall enumerate here, my government, on being satisfied with them, will enter into a new arrangement, be the truth and plausibility of those reasons ever so moderately manifested.

Apart from those claims which have been disputed or objected to in the former note of this government, and which have not been recognised before, my government will not fail to redeem all its former pledges, the arnual sum of fifteen thousand dollars having already been appropriated and tendered in payment.

Without entering into any stipulations on the subject, my government knows how to treat with proper courtesy both Great Britain and her agents, while the latter do not abuse the prerogatives of their respective offices This government was under the impression that, after what has taken place, and the representations it has hitherto made, the consul would not have insisted upon its recognising the agency of D. M. Idigoras; but, having done so, he will state again what has already been said: D. M. Idigora has never received a formal appointment or authority from the consul to enable him to act as his representative. The consul had privately informed said Idigoras how the pending questions or differences which have occurred between his consulate and this government might be settled. The latter having replied to the official notes of the consul, was privately instructed in regard to the terms upon which a satisfactory arrangement might be made; and, in private letters, he, in return, communicated his opinions to the consul, tendering him even his advice, from which it is evident that his agency never had a formal character, and that if the October contract was negotiated with him, it was in the full confidence which the consul's letters had inspired in regard to it; but as soon as this matter was settled, the functions of Mr. Idigoras were at an end. If this department, in its communications, gave him the title of agent, it would be surmising too much to suppose that it was desirous thereby to express

its satisfaction with such agency; and if, by merely styling him such, it was to constitute him an agent, said department would also have the right of appointing him; and, consequently, the right of removing him. These are all digressions resulting from the arguments which have been advanced in order to sustain D. Marcos Idigoras in his pretended capacity of British agent. He was not formally appointed by the consul, and this department has no power to appoint him British agent. Consequently, he cannot be recognised in that character; and being, moreover, a citizen of Salvador, with responsibilities resting upon him which frequently compromise him with his fellow-citizens and with the authorities of the State, he could not accept such employment without the permission of my gos ernment: the same as it was required on a former occasion, when he was appoutied vice consul, in which character he was likewise refused to be recognised.

This agency has filled D. Marcos Idigoras with so much vanity that his improprieties of conduct towards the authorities of the State are not to be wondered at, nor that these authorities should restrain and chastise him. If, however, any injustice has been done in the premises, our laws afford the means for obtaining reparation.

No hostile feeling has ever been entertained, nor could have been entertained, on the part of the government of Salvador, against Great Britain, as the consul asserts; on the contrary, in all that has taken place between this government and the British consulate, it is the latter that has exhibited hostility of feeling, by preferring claims destitute of foundation, by sending insulting communications, and by blockading our ports. My government is willing to believe that these acts are committed in the name of England without her knowledge, or that she concurs in the perpetration of the same owing to want of more correct information, because, in order to be the first power upon earth, she only wants to be the most equitable. With these impressions, my government, so far from fearing lest the consul should communicate the replies of this department to his government, the desire of the former is that they may be forwarded to England with the greatest possible care.

I renew to the consul those considerations with which I have before now subscribed myself his very attentive and obedient servant, RAFAEL PINO.

To her Britannic Majesty's CONSUL.

[No. 3.]

DEPARTMENT OF RELATIONS, and Executive Office

OF THE SUPREME GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF SALVADOR. The President of the State of Salvador, availing himself of the power conferred upon him, by the decree of the legislature dated the 6th of last March, to determine as regards the ratification of the contracts made in the port of "La Union," on the 12th of November last, by the commis sioners of this government, with her Britannic Majesty's consul, having considered

1stly. That, in the aforesaid arrangements, the sum of $66,020 62 is put down as acknowledged to be due from the 28th of December, 1848, whereas the amount is only $60,000; because, even if the balance of

$6,020 621 had been claimed, the same was not acknowledged, which is proved by the language of the convention of December aforesaid, where it is stated, without designating the amount, that the debt would be paid in the terins specified therein, which could not apply to the claim of six thousand and more dolars, said claim not having been acknowledged, and being, therefore, groundiess:

2dly. That having no right to alter the stipulations contained in the aforesaid convention of December 28th, in which arrangements were made for the payment of the debt without any interest whatever, the payment of said interest could not have been required by the convention of November 12, 1649:

3dly. That the demand for an additional sum of $23,172 25, which it is alleged was taken from the custom house of Acajutla in British goods, included in the failure of Espada and Piloña, is founded on a note said to have been addressed by this government, under date of the 28th, without mentioning what month, in the year 1845, referring the decision about certain rights claimed by this State to the consulate of Guatemala, of which note no copy whatever is to be found in the archives of the department; and not being able to conceive how there should have been taken more than $23,000 when the debt due to the State did not amount to half the sum specified, which has never yet been fully settled, which accounts for the uncertainty of the data introduced in order to procure the acknowledgment of the amount specified; and that, for these reasons, as above stated, the same cannot be allowed:

4thly. That, inasmuch as no new period of time has been designated for the payment of the aforesaid sums-even supposing the claim to be valid upon any plea-except what has been stipulated for in the convention of October 10, 1848, there wanting yet nearly three years of the period when the payment which should comprise the aforesaid sums has to be made, no inconvenience can accrue to the British consulate by employing all this interval of time in investigations for the purpose of ascer taining the truth and the justice of such claims:

5thly. That the exaction on one side, and the agreement on the part of the other to the occupancy of the islands of the State, which has been stipulated for in said contract, are terms at once shameful and humiliating to this government, whose pledges have never been left unredeemed, and therefore inadmissible:

6thly. That it being utterly impossible to tolerate any longer, in any form whatever the British consular agency of Mr. Idigoras, which is continued on he plea that the same had been recognised, from the fact that the consul, in a note to this department, dated August 6, 1849, had said: "Having, on various occasions, commissioned Don Marcos Idigoras to act in the name of the consul general of her Britannic Majesty near the governmen of Salvador, etc.,"-these being all occasions when any other person, no a Salvadorean citizen, might have been resisted and rejected, and muct more reasonably so Idigoras for being one; and it not being agreeable to the State that the aforesaid Idigoras should again be admitted as consuhr agent near this government,-it has thought proper to decree, and decrees:

ARTICLE 1. The contract of the 12th of November last is approvedla as far as regards the sum of $60,000, the payment of which With regard ted for in the convention of the 25th of December, 1848; h

to the items of $6,020 62, forming part of the last claims which were disputed, it is not approved of.

ART. 2. The stipulation concerning the interest upon the debt is not approved of, the payment of said debt having already been tendered, and being now in process of liquidation.

ART. 3. The additional stipulation for the further payment of twentythree thousand one hundred and seventy-two dollars and twenty five cents, alleged to have been taken from the custom-house of Acajutla iu British goods, included in the failure of Espada and Piloña, is also disapproved of, as long as there is no documentary evidence produced of the origin of this debt; and the note in which it is asserted that the decision about this matter had been referred to the consulate of Guatemala, and, conse quently, the decision of said consulate, are forthcoming.

ART. 4. The occupancy of the islands of this State is likewise disapproved of.

ART. 5. D. Marcos Idigoras is not recognised as British agent near this government.

Given at San Salvador, April 18, 1850.

RAFAEL PINO,

DOROTEO VASCONZELOS.

The Secretary of Relations and Government..

Mr. Clayton to Mr. Spier.

[Extract.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 20, 1849.

SIR: Your despatches under date of October 10th and 12th, Nos. 5, 6, and 7, accompanied by the proposed treaty negotiated by you with the State of Honduras, relating to an interoceanic communication by the Gulf of Fonseca, have been received.

No doubt your intentions have been good in the negotiation of this treaty, but the capitalists who propose to construct a ship navigation be tween the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through the lakes of Nicaragua and Managua, have never applied to this government for any treaty with Honduras on this subject, and such a treaty was not directed by your in

structions.

You will in future be governed exclusively by them, and particularly by so much of them as relates to entangling alliances with foreign nations. As the declaration appended to the protocol of your proposed treaty with Honduras is neither signed by yourself nor by the coumissioner of that government, it is indeed, as you represent it, harmless but it is also, as you represent it, without a precedent.