THE RUATAN WARRANT.
Ar last we have the Queen's warrant for erecting the island of Ruatan and certain other islands in the Bay of Honduras into a colony, under the name of "Bay Islands.' It is a document of peculiar interest at present. The warrant discloses to us the ex- istence of a constitution simple in its provisions. The whole is comprised in four folio pages and in twenty-eight paragraphs or clauses, with a preamble. The powers of government are nitrusted to the Governor of Jamaica ; who is constituted Governor of the Bay Islands Colony, and authorized to act as sovereign, with- gut any further instructions from England, in the making of laws for the colony and framing the financial estimates to alienate the Royal lands to private persons ; to present qualified persons for ordination by the Bishop of Jamaica to officiate in churches, chapels, or any other ecclesiastical benefices; to constitute and appoint judges and officers of justice ; to suspend officers com- missioned by the Crown itself; to pardon offenders ; to give war- rant for the custody of idiots, lunatics, and their estates • and to delegate his authority to a Lieutenant-Governor.-Governor. It be seen that the power of the Governor of the Bay Islands Colony exceeds that of many Governors of much more important settlements.
He is, indeed, to do some of these things "by and with the ad- vice" of the General Assembly, or the major part thereof; and this General Assembly is peculiarly constituted. It is to consist of twelve members, of whom three shall retire annually. They are to be chosen by electors of certain qualifications, which are to be specified in further letters-patent, orders in Council, or instruc- tions through the Secretary of State ; they are to be owners of land, tenements, or hereditaments in the colony; and they "shall be able to read and write English." It is evident from the terms of this statement that the constituencies are not ex- pected to be purely English by birth. The mode of voting at elec- tions is peculiar : Every elector, qualified as aforesaid, shell be entitled to give three votes, and ;hall be entitled at his discretion to give such three votes to three separate candidates, or to give two of such votes, or all of them, to one candidate." This pro- vides for a full representation of a respectable minority in the co- lony. The General Assembly is empowered to vote the estimates introduced by the Executive ; and the Governor retains a nega- tive voice in the making of laws, with the further restraint that
the laws, statutes, and ordinances, "are not to be repugnant, but as nearly as _may be agreeable to the laws and statutes of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland." This is a pecu- liar constitution discovered to be already existing in the British empire, and it is not less peculiar that we discover its existence four years after its birth !
The warrant, however, is principally interesting at the present time for its bearing on the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. We are bicker- ing with the United States of America about our tenure in that quarter. When Sir Henry Bnlwer and Mr. Clayton, on behalf of Great Britain and the United States, arranged their well-known convention, Sir Henry stipulated that the settlement of Belize should be exempted from the operation of the treaty. We had also exercised a protectorate over the Mosquito Indians a tribe of a territory not well defined. The Belize territory had been ex- tended under treaty with Spain, ratifying an encroachment made by British subjects from the Siboon River, which was originally its Southern limit, to the Sarstoon. In thus excepting the Belize settlement, it does appear probable that Sir Henry Bulwer intended to except all the territory then claimed by Great Britain on the right of sufferance and custom. The purpose of the Bulwer-Clay- ton convention was, jointly, "to facilitate and protect the con- struction of a ship-canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans." The first article of the treaty contains these words— "The Governments of the United States and Great Britain hereby de- clare, that neither the one nor the other will ever obtain, or maintain for itself, any exclusive control over the said ship-canal ; agreeing that neither will ever erect or maintain any fortifications commanding the same in the vicinity thereof, or occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or assume or exercise, any dominion over Nicaragua Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America ; nor will either make use of any protection which either affords or may afford, or any alliance which either has or may have to or with any state or people, for the purpose of erecting or maintaining any such fortifications, or of occupying, fortifying, or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America, ocrar•l
or exercising dominion over the same." /
This convention was concluded on the 19th April 1850; the ratifications were exchanged on the 4th of July 1860.
By the title of the warrant which has just been returned to the House of Commons, the islands of Ruatan, &o. are described as "lying in the Bay of Honduras." The preamble to the war- rant and its first two clauses run thus— "Whereas it bath been represented unto us,. that the islands of Ruatan, Bonacca, Utilla., Helene, .Barbarat, and Idoxat, in the Bay of Honduras, are inhabited by divers sets of our crown, who are rapidly increasing in numbers, and we have therefore deemed it expedient to make provision for the government of the settlement or settlements already formed and to be formed in these islands :
"1. Now, know ye that we, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have thought fit to erect, and do hereby erect, the said islands of Ruatan, Bonacca, Utilla, Helene, Barbara, and Moist, and their dependencies, into a colony : and the same are hereby erected into a colony accordingly.
"2. And we do hereby declare that the said islands .shall be known and designated as the colony of the Bay Islands."
The date of this warrant is—" Given at our Court at Bucking- ham Palace, this 20th day of March 1852, in the eleventh year of our reign." Here is "a colony" erected almost two years after the Clayton convention ; here are "islands in the Bay of Hondu- ras" formed into "a settlement." The warrant and the pro- ceedings which it sanctions and reports certainly appear to be in- compatible with the obligations incurred under the convention. The British Ministers, it is said, have offered to refer the con- struction of the treaty to arbitration : the American reply is, that the purport of the English language is too plain to need arbitra- tion. Mr. Clayton has already given us the interpretation of the text of which he was part author; the other author was Sir Henry Bulwer, and it would be very interesting to know whether he used the words which we have • quoted above in any special or non-natural sense.
There may be, independently of technical rights, reasons why we persevere in the protection of our subjects on the island of Ruatan and its small neighbours, or in our protectorate of the Mos- quito Indians. These reasons, we learn from Lord Palmerston, are to be stated in the letter which Lord Clarendon is to write for the United States Government after his return to England. It would have been convenient if they had been effectively stated at an earlier stage in the dispute : they they will be awaited with some interest now, since, if the reasons are convincing, it is possible that the Americans may waive their technical right in considera- tion of the merits of the question. It is upon the substantial merits, indeed, that the question must eventually rest ; and it is a pity that we cannot escape from a dispute as to the terms of the treaty, to something like a plain understanding upon the points about which the officials on "both sides are disputing.
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