83 west from the meridian of Greenwich; and thence southerly along the shore of the Caribbean Sea to the mouth of the River Rama, the point of commencement. But the district thus assigned to the Mosquito Indians may not be ceded by them to any foreign person or state, but shall be and remain under the sovereignty of the Republic of Nicaragua.

"Art. 3. The Mosquito Indians, within the district designated in the preceding article, shall enjoy the right of governing, according to their own customs and according to any regulations which may from time to time be adopted by them, not inconsistent with the sovereign rights of the Republic of Nicaragua, themselves and all persons residing within such district. Subject to the above-mentioned reserve, the Republic of Nicaragua agrees to respect and not to interfere with such customs and regulations so established or to be established within the said district. Art. 6. Her Britannic Majesty engages to use her good offices with the chief of the Mosquito Indians, so that he shall accept the stipulations which are contained in this convention.

"The conclusion of this arrangement was officially communicated to the Government of the United States, which, regarding it as a final withdrawal of British influence from the Mosquito country, expressed its satisfaction at a settlement that appeared to put an end to the disputes to which the Clayton-Bulwer treaty had given rise.

"The treaty of Managua was at least as favorable to Great Britain as that Government had any right to expect. As pointed out by Mr. Fish in his instructions to General Schenck of April 26, 1873, this instrument assigned boundaries to the Mosquito Reservation probably beyond the limits which any member of that tribe had ever seen, even when in chase of wild animals. Worst of all, however, it confirmed the grants of land previously made in the Mosquito territory. The similar stipulation on this subject in the Dallas-Clarendon treaty was, perhaps, the most objectionable of any, as it violated the cardinal rule of all European colonists in America, including Great Britain herself, that the aborigines had no title to the soil which they could confer upon individuals.'

"The Government of the United States had not, however, anticipated that under cover of this treaty the Government of Great Britain would continue to attempt any interference with the affairs of the Mosquito Indians. It is superfluous to say that if it had been supposed by the United States that the treaty of Managua was understood by the Government of Great Britain to give that country a right of influence, direction, or control over the destinies of the Mosquito territory as against the State of Nicaragua, that convention, far from being hailed by this Government as a solution and termination of disputes concerning the British protectorate over the Mosquito Indians, would have been regarded as a serious obstacle to any such settlement. Under Article VI. of the treaty of Managua, Her Britannic Majesty was bound to use her good offices with the chief of the Mosquito Indians, so that he should accept the stipulations of that convention; and it might have been naturally assumed that upon such

acceptance by the Mosquito chief, Her Majesty's right to further interference was at an end.

"That this Government was justified in so assuming, may amply be demonstrated not only by the consideration of the expressed design of the convention, but also by its particular provisions. Among these may be designated as of unequivocal significance, the fourth article of the treaty, by which it is provided that nothing in the treaty shall be construed to prevent the Mosquito Indians at any future time from agreeing to absolute incorporation into the Republic of Nicaragua on the same footing as other citizens of the Republic, and from subjecting themselves to be governed by the general laws and regulations of the Republic, instead of by their customs and regulations. This provision merely emphasizes the fact of the actual, substantial incorporation of the Mosquito Indians into the Republic of Nicaragua, and clearly contemplates the ultimate and absolute extinguishment of their semi-segregated existence.

"It appears, however, that differences subsequently arose between the Governments of Great Britain and Nicaragua in relation to the free port of Greytown, the payment of the annuity to the Mosquito Indians, and the precise extent of the rights of Nicaragua within the Indian reservation. By an exchange of diplomatic notes between the representatives of Great Britain and Nicaragua, it was agreed that all of these questions should be submitted to the arbitration of the Emperor of Austria; and he in the month of April, 1879, consented to act as arbitrator upon the differences of opinion which had arisen 'as to the true interpretation of the treaty of Managua of 1860.'

"To this agreement of arbitration the Government of the United States was not a party, and it is not bound by the award of the arbitrator, nor committed in any way to an admission of the right of Great Britain to interfere in disputes between the Republic of Nicaragua and the Indians living within her borders.

"The decision of the Emperor was announced in July, 1881, and the first six articles of the award, which deals with the rights of Nicaragua within the Mosquito Reservation, are as follows: [For the first six articles of the award, here quoted, see supra, p. 224.]

"This award, as it will be perceived, does not by any means go to the lengths to which the British Government now seeks to proceed, under the recent note of Mr. Gastrell to the Nicaraguan authorities. The award declares that the Republic of Nicaragua may hoist its flag throughout the reservation, and may appoint a commissioner for the protection of its sovereign rights; but that it may not grant concessions for the acquisition of natural products within the territory, may not regulate the trade of the Indians, and may not levy import or export dues in the reservation. Beyond this no limitation is declared upon the sovereign rights of Nicaragua, nor is the extent of its sovereignty further defined.

"Without entering now into the consideration of the correctness of this award, it may be pointed out that neither in it, nor in Article III. of the treaty of Managua, which provided that the Indians were to enjoy the right of governing, according to their own customs, and according to any regulations which may from time to time be adopted by them not inconsistent with the sovereign rights of the Republic of Nicaragua, themselves and all persons residing within such district, is there anything incompatible with the right of Nicaragua to establish post-offices, and still more with the right to establish military posts for the common defense. Such a right is an essential incident of paramount sovereignty, and can properly be exercised by no other agency. The award refers to the right of the Republic of Nicaragua as a mark of its sovereignty to hoist the flag of the Republic throughout the territory assigned to the Mosquito Indians. That such is the case does not appear to admit of doubt. Yet it seems idle to speak of a government having the right to hoist a flag as the emblem of a sovereignty which it is not to be permitted to defend.

"The analogy of the relations of the Federal Government of the United States to the several States and to the Indian tribes within its borders seems clear and applicable. To establish post-offices, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, to exercise exclusive legislation over all places purchased for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, and dock-yards, and to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States, are powers expressly vested by our Constitution in the Federal Congress; and it is obvious that wherever there is a central government these powers, or something like these, must be vested in it, whatever degree of autonomy in other respects may be accorded to local administrations.

"It is, of course, well known that in some cases dependent autonomous communities have the privilege of exercising some of the rights above mentioned; but this is due usually either to the circumstance of great distance from the central authority, as in the case of the British colonies in Australia, or to special and precise stipulations. In a case where the inhabitants of a district are simply to enjoy a right of local self-government, but shall be and remain under the sovereignty of' the power within whose borders their district lies, there can be no room for implication granting to such inhabitants extraordinary privileges which do not properly pertain to the regulation of strictly local affairs.

"To the United States, in common with all other powers, it is important that Nicaraguan sovereignty should exist in fact as well as in name within the Mosquito reservation. With the sovereign alone can we maintain diplomatic relations, and we have a right to look to that sovereign for redress in the event of wrongs being inflicted upon any of our citizens. If the Republic of Nicaragua is to be limited to the mere formal right of hoisting a flag and maintaining a commis

sioner within the reservation, how can it be called upon to perform any of its international obligations?

"Nor is it consistent with the general views and policy of the United States to look with favor upon the establishment of such an imperium in imperio in Central America. General Cass, in a note addressed to Lord Napier on May 29, 1857, in discussing the draught of a proposed treaty relative to the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras, alluded in the following language to certain clauses which, by their express terms, were remarkably similar to the interpretation now sought to be put by the British Government on the treaty of Managua. He wrote:

"That provision, whilst declaring the Bay Islands to be 'a free territory under the sovereignty of the Republic of Honduras,' deprived that country of rights without which its sovereignty over them could scarcely be said to exist. It separated them from the remainder of Honduras and gave them a government of their own, with their own legislative, executive, and judicial officers, elected by themselves. It deprived the Government of Honduras of the taxing power in every form, and exempted the people of the Bay Islands from the performance of military duty, except for their own defense, and it prohibited the Republic from providing for the protection of these islands by the construction of any fortifications whatsoever, leaving them open to invasion from any quarter. Had Honduras ratified this treaty, she would have ratified the establishment of an 'independent' state within her own limits, and a state at all times liable to foreign influence and control.

"And these objections Mr. Cass thought were so serious as to make it impossible for the President to sanction such an arrangement. "But even more important than a determination of the precise extent of the Nicaraguan authority within the Mosquito reservation is the general question of the right of Her Britannic Majesty to intervene in disputes between the Republic of Nicaragua and the Indians or other inhabitants of that district.

"The question was presented by the Nicaraguan representatives to the Emperor of Austria, but his award is silent upon the point. It is, however, discussed in the opinion or report upon which the award is based, and in the following terms:

"In regard, however, to the affairs of the Mosquito Indians, it is true that England, in the treaty of Managua, has acknowledged the sovereignty of Nicaragua and renounced the protectorate, but this still only on condition, set forth in the treaty, of certain political and pecuniary advantages for the Mosquitos (‘subject to the conditions and engagements specified in the treaty, Article I'). England has an interest of its own in the fulfillment of these conditions stipulated in favor of those who were formerly under its protection, and therefore also a right of its own to insist upon the fulfillment of those promises as well as of all other clauses of the treaty. The Government of Nicaragua is wrong in calling this an inadmissable intervention,' inasmuch as pressing for the fulfillment of engagements undertaken by treaty on the part of a foreign state is not to be classified as intermeddling with the internal affairs of that state, which intermeddling has unquestionably been prohibited under penalty. No less unjustly does the Government of Nicaragua seek to qualify this insistence on treaty claims as

a continued exercise of the relinquished protectorate, and on that ground wish to declare England's interposition inadmissable.

"From this view of the case I find myself compelled to dissent. It can not be admitted that Great Britain has a right to intervene in every dispute that may arise between the Mosquito Indians and their sovereign. And if Great Britain can. not intervene in every case, how are the cases of admissible intervention to be defined? Certainly the vague language of the treaty of Managua can afford no criterion, for in every case of dispute it may be argued that the rights of selfgovernment on the one hand, or of sovereignty on the other, are invaded.

"The case is not without analogies. In the treaty with France of April 30, 1803, for the cession of Louisiana it is provided that 'the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States; and in the mean time they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion they profess.' In the treaty with Spain of February 22, 1819, for the cession of Florida, it was stipulated that the inhabitants of the ceded territories shall be secured in the free exercise of their religion, without any restriction,' and that they should be admitted to the enjoyment of all the privileges, rights, and immunities of the citizens of the United States.' By the terms of the treaty with Russia of March 30, 1867, for the cession of Alaska, the inhabitants, with the exception of uncivilized native tribes, are to be admitted to citizenship, and shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion. The uncivilized tribes will be subject to such laws and regulations as the United States may from time to time adopt in regard to aboriginal tribes of that country.' In all these cases, as will be observed, the ceding Government has received assurances of the treatment to be accorded to the inhabitants of the ceded territory; but in no case in our diplomatic history has any one of these Governments asserted a right to intervene in our domestic affairs. Difficulties have at times arisen between the Federal Government and the inhabitants of Louisiana and Florida, but neither France nor Spain ever pretended that our treaty stipulations gave them a right to take part in the settlement of such disputes. The laws affecting the Territory of Alaska may be, and in some respects now are, unlike those governing the other Territories of the United States. But it must be apparent that were the Indians inhabiting those possessions to protest against alleged discriminations to the Czar of Russia, the treaty of 1867 would not authorize His Imperial Majesty to demand of the United States a different treatment of our