own exclusive defense. It also prohibited that Republic from erecting
fortifications upon them for their protection, thus leaving them open
to invasion from any quarter; and, finally, it provided "that slavery
shall not at any time hereafter be permitted to exist therein."

Had Honduras ratified this convention, she would have ratified the
establishment of a state substantially independent within her own
limits, and a state at all times subject to British influence and
control. Moreover, had the United States ratified the treaty with Great
Britain in its original form, we should have been bound "to recognize
and respect in all future time" these stipulations to the prejudice of
Honduras. Being in direct opposition to the spirit and meaning of the
Clayton and Bulwer treaty as understood in the United States, the Senate
rejected the entire clause, and substituted in its stead a simple
recognition of the sovereign right of Honduras to these islands in
the following language:

The two contracting parties do hereby mutually engage to recognize and
respect the islands of Ruatan, Bonaco, Utila, Barbaretta, Helena, and
Morat, situate in the Bay of Honduras and off the coast of the Republic
of Honduras, as under the sovereignty and as part of the said Republic
of Honduras.

Great Britain rejected this amendment, assigning as the only reason that
the ratifications of the convention of the 27th August, 1856, between
her and Honduras had not been "exchanged, owing to the hesitation of
that Government." Had this been done, it is stated that "Her Majesty's
Government would have had little difficulty in agreeing to the
modification proposed by the Senate, which then would have had in effect
the same signification as the original wording." Whether this would have
been the effect, whether the mere circumstance of the exchange of the
ratifications of the British convention with Honduras prior in point
of time to the ratification of our treaty with Great Britain would "in
effect" have had "the same signification as the original wording," and
thus have nullified the amendment of the Senate, may well be doubted.
It is, perhaps, fortunate that the question has never arisen.

The British Government, immediately after rejecting the treaty as
amended, proposed to enter into a new treaty with the United States,
similar in all respects to the treaty which they had just refused to
ratify, if the United States would consent to add