England and the United States of America are at issue
about the island of Tigre; and if the dispute is to go forward according to rule, those great countries must come to war. What is the island of Tigre to them ?—Properly nothing. Who then brought about the quarrel?—Mr. Squier and Mr. Chatfield. Who are they, that they should have it in their power to embroil two mighty nations-?—Mr. Chatfield is a very respectable person, Con- sular representative of England to the Government of Nicaragua. Mr. Squier is an American citizen, of more than American literary tastes,- a descendant of that Squier to whom Cromwell wrote the letters of which Mr. Carlyle published interesting fragments in a popular magazine he has done his state good service, by very fruitful antiquarian aid to exploring expeditions ; and has been repaid by his grateful country with a sort of honourable exile to Nicaragua. Here, instead of devoting himself to thetcompositen of "Tristia," he magnanimously displays his diplomatic. zeal ; mud we all know into what desperate courses literarrneen maybe hurried when they- are called to action. They takshistory W be the reflex of events, and, 6 converso, imagine that events must exhibit the concentrated force of history—that they must do a chapter in the time that it would take to write one. So Mr.. Squier has been doing a Yankee-Cromwellian chapter on the shores of Central America.
The precise points and facts of the dispute are not yet ex- plained beyond doubt ; but it appears to be all along of the Pa name canal. Indeed there is no reason why that unsubstantiated project should not serve for starting-paint as well as any other. Manifestly, Mr. Squier is bitten with the Jeffersonian idea of blocking out European Monarchism by a Republican process of squatting. The patronage of the future canal is not yet filled up : the European idea, shared by Mr. Abbott Lawrence, American Minister at London, is to secure the neutrality of the canal by a great international act of comity : Mr. Squier wishes to establish a powerful local influence for his republic, and obtains the island of Tigre ; the Republic of Nicaragua playing into his hands, as the quid pro quo for his support against England's client the King of Mosquito. Mr. Chatfield raises claims for compensation to certain " British subjects," and seizes the ceded island by force of British arms. The two diplomatists fall to disputing who had hold of the island first, and call upon their respective Govern- ments to back them.
Will those august bodies dose ? Personal and political grounds may conspire to procure support in Washington for the excel- lent antiquarian : Lord Palmerston has earned the reputation of standing manfully by his subordinates. This foolish squabble is one result of that secret diplomacy which leaves- everything to in- dividual discretion ; so that neither nation hears a word of dispute until there is an explosion ; and while natural justice supports discretion exercised for the best, national dignity forbids conces- sion. Yet it would be the wickedest folly to let the emulous in- discretions of Mr. Squier and Mr. Chatfield grow into a Punic War.
