."

On the 3d day of June, 1848, Elijah Hise, being appointed charge
d'affaires of the United States to Guatemala, received his instructions,
a copy of which is herewith submitted. In these instructions the
following passages occur:

The independence as well as the interests of the nations on this
continent require that they should maintain the American system of
policy entirely distinct from that which prevails in Europe. To
suffer any interference on the part of the European Governments with
the domestic concerns of the American Republics and to permit them
to establish new colonies upon this continent would be to jeopard
their independence and to ruin their interests. These truths ought
everywhere throughout this continent to be impressed on the public
mind. But what can the United States do to resist such European
interference whilst the Spanish American Republics continue to weaken
themselves by division and civil war and deprive themselves of the
ability of doing anything for their own protection?

This last significant inquiry seems plainly to intimate that the United
States could do nothing to arrest British aggression while the Spanish
American Republics continue to weaken themselves by division and civil
war and deprive themselves of the ability of doing anything for their
protection.

These instructions, which also state the dissolution of the Central
American Republic, formerly composed of the five States of Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, Honduras, San Salvador, and Guatemala, and their continued
separation, authorize Mr. Hise to conclude treaties of commerce with the
Republics of Guatemala and San Salvador, but conclude with saying that
it was not deemed advisable to empower Mr. Hise to conclude a treaty
with either Nicaragua, Honduras, or Costa Rica until more full and
statistical information should have been communicated by him to the
Department in regard to those States than that which it possesses.

The States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras are the only Central
American States whose consent or cooperation would in any event be
necessary for the construction of the ship canal contemplated between
the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by the way of Lake Nicaragua.

In pursuance of the sixth article of the agreement of the 7th of March,
1848, between the forces of Great Britain and the authorities of
Nicaragua, Senor Francisco Castillon was appointed commissioner from
Nicaragua to