CO885-(10-11) — Page 105

8382.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

MY LORD DUKE,

No. 79.

(BRITISH HONDuras.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Doctors' Commons, September 16, 1861.

We are honoured with your Grace's commands, signified in Mr. Elliot's letter of the 22nd July last, stating that he was directed to request that we would take into consideration the enclosed copy of a memorial in which the inhabitants of British Honduras request that that settlement may be authoritatively declared to be a British Colony.

Mr. Elliot was also pleased to enclose with reference to this question the following documents :-

1st. A printed statement of the history and legal position of Honduras.

2nd. A volume of the laws of Honduras.

3rd. A collection of the opinions of successive Law Officers of the Crown, some of which have reference to the question now under consideration (pages 37, 38, 39).

Mr. Elliot was also pleased to state that we should observe that the rights of the British settlers in Honduras were originally limited to those of use and occupation, and that the Acts 57 Geo. 3. c. 53., and 54 Geo. 3. c. 44., distinctly recognised the fact that Her Majesty possessed no dominion in that territory, but that in the course of time, and especially after the severance from Spain of her South American Colonies, the British Crown had practically exercised more and more of the rights of Bovereignty; and that in March 1851, Sir J. Dodson, Sir J. Romilly, and Sir A. Cockburn (Law Officers' opinions, page 36), "were disposed to think that Honduras "had become part of the dominions of Her Majesty," and that Sir A. Cockburn and Sir W. P. Wood were of opinion (November 17th, 1851) that the British Possessions Act (8 & 9 Vict. c. 93.) and the Mercantile Marine Act (13 & 14 Vict. c. 93.) extended to British Honduras.

Finally (ie., in 1853), the Colonial Legislature enacted a law "to amend the system of government in Honduras," which prescribes the constitution of the Colony, and the mode in which Acte shall be passed by a representative assembly, subject to allowance or disallowance by the Crown as in other Colonies (35, 36 Acts of Honduras, vol. 2, p. 8). It is, however, to be observed that Her Majesty's Government have never unequivocally given to Honduras the title of "a British Colony"; that the phrase used by the Law Officers in 1851 indicates that the legal position of the Settle- ment was then not free from doubt, and that any such doubt derives some support from the mode of appointing the Officer Administering the Government, who, instead of receiving from the Crown a commission as Governor or Lieutenant-Governor con- veying to him prerogatives of the Crown, is appointed by a commission from the Governor of Jamaica, which (unless the form has been recently changed without the knowledge of your Grace) confers on him the office of superintendent, and merely directs him to take charge of the interests of the British settlers in Honduras.

Mr. Elliot was also pleased to state that your Grace considers it very desirable, if practicable, to set at rest any doubts which may exist respecting the true legal position of Honduras; doubts which, however long dormant, may be raised at any inopportune moment, so as to revive inconvenient questions or paralyse the action of constituted authorities.

Mr. Elliot was also pleased to state that with this object your Grace would propose that Her Majesty should be advised to issue to the officer administering the Govern- ment of Honduras a commission as Lieutenant-Governor in the usual form (a copy was annexed of such a commission which sufficiently exhibits the powers conferred by it), and in that commission to designate Honduras as "our Colony of Honduras." That before taking any such step, however, your Grace is desirous of learning our opinion on the following points:--

1st. Whether the issue of such a commission would so far settle the question as to render it clearly obligatory upon all British courts of justice to recognise Honduras as a British Colony.

2nd. Whether we see any objection to the issue of such a commission in connexion with the transactions which have already taken place with respect to this settlement, as disclosed in the accompanying papers.

o 16978.-18).

25.-2/86.