not allotted to the United States, as shown in the latter part of Article 7 of said treaty.

"Public order in a country is the harmonious working of its institutions; it is the normal state which results from the respect shown by the government to the individual rights of the people and from the submission of the latter to the existing laws. A government which violates the constitution or the laws, which attacks or ignores the rights of the citizens, or which, in any manner, directly or indirectly, favours or tolerates such violation on the part of unscrupulous underlings, is not within the bounds of constitutional order. If, therefore, to-morrow, it should happen that a government should violate in a flagrant manner the free suffrage, is this, or is it not, an act which constitutes an infraction against lawful and constitutional order? Should, in the opinion of the illustrious Government of the United States, the violation of free suffrage on the part of the Panama Government not be considered an attempt against constitutional order, what remedy remains there for the people of the Isthmus to protect their rights and to prevent usurpation of their sovereignty?

"The present government of the country was formed most auspiciously, with a Cabinet composed of members of both political parties, but since then the Liberal members of the Cabinet have joined the ranks of the other party, so that the government to-day is solely in the hands of the Conservatives. Following Colombian customs, the government is getting itself in readiness to take a hand in the coming elections for Congressmen, and through agents and its own employees it is circulating in the towns of the interior the threat that it will stop at nothing and spare no means in order to gain the elections; that it has the support of the United States; and that it will, if necessary, use high-handed means and force in order to attain its ends. On the other hand, it has also given notice that if the people of Panama should resist this usurpation, American troops will come to maintain order and to shoot them down without mercy.

"Thus the government wants to place the people of Panama before an alternative: Either they permit the coming elections to be a farce, or they offer resistance and thus provoke the intervention of the United States to maintain order. "We represent the Liberal party, which has an overwhelming majority all through the country, and as its leaders, we deem the time opportune to state to the Government

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which your excellency represents that we do not approve of the recourse to arms as a remedy for political wrongs; but still less do we approve of that system of violation of free suffrage which it is intended to impose upon us, invoking the support of the great American nation for this purpose. "Already in the last elections, held on December 16, last, which were only of minor importance, we realised to what lengths the agents of the government would go. There are fifty-five precincts in the republic. In some of them no vote was cast because the mayors (alcaldes) prevented the notices of the appointment of election judges from reaching their destination; in others the Liberals were attacked, and shot at to prevent them from casting their ballots; in others the lists of voters were altered on the night preceding the elections, and the names of the Liberals were stricken out therefrom; in others, the people of the rural districts were intimidated by the police and forced to cast a vote contrary to their convictions.

"If the agents of the government made use of all kinds of artifices, deceits, violence, and frauds in order to triumph or to undo our triumph in municipal elections in which only minor interests were at stake, what would they not be capable of doing when it comes to the election of Congressmen to the National Assembly-the only body that has the power to pass upon the acts of the ruling government?

"The several questions which we hereby present to your excellency may be summarised as follows:

"First-Does the American Government guarantee public order and constitutional succession in office in this republic? "Second-Is a government which violates constitution and laws, and attacks the first right of the citizen-the right of free suffrage-within the pale of such a protection?

"Third-Granted the possibility, and to us it is an absolute certainty, that in the coming elections all manner of outrages will be committed against the people, will the government of the United States look on with indifference at the spectacle of a defenceless people being cast on the mercy of those who trample on their rights?

"Fourth-Will it not be preferable for the United States to adopt, in time, such a course as would prevent their appearing before the eyes of the world as the champions of abuse and oppression?

"The directorate of the Liberal party request your excellency to favour them with a frank answer to these questions,

and beg respectfully to point out that a reply expressing the repugnance of the United States to meddle in the internal affairs of a friendly nation could not be considered by us in the light of an answer, since our Constitution confers upon your government the right to intervene for purposes of maintaining constitutional order, and if such faculty is given to avoid the evils of war it is natural that it also should be used to suppress the causes which, even contrary to our wishes, might produce them."

The casual reader of this manifesto might think matters in Panama were in a desperate plight. But much allowance must be made for two things. One is, the heat of partisan passions, which, as we well know, even in the United States often leads, in political "campaign documents," to gross exaggerations. To "point with pride" to their own party, and to "view with alarm" the doings of the other party, are the stock-in-trade of political "spellbinders" and platform-makers, and their vision is often monstrously distorted, and is had through glasses of couleur de rose or of jaundiced yellow. There is no reason to suppose the politicians of Panama were or are exceptions to this rule. The other thing to be remembered is, that the Latin races everywhere, and most of all in the tropics, are given to a vivacity of imagination and to a florid exuberance of speech to which the Anglo-Saxons and Teutons of the north are strangers. The extremes of speech in this memorial must, therefore, be largely discounted. When a Spaniard tells you that his house and all it contains are yours, he means no more than an American does when he invites you to come in and make yourself at home. So this memorial really indicated nothing more than many a party platform in the United States has meant, and portrayed a situation no more alarming.

Concerning the complaint made by the Liberals, that the Government, originally representative of both parties, had become exclusively Conservative, the following reply was made by F. V. de la Espriella, a member of the Cabinet of President Amador:

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"The waters of Lethe have, without doubt, bathed the brow of Dr. Arosemena, when he fails to recall the fact, that the President of the Republic tendered him a Legation of the first-class in Europe, which he did not accept; and that, later, he was offered an elevated position as AttorneyGeneral in the Government, which he also refused; that, Doctors Patino and Morales were offered cabinet positions and both declined them, and that, later, Morales was made a member of the Fiscal Commission sent to the United States to place the $6,000,000 gold invested by Panama in different American securities, where he was occupied several months, being also employed, under additional salary, as Legal Adviser of the Panama Legation at Washington; and, that, upon his return here, he was named Attorney-General-a position which he decorously resigned two or three days after he had accepted it, on account of the appearance in a local paper of an article by him attacking the Judiciary. Also, that when Dr. Porras returned to the Isthmus, he was courteously and benevolently received in official circles and tendered an appointment to codify the laws of the Republic, at a salary then exceeding that received by members of the Cabinet, and which he afterwards declined for reasons until now unknown to me. As to General Domingo Diaz, the President assures me that, when assuming office, he offered to leave him in the same place that he held at that time; but Diaz declined, stating that while Mr. Tomas Arias was Secretary of Government he could accept nothing from the Administration. Thus, all persons prominent in the Liberal Directorate have been requested to coöperate in the Government. If they have refused to do so, it is not the fault of the Government. Indeed, even the Secretary of the Directorate, who will probably, we believe, hesitate to abandon his law office for an official post of any kind, was distinguished by an appointment as Second Judge-Advocate-General of the Republic. I do not recall at this moment whether, besides the gentlemen aforementioned, there exists in the opposition Liberal Party another personage of the prominence of Dr. Carlos A. Mendoza, who was appointed a Magistrate of the Supreme Court, but declined to serve. The foregoing statement, to which I now give publicity, brings out absolute facts-truths that cannot be questioned or denied.

"The Government has no other means within its reach by which to demonstrate its impartial character and concilia

tory spirit than to tender positions to gentlemen of the opposition party. If these reject its overtures for concord why, then, complain?"

Secretary Taft received the Liberals' memorial with his accustomed suavity and discretion, and according to request, communicated it to President Amador and, on his return to Washington, to President Roosevelt. It called for no specific action by our Government, and was followed by none; though perhaps it led to an added manifestation of the desire and determination of the United States that the Isthmian Government shall be conducted in a just and orderly

manner.

Still another effort was made by the Liberal leaders to secure the intervention of the United States in the Panaman election. Early in June, 1906, four of them visited Washington for the purpose of laying their case before the President in person. These were Dr. Pablo Arosemena, Dr. Belisario Porras, General Domingo Diaz, and Señor Eusebio A. Morales. They were courteously received, and they discussed the Isthmian situation fully with Secretary Taft and Secretary Root. Their first proposition was that the United States should send agents to supervise the Panaman elections. This, it was pointed out to them, the United States had no right to do, unless at the formal request of the Panaman Government. As an alternative, they then suggested that a confidential agent should be sent, who should carefully observe the electoral practices of the Isthmian Government and report upon them to Washington. To this the Secretary of State, Mr. Root, made the adroit. and conclusive reply, that the United States already had a particularly competent and observant confidential agent at Panama, in the person of the American Minister, Mr. Magoon, to whose reports upon the election, as well as upon all matters, it would pay attention, and who would, if a fitting opportunity arose, make such representations to the Panaman Government as would comport with diplomatic usage.