From the beginning of the movement Mr. Marcy had set his face against the introduction of Americans into Nicaragua. In one of his first despatches on the subject he spoke of the entrance of Americans into the country as an invasion, and with him the establishment of peace and the provisional government of Rivas was “a successful foray of arms.” He censured Mr. Wheeler for his visit to Rivas at the instance of the people of Granada, and intimated that the danger he incurred was the due reward of the minister’s efforts to act as mediator between the parties. Hence, it is an error to suppose that the refusal to receive French was owing in any manner to the character of that person. Nor is it more correct to assign the interest certain parties near the President had in the Shepard and Haley grant and in Kinney’s schemes, as the reason for the action of the Secretary of State. At that time it was scarcely known what policy the Rivas administration would pursue in reference to the claims on the Mosquito shore. The causes for Mr. Marcy’s conduct were far deeper than such as were suggested at the time, and they will probably be seen more clearly in the sequel. The refusal of the United States government to recognize the Rivas administration created great surprise in Nicaragua, and encouraged the enemies of the Americans in Costa Rica. The public men of Nicaragua, ignorant of the internal machinery of the federal government at Washington, and of the secret springs controlling the actions of parties in the United States, were unable to divine the motives of the cabinet of Mr. Pierce. It was an enigma they could not solve; and while some of the native Nicaraguans attributed the course of the Republic of the north to fear of England, others resorted to the common ground on which political action is always put when it cannot be otherwise reasonably explained, and traced the conduct of the federal cabinet, and more particularly of the Secretary of State, to personal prejudices and passions. All the Nicaraguans saw, however, the effect of the Marcy policy on the neighboring States; for while it furnished them with an excuse for withholding diplomatic intercourse it also encouraged them to take active and decided measures against the Rivas government. But while the policy of the United States appeared inexplicable to the people of Central America, that of the British government excited no surprise. From long familiarity with British diplomacy the Spanish-American States are generally able to divine what its course will be, though they scarcely take the trouble to analyze its motives or to arrive at the objects of its policy. Before examining, however, the course of the British cabinet toward the Rivas administration, it may aid us to ascertain, if we can, the motives of English policy in reference to all the Spanish American States. There is a unity in this policy which must spring from a simple motive.