Manning had houses both at Leon and at Chinandega, and his commercial and social relations were mainly with the residents of the Occidental Department. Hence, in the revolution of 1854, he naturally favored Castellon and his adherents, though his notions about government, if he could be said to have any, inclined him more toward the Legitimists. Besides, however, his personal relations with some of the leading Democrats, the all-subduing sense of interest led him with the Leoneses. The rivalry between the towns of Leon and Granada was a rivalry of trade and of interests as well as of social and political power. True, the political principles prevalent at Granada naturally led to high tariffs, while those of Leon tended to free trade; but the geographical position of the two towns did most to beget the commercial contest between them. Granada received its goods from the Atlantic, by the way of the lake and San Juan river, while Leon was supplied from vessels obliged to pass Cape Horn. It was difficult, however, to carry on smuggling by the river, while the facilities for contraband on the Pacific side were great. Thus Leon was able to compete with Granada by making up in smuggling what she lost by the voyage round the Horn. It may thus be readily conceived how the British consul’s interests induced him to wish for the success of the Leoneses, not only in the Occidental Department but throughout the State. Their success would necessarily aggrandize Leon and depress the trade of Granada. Of course Manning’s relations with the Castellon government were intimate, and especially with the Minister of Hacienda, D. Pablo Caravajal. It was through the officers of the hacienda that all arrangements had to be made for landing goods at Realejo; and the interests of the minister might sometimes be opposed to the interests of the government he served. So, too, it was with the hacienda Don Tomas—as the people called Manning—treated, when he was so kind as to advance a little money at the rate of one and a half or two per cent. a month. And as Caravajal was the minister who countersigned the first contract of Castellon with Cole, and none besides himself and the director knew its character, he was probably obliging enough to drop a copy of it where Don Tomas might find it. At any rate Manning heard of the Cole contract soon after it was made, and he immediately remonstrated with Castellon as to the policy he was pursuing. The director, however, had been in England to negotiate on the part of Nicaragua concerning the Mosquito coast, and was sagacious enough to perceive the drift of British policy and the subjection in which it sought to retain his country. The remonstrances of Manning were, therefore, of little avail.