Through these letters we can perceive the prudence and yet the decision with which the British cabinet acted in reference to the Rivas administration. There is no doubt or hesitation in its conduct, because it acts in accordance with a traditional policy. England does not desire firm and steady government in Central America, because her merchants would thus be restricted to the common profits of legitimate trade; and she is, above all, opposed to the establishment of such governments there by American influences, for fear other goods than her own would be thrown into the markets of those countries. Urged on, therefore, by Great Britain, tacitly encouraged by the United States, Costa Rica declared war against the Americans in the service of Nicaragua. Mora is careful to make the issue clearly and distinctly. He does not declare war against the Republic of Nicaragua, but against certain persons in her service. And as the manner in which the war is declared defies the restraints of public law, so the way in which it is to be waged points not to the rules adopted by Christian nations. The same day war was declared, a decree was published ordering all prisoners taken with arms in their hands to be shot. Yet there have been found Christian people unblushing enough to praise the conduct and the policy of Juan Rafael Mora. And in the blindness of party passion Americans have not been ashamed to support the man who distinctly enounced the principle that they were to be excluded from Central America, and if venturing there against his will, they should be shot. On whom, then, rests the responsibility of the war which for more than a year drained the resources of Nicaragua and made her fields the scenes of deadly conflict rather than of abundant harvests? Not surely on those who exhausted every effort in order to maintain peace and bring about a diplomatic discussion rather than armed arbitrament of the questions at issue. Costa Rica scorned to discuss the right of Nicaragua to employ Americans in her military service. Mora refused to listen to the voice of reason, and defiantly seizing the clarion, blew the note of war. If it is permitted, however, to anticipate events not yet narrated—if we may “see the future in the instant,” in order to gather therefrom a lesson of justice and of right—it may not be inappropriate to say that Costa Rica has derived nothing from the war except a scarcity of labor for her fields, a heavy debt to embarrass her treasury, and the prospect of civil commotions to disturb her industry. Mora, too, reaps in exile the fruits of his policy; but let us pass Mora in exile, as Ugolino in hell, afar off and with silence. Chapter Sixth. THE COSTA RICAN INVASION.