Henry Bulwer

Henry Bulwer combined diplomacy with parliamentary politics and historical writing. Born in 1801, he studied at Harrow and Cambridge, worked with the Greek independence movement, and entered the diplomatic service in 1827. His assignments included Brussels during the Belgian revolution, Constantinople, Paris, and Madrid. In Constantinople he negotiated the commercial agreement of 1838; in Spain he mediated a settlement with Morocco before his relations with the Spanish government deteriorated and he was expelled in 1848. ¹

Appointed to Washington in 1849, Bulwer negotiated with Secretary of State John M. Clayton over a proposed canal across Central America. Their treaty of 19 April 1850 committed both governments to refrain from exclusive control of the canal and from fortifying or exercising dominion over specified Central American territories. It provided for equal access, protection of the route, and neutrality during war. The agreement also contemplated cooperation over other transit routes, including Panama and Tehuantepec. ²

Before the exchange of ratifications, Bulwer submitted a declaration excluding the British settlement in Honduras and its dependencies from the treaty's territorial provisions. Clayton accepted that exclusion while declining to recognize Britain's territorial title or settle the extent of its holdings. Their June and July 1850 exchanges left an interpretive dispute that British and American officials were still debating decades later. ³

Bulwer subsequently served in Florence, worked on the international settlement of the Danubian principalities, and succeeded Stratford Canning at Constantinople in 1858. He retired from that embassy in 1865, returned to Parliament for Tamworth in 1868, and entered the peerage in 1871. His books included Historical Characters and an unfinished life of Palmerston. He died in Naples on 23 May 1872. ¹