ward from the 42nd parallel of latitude. But all the Spanish claims had been transferred to the United States by the Treaty of 1819,* and Russia had been so quiet until the Ukase of 1821 that no conflict was feared. But after that Ukase a settlement, either permanent or temporary, was imperatively demanded.

The proposition made by Mr. Adams which I now quote shows, I think, beyond all doubt, that the dispute was wholly touching the north-west coast on the Pacific Ocean. I make the following quotation from Mr. Adams' instruction to Mr. Middleton, our Minister at St. Petersburgh, on the 22nd July, 1823 :—

"By the Treaty of the 22nd February, 1819,* with Spain, the United States acquired all the rights of Spain north of latitude 42; and by Article III of the Convention between the United States and Great Britain of the 20th October, 1818,† it was agreed that any country that might be claimed by either Party on the north-west coast of America, westward of the Stony Mountains, should, together with its harbours, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open, for the term of ten years from that date, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two Powers, without prejudice to the claims of either party or any other State.

of

"You are authorized to propose an Article of the same import for a term of ten years from the signature of a Joint Convention between the United States, Great Britain, and Russia.”

Instructions of the same purport were sent by the same mail to Mr. Rush, our Minister at London, in order that the proposition should be completely understood by each of the three Powers. The confident presumption was that this proposition would, as a temporary settlement, be acceptable to all parties. But before there was time for full consideration of the proposition, either by Russia or Great Britain, President Monroe, in December 1823, proclaimed his famous doctrine of excluding future European Colonies from this continent. Its effect on all European nations holding unsettled or disputed claims to territory was to create a desire for prompt settlement so that each Power could be assured of its own, without the trouble or cost of further defending it. Great Britain was already entangled with the United States on the southern side of her claims on the north-west coast. That Agreement she must adhere to, but she was wholly unwilling to postpone a definite understanding with Russia as to the northern limit of her claims on the north-west coast. Hence a permanent Treaty was desired, and in both Treaties the "ten year" feature was recognized-in Article VII of the British Treaty and in Article IV of the † Vol. VI, page 3.

• Vol. VIII, page 524.

American Treaty. But neither in the correspondence nor in the personal conferences that brought about the Agreement was there a single hint that the settlement was to include anything else whatever than the north-west coast on the Pacific Ocean, south of the 60th parallel of north latitude.

Fortunately, however, it is not necessary for the United States to rely on this suggestive definition of the north-west coast, or upon the historical facts above given. It is easy to prove from other sources that in the Treaty between the United States and Russia the coast referred to was that which I have defined as the "northwest coast" on the Pacific Ocean south of 60° north latitude, or, as the Russians for a long time believed it, 59° 30'. We have in the Department of State the originals of the Protocols between our Minister at St. Petersburgh, Mr. Henry Middleton, and Count Nesselrode, of Russia, who negotiated the Treaty of 1824. I quote, as I have quoted in my note of the 30th June, a Memorandum submitted to Count Nesselrode by Mr. Middleton as part of the 4th Protocol:

"Now, it is clear, according to the facts established, that neither Russian nor any other European Power has the right of dominion upon the Continent of America between the 50th and 60th degrees of north latitude.

"Still less has she the dominion of the adjacent maritime territory, or of the sea which washes these coasts, a dominion which is only accessory to the territorial dominion.

"Therefore she has not the right of exclusion or of admission on these coasts, nor in these seas, which are free seas.

"The right of navigating all the free seas belongs, by natural law, to every independent nation, and even constitutes an essential part of this independence.

"The United States have exercised navigation in the seas, and commerce upon the coasts above mentioned, from the time of their independence; and they have a perfect right to this navigation and to this commerce, and they can only be deprived of it by their own act or by a Convention."

Mr. Middleton declares that Russia had not the right of dominion upon the Continent of America between the 50th and 60th degrees of north latitude." Still less has she the dominion of "the adjacent maritime territory or the sea which washes these coasts." He further declares that Russia had not the "right of exclusion or of admission on these coasts, nor in these seas, which are free seas"—that is, the coast and seas between the 50th and 60th degrees of north latitude on the body of the continent.

The following remark of Mr. Middleton deserves special attention:

"The right of navigating all the free seas belongs, by natural law, to every independent nation, and even constitutes an essential part of this independence."

This earnest protest by Mr. Middleton, it will be noted, was against the Ukase of Alexander which proposed to extend Russian sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean as far south as the 51st degree of latitude, at which point, as Mr. Adams reminded the Russian Minister, that ocean is 4,000 miles wide. It is also to be specially noted that Mr. Middleton's double reference to "the free seas" would have no meaning whatever if he did not recognize that freedom on certain seas had been restricted. He could not have used the phrase if he had regarded all seas in that region as "free seas."

In answer to my former reference to these facts (in my note of the 30th June) Lord Salisbury makes this plea :

"Mr. Blaine states that when Mr. Middleton declared that Russia had no right of exclusion on the coasts of America between the 50th and 60th degrees of north latitude, nor in the seas which washed those coasts, he intended to make a distinction between Behring Sea and the Pacific Ocean. But on reference to a map it will be seen that the 60th degree of north latitude strikes straight across Behring Sea, leaving by far the larger and more important part of it to the south; so that I confess it appears to me that by no conceivable construction of his words can Mr. Middleton be supposed to have excepted that sea from those which he declared to be free."

If his Lordship had examined his map somewhat more closely, he would have found my statement literally correct. When Mr. Middleton referred to "the Continent of America between the 50th and 60th degrees of north latitude," it was impossible that he could have referred to the coast of Behring Sea, for the very simple reason that the 50th degree of latitude is altogether south of the Behring Sea. The fact that the 60th parallel "strikes straight across the Behring Sea" has no more pertinence to this discussion than if his Lordship had remarked that the same parallel passes through the Sea of Okhotsk, which lies to the west of Behring Sea, just as the arm of the North Pacific lies to the east of it. Mr. Middleton was denying Russia's dominion upon a continuous line of coast upon the continent between two specified points and over the waters washing that coast. There is such a continuous line of coast between the 50th and 60th degrees on the Pacific Ocean; but there is no such line of coast on the Behring Sea, even if you measure from the southernmost island of the Aleutian chain.

In a word, the argument of Lord Salisbury on this point is based upon a geographical impossibility.

But, if there could be any doubt left as to what coast and to what waters Mr. Middleton referred, an analysis of the last paragraph of the 4th Protocol will dispel that doubt. When Mr. Middleton declared that "the United States have exercised navigation in the seas, and commerce upon the coasts above mentioned, from the time of their independence," he makes the same declaration that had been previously made by Mr. Adams. That declaration could only refer to the north-west coast as I have described it, or as Mr. Middleton phrases it, "the Continent of America between the 50th and 60th degrees of north latitude."

Even his Lordship would not dispute the fact that it was upon this coast and in the waters washing it that the United States and Great Britain had exercised free navigation and commerce continuously since 1784. By no possibility could that navigation and commerce have been in the Behring Sea. Mr. Middleton, a close student of history, and experienced in diplomacy, could not have declared that the United States had "exercised navigation" in the Behring Sea, and "commerce upon its coasts," from the time of their independence. As a matter of history, there was no trade and no navigation (except the navigation of explorers) by the United States and Great Britain in the Bebring Sea in 1784, or even at the time these Treaties were negotiated. Captain Cook's voyage of exploration and discovery through the waters of that sea was completed at the close of the year 1778, and his "Voyage to the Pacific Ocean" was not published in London until five years after his death, which occurred at the Sandwich Islands on the 14th February, 1779. The Pribyloff Islands were first discovered, one in 1786 and the other in 1787. Seals were taken there for a few years afterwards by the Lebedef Company of Russia, subsequently consolidated into the Russian-American Company; but the taking of seals on those islands was then discontinued by the Russians until 1803, when it was resumed by the Russian-American Company.

At the time these Treaties were negotiated there was only one Settlement, and that of Russians, on the shores of the Behring Sea, and the only trading vessels which had entered that sea were the vessels of the Russian Fur Company. Exploring expeditions had, of course, entered. It is evident, therefore, without further statement, that neither the vessels of the United States nor of Great Britain nor of any other Power than Russia had traded on the shores of Behring Sea prior to the negotiations of these Treaties. No more convincing proof could be adduced that these Treaties had reference solely to the waters and coasts of the continent south of the Alaskan

Peninsula-simply the "Pacific Ocean" and the "north-west coast" named in the Treaties.

Article III of the British Treaty, as printed in the British State Papers, is as follows :—

[See Vol. XII, page 39.]

It will be observed that this Article explicitly delimits the boundary between British America and the Russian possessions. This delimitation is in minute detail from 54° 40′ to the northern terminus of the coast known as the north-west coast. When the boundary-line reaches that point (opposite 60° north latitude) where it intersects the 141st degree of west longitude, all particularity of description ceases. From that point it is projected directly northward for 600 or 700 miles without any reference to coast-line, without any reference to points of discovery or occupation (for there were none in that interior country), but simply on a longitudinal line as far north as the Frozen or Arctic Ocean.

What more striking interpretation of the Treaty could there be than this boundary-line itself? It could not be clearer if the British negotiators had been recorded as saying to the Russian negotiators:

"Here is the north-west coast to which we have disputed your claims-from the 51st to the 60th degree of north latitude. We will not, in any event, admit your right south of 54° 40'. From 5440 to the point of junction with the 141st degree of west longitude we will agree to your possession of the coast. That will cover the dispute between,us. As to the body of the continent above the point of intersection, at the 141st degree of longitude, we know nothing, nor do you. It is a vast unexplored wilderness. We have no Settlements there, and you have none. We have, therefore, no conflicting interests with your Government. simplest division of that territory is to accept the prolongation of the 141st degree of longitude to the Arctic Ocean as the boundary: east of it the territory shall be British; west of it the territory shall be Russian.”

And it was so finally settled.

Article IV of the Anglo-Russian Treaty is as follows :—

[See Vol. XII, page 40.]

The

The evident design of this Article was to make certain and definite the boundary-line along the line of coast, should there be any doubt as to that line as laid down in Article III. It provided that the boundary-line, following the windings of the coast, should nover be more than ten marine leagues therefrom.