30 CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Again referring to the circuinstances in the year 1867 

 (the date of the cession of Ahiska to the United States), 

 the historian Bancroft writes : 



Alaska, p. 591. ti Moreover, Russia had never occupied, and never wished to occujiy, 

 this territory. For two-thirds of a century she had been represented 

 there, as we liave seen, almost entirely by a fur and trading Company 

 under the protection of Government. In a measure it had controlled, 

 or endeavoured to control, the affairs of that Company, and among its 

 stockholders were several members of the Royal Family; but Alaska 

 had been originally granted to the Russian-American Company by 

 Imperial Oukaz, and by Ini])erial Oukaz the Charter had been 

 36 twice renewed. Now that the Company had declined to accept 

 a fourth Charter on the terms i)rqposed, something must be done 

 with the territory, and Russia would lose no actual portion of her 

 Emijire m ceding it to a Republic with which she was on friendly 

 terms, and whoso domain seemed destined to spread over the entire 

 continent. 



The foregoing liistorical snniiiiary establishes — 



That from the earliest periods of which any records exist 

 down to the year 1821, there is no evidence that Enssia 

 either asserted or exercised in the non-territorial waters of 

 the North Pacific any rights to the exclusion of other 

 nations. 



Tliat during the whole of that period the shores of Amer- 

 ica and Asia belonging to IJussia as far north as Behring 

 Straits, and the waters lying between those coasts, as well 

 as the islands therein, were visited by the trading vessels 

 of all nations, including those sailing under the flags of 

 Great Britain, the United States, Spain, and France, with 

 the knowledge of the Bussian authorities. 



That the only rights, in fact", exercised by Russia or on 

 her behalf, were the ordinary territorial rights connected 

 with settlements or annexations of territory consequent 

 upon such settlements, and the only rights she purported 

 10 deal with or confer were rights and privileges given to 

 the Eussian-American Company, as Bussiau subjects, in 

 preference over other Bussian subjects. 



37 CHAPTER II. 



Head B.-^-The Ukase of 1S21, and the circumstances con- 

 nected therewith leading up to the Treaties of ISiil and 



1825. 



voyago, M. (le Shortly before the date of the renewal of tlie Charter of 

 ^J'j"%«'°-^/"y];the Eussian-American Company in ISL'l, the aspect of 

 American State aft'airs had Considerably changed. 



Papers, Foreign 

 Relations, vol. v, 

 pp. 453-454. COMPETITION BY FOREIGNERS. 



The Company had long before fully succeeded in getting 



rid of its Bussian rivals, but trading-vessels from England 



and from the United Stales Iretiuented the coasts in increas- 



Aniericanstate iug uumbcrs, and evcrywlicrc competed with the Company. 



Ji?438li4r'' '' ^oods were brought by these ncsscIs at prices which the 



Alaska, i.. 528. Couipany could not successfully meet, and furs were taken 



