34 CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



tories, could, hij the acknowlvdurd law of nations, he cxrhuled from nav\- 

 gat\n<i within flie distance of 100 lialian miles, as therein laid down from 

 the coast, the exclusive dominiou of which is assumed (but as His 

 Majesty's Goveruuieut conceive iu error) to belong to His Imperial 

 Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias. 



p^'t I 'n"'i'4 "' ^^^ Duke of Wellington having been appointed British 

 ar , o. . piej^ipo^gu^ij^ry .^ii i]^Q Congress of Verona, Mr. G. Oan- 

 nin.ii', then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, addressed 

 to liim, on tlie 27th September, 1822, a despatch in which 

 he dealt Avith the claim in the I'kase for the extension 

 of territorial rights over adjacent seas to the distance — 

 "unprecedented distance," he terms it — of 100 miles from 

 the coast, and of closing "a hitherto unobstructed passage." 

 In this dispatch Mr. Canning says: 



ABANDONMENT OF CLAIM TO EXTRAOKDINAKY .lUKI.SDICTlON. 



I have, indeed, the satisfaction to believe, from a conference which 

 I have had with Count Lieven on this matter, that upon these two 

 points, — the attom])t to shut up tlie jiassage altogether, and the claim 

 of exclusive dominion to so ent)rmous a distance from the coast, — the 

 Russian Goveruuient are prepared entirely to waive their pretensions. 

 The only effort that has been made to justify the latter claim was by 

 reference to an Article in the Treaty of Utrecht, Avhich assigns 30 

 leagues from the coast as the distance of prohibition. But to thia 

 argument it is sufKcient to .answer, that the assumption of such a 

 space was, iu the instance quoted, by sti])ulatiou iu a Treaty, and one 

 to which, therefore, the party to be affected by it had (whether 

 wisely or not) given its deliberate consent. No inference could be 

 drawn from that transaction iu favour of a claim by authority against 

 all the world. 



I have little doubt, therefore, but that the public notification of the 

 claim to consider the portions of the ocean included betweeu the 

 42 adjoining coasts of America and the Russian Empire .as a mare 

 clan sum, and to extend the exclusive territorial jurisdiction of 

 Russia to 100 Italian miles from the coast, will be publicly recalled, 

 and I have tlie King's command to instruct your (;<race further to 

 r('(|uire of the Russian Minister (on the ground of the facts and reastm- 

 ings furnished in their [sic~i despatch and its inclosures) that such a 

 portion of territory alone shall be defined as belonging to Russia as 

 shall not interfere with the rights and actual possessions of His 

 Majesty's subjects in North America. 



On the 17th October in the same year, the Duke of Wel- 

 lington, at Verona, addresed to Count Nesselrode, the 

 Kussian l*lenipotentiary at the Congress, a Contidential 

 Memorandum containing the following words: 



Confidential ()l)jecting, as we do, to this claim of exclusive sovereignty on the 



Meniorandiiin in- j,;,rt' of Russia, I might save myself the troul)le of discussing the 



U 1^. o{\yf.|li',i!*' l''ii'ti''''l'ii" luotle of its exercise as set forth iu this llk.ase, but we 



tontoG. Canning, "UJcct to the mode in which the sovereignty is projjosed to be exer- 



Nov ember 28, cised under this Ukase, not less than we do to the claim of it. TVe 



l*^'-2- catDiot admit the right of any Power 2>osses8in(i the sovereii/nti/ of a couti- 



„ 1 ?: tV .V.l'*i" v^' ''■'/ to exclude the vessels of others from the seas on its coasts to the distance 

 vol. n,] ait 1, ^o. ;.',^„ ,, ,■■,■' 

 15. oj 100 Jtatiau miles. 



In reply, Count Nesselrode communicated to the Duke 

 Ibid. of Wellington a "Confidential Memorandum" dated the 



11th (23rd) November, lcS22, Avhich contains the following 

 passages: 



Tlie (Cabinet of Russia has taken into mature I'onsidcration the Con- 

 fidential Memorandum forwarded to tliem by tiie Duke of Wellington 

 on tli(! 17th October last, relative to the measures adopted by His 

 Alajesty the Emperor, under date of the Ith (Kith) September,' 1821, 

 for defining tin; extent of tlic Russian jiossessions on the north-west 



