246 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



vessels engaged in tliis trade, corabiiied with tliat to tlie Sandwicli 

 Islands, wliicTi for sevei al years past lias been carried on to a consid- 

 erable extent in sandal wood. These vessels are from 200 to 400 tons 

 burthen, and carry from twenty-five to thirty men each, and they are 

 usually about three years in completing a voyage. After exchanging 

 with the natives of the coast for furs such part of their cargoes as is 

 adapted to the wants or suited to the fancy of these people, the ships 

 return to the Sandwich Islands, where a cargo of sandal wood is pre- 

 pared, with which, and their furs, they proceed to Canton, and return 

 to the United States with cargoes of teas, &c. The value at Canton 

 of the furs, sandal wood, and other articles carried thither the last 

 season by American vessels engaged in the trade was little short of 

 500,000 dollars. When it is considered that a comparatively 

 27 small capital is originally embarked, that a great part of the 

 value arises from the employment of so much tonnage, and so 

 many men, for the long time necessary to perform a voyage, and that 

 Government finally derives a revenue from that portion of the pro- 

 cjieeds which is brought home in teas, equal to at least to the amount 

 invested at Canton, we believe this trade will be thought too valuable 

 to be quietly relinquished. 



The publication of which the title is prefixed to this article contains 

 certain documents, communicated by the President of the United States 

 to Congress at their last Session. The most important of them is the 

 Ukase issued by the l^]mperor of Russia in September 1821, and made 

 known to our Government in February of the present year. We shall 

 devote most of this article to some remarks on this Russian Edict, and 

 the correspondence in relation to it between Mr. Adams, Secretary of 

 State, and the Chevalier tie Poletica, the Russian Minister to the United 

 States. 



The prohibitions and regulations contained in this Edict are very 

 minute and particular, occupying nearly ten pages of a closely printed 

 pamphlet, and divided into sixty three sections; in the first and second 

 of which, however, will be found the pith and marrow of the subject. 

 These, together with the introduction, we transcribe. The others are of 

 minor importance. They, however, authorize the forcible seizure, by 

 Russian ships of war, by vessels belonging to the Company, or by indi- 

 viduals in their service, of all foreign vessels which may he suspected 

 of violating these regulations, and direct that they be sent to the port 

 of St. Peter and St. Paul, in Kamtchatka, for trial; and, if condemned, 

 the crews are to be sent across Siberia, to some i)ort on the Baltic, and 

 permitted to return to their own country, if they can find the means. 



EDICT OF HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, AUTOCRAT OF ALL THE RUSSIAS. 



The Directing Senate niaketli known unto all men : Whereas, in an Edict of His 

 Imperial Majesty, issued to the Directing Senate on the 4th day of September, and 

 signed l)y His Imperial Majesty's own hand, it is thus expressed: "Observing, from 

 re])orts snbmitted to us, that the trade ol" our subjects on the Aleutian Islands and 

 on the iiorthwest coast of Ameri(!a ap])frtaining unto Russia is subjected, because 

 of secret and illicit traffic, to oppression and iniiicdimcnts; and finding that the 

 principal cause of these difficulties is tlie want of rules establishing the boundaries 

 for navigation along these coasts, and the order of naval conmiunication, as well in 

 these places as on the whole of the eastern coast of Siberia and the Kurilo Islands, 

 we have deemed it necessary to determine these conmuinicatious l)y specific regula- 

 tions, which are hereto attached. 



'• In forwarding thei»e regulations to the Directing Senate, we command that the 

 same l)e published for universal information, and that the proper measures be taken 

 to carry them into execution. 



CCouutcrsigucd) "Count D. Gurief, 



"Minister of Finances" 



