APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 287 



report assumes a graver character. A Gerinau scientific journal, in 

 an elaborate paper, entitled, "The Eussian Colonies on the North-west 

 Coast of America," after referring to the constant "pressure" upon 

 Eussia, proceeds to say that there are already crowds of adventurers 

 from British Columbia and California now at the gold mines on the 

 Stikine, which flows from British territory through the Eussian pos- 

 sessions, who openly declare their purjiose of driving the Enssians out 

 of this region. I refer to the "Arcliiv fiir Wissenschaftliche Kunde von 

 Eussland," edited at Berlin as late as 18G3, by A. Erman, vol. xxii, pp. 

 47-70, and un(]uestionably the leading authority on Eussian questions. 

 At the same time it presents a curious passage bearing directly on 

 British policy from the "British Colonist," a newspaper of Victoria, on 

 Vancouver's Island. As this was regarded of sutficient importance to 

 be translated into Geinian for the instruction of the readers of a scien- 

 tific journal, I shall be justified in laying it before you restored from 

 the German into English. It is as follows: 



The information which we daily puhlish from the Stikine River very naturally 

 excites public attention to a great extent. Whether the territory tlirough which 

 the river flows be considered in a political, coiunicrcial, or industrial light, there is 

 a probability that in a short time there will be a still more general interest in the 

 claim. Not only will the intervention of the Royal jurisdiction be demanded iu 

 order to give to it a complete form of government, hut if the land proves to be as 

 rich as there is now reason to believe it to be, it is not improbable that it will result 

 in negotiations between England and Russia for the transfer of the sea-coast to the 

 British Crown. It certainly is not acceptable that a stream like the Stikine, which 

 for 170 to li)0 miles is navigal)le for steamers, which waters a territory so rich in gold 

 that it will allure thousands of men — certainly it is not desirable that the business 

 of such a highway should reach the interior through a Russian door of 30 miles of 

 coast. The English population which occupies the interior cannot be so easily man- 

 aged by the Russians as the Stikine Indians of the coast nuuuige the Indians of the 

 interior. Our business must be in British hands. Our resources, our energies, our 

 undertakings cannot be fully developed in building up a Russian emi)orium at the 

 mouth of the Stikine. We must have for our productions a depot over which the 

 British flag waves. By the Treaty of 1825 the navigation of the river is secured 

 to us. The navigation of the Mississippi was also open to the liuited States 

 55 hefore the Louisiana purchase, but the growing strength of the North made 

 the attainment of that territory either hy purchase or by might an evident 

 necessity. We look upon the sea-coast of Stikine-land in the same light. The strip 

 of land which stretches along from Portland Canal to Mount St. Elias, with a 

 breadth of 30 miles, and which according to the Treaty of 1825 forins a part of Rus- 

 sian America, must eventualhj become the ]>roperttj of Great Brita'm, either as the direct 

 result of the development of gold, or for reasons which are now yet in the begin- 

 ning, but whose results are certain. For it is cleai'iy undesirable that the strip 300 

 miles long and 30 miles wide, which is only used by the Russians for the collection 

 of furs and walrus teeth, shall for ever control the entrance to our verj^ extensive 

 northern territory. It is a principle of England toac(|uire territory only as a point 

 of defence. Canada, Nova Scotia, Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, and the great part 

 of our Indian possessions were all acquired as defensive points. In Africa, India, 

 and China the same rule is to-day followed l)y the Government. With a Power like 

 Russia it would perhaps be more difficult to get ready, but if we need the sea-coast 

 to help us in our business in the precious metals with the interior and for defence, 

 then we must have it. The United States needed Florida and Louisaua, and they 

 took them. W^e need the shore of New Norfolk and New Cornwall. 



It is just as much the destiny of our Anglo-Norman race to possess the whole of 

 RussianAmerica, however wild and inhospitable it may be, as it has been the destiny 

 of the Russian Northmen to prevail over Northern Europe and Asia. As the Wan- 

 dering Jew and his phantom in the tale of Eugene Sue, so will the Anglo Norman and 

 the Russian yet look upon each other from the opposite side of Behring Straits. 

 Between the two races the northern half of the Old and New World must be divided. 

 America must be ours. 



The present development of the precious metals in our hyperborean Eldorado will 

 most probably hasten the annexation of the territory in question. It can hardly be 

 doubted that the gold region of the Stikine extends away to the western source of 

 the Mackenzie. In this case the increase of the business and of the population will 

 exceed our most sanguine expectations. W^ho shall reap the profit of this ? The 



