408 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BEITAIN. 



liim some proposition for the definitive settlement of that x)art at least 

 of the quevstion growing out of the Imperial Ukase of the 4th (Kith) 

 September, 1821, which regards the maritime jurisdiction assumed by 

 Eussia in the ISTortli Pacific Ocean. 



I have been induced to acquaint Count Kesselrode thus early with 

 the fact, partly with a desire of ascertaining, so far as I could, the man- 

 ner in which a combined measure of this kind would be viewed by the 

 Imperial Government; and partly to ascertain whether his own absence 

 would necessarily delay our negotiations upon this subject. 



In respect to the first of these objects, I am happy in being able to 

 state that the proposed concert of measures between His Majesty and 

 the United States, so far from being unacceptable to Count Nesselrode, 

 is considered by him, and prbicipally for the same reasons which are 

 assigned in your despatch, as the most agreeable mode in which the 

 question could be brought under discussion. 



In regard to the second object, finding that Count Nesselrode received 

 so favourably my intimation of the course which we were about to pur- 

 sue, I thought that I should best learn whether the Kussian Government 

 was prepared to proceed immediately to negotiation if I suggested to 

 him, as I did, the facilities which it would probably afford to all parties 

 if, instead of leaving to His Majesty the perhaps difficult task of origi- 

 nating a proposition upon the subject, which Avould be at the same time 

 satisfactory both to the United States and to Eussia, the Imperial 

 Government themselves should propose some arrangement for our con- 

 sideration, which, while it might protect the legitimate commercial 

 interests of His Imperial Majesty's subjects, might also eftectually save 

 what was the great object of the negotiation — the dignity and rights 

 both of His Majesty and the other Maritime Powers of the v»orld. 



Count Nosselrode received this suggestion exactly as I could have 

 wished, and he seemed fully sensible of the delicacy shown towards the 

 Imperial Government in proposing such a course. He said that he 

 thought that he should probably receive his Imperial Majesty's orders 

 to instruct M. Poletica (who, from his long residence in America, and 

 his repeated discussions with the Government of tlie United States 

 upon the sul>ject, is supposed to be the person here who is most conver- 

 sant with tlie whole question) to x)repare, during the absence of tlse 

 Emperor, such materials as may enable the Imperial (xovernment, 

 immediately upon the Emperor's return to St. Petersburgh, to shape 

 some such proposition as that which I had suggested, but he did not 

 give me any reason to suppose that M. Poletica would be authorized to 

 conclude an arrangement, or that anything could be definitively settled 

 till after his own return. 



In the meantime, the American Minister here has not yet received 

 the instructions referred to by Mr. Stratford Canning in his letter to 

 you of the 3rd May, a copy of which is inclosed in your despatch IS'o. 

 13. I have, however, apprized him of the wish of his Government to 

 act in con(5ert with that of His .Majesty in this business, of His Majesty's 

 readiness to accede to this wish, and of the probability of his receiving, 

 in the course of a very short time, precise instructions upon the sub- 

 ject. From the few general conversations whicli I have had with Mr. 

 Middleton, he does not seem at all desirous of pressing hardly u]!on the 

 Imperial Government, and he appears to think that, if any sufficient 

 public disavowal of the pretensions advanced in the Ukase can be 

 obtained, his own Government will be perfectly ready to lend them- 

 selves to whatever course may best save the feelings and the pride of 

 Eussia. 



