APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 411 



ernment upon the subject of tlie Imperial Ukase of the 4th September, 

 182], and upon the concert of measures which the United States are 

 desirous of establishinii' \Yith Great Britain in order to obtain a disa- 

 vowal of the pretentions advanced in that Ukase by this country. 



As Mr. Hughes was the bearer of instructions upon the same subject 

 to the American Minister in London, 1 may, I am aware, presume that 

 Mr. Rush will have already communicated to you the view taken of this 

 question by the United States, and 1 think it probable that you may 

 have already anticipated tliis despatch by framing for my guidance such, 

 further instructions as, under that view, it may be tliouglit necessary 

 tliat I should receive. It may, nevertheless, be very desirable that I 

 should lose no time in reporting to you the substance of some conversa- 

 tions which Mr. Middleton has held with me since the arrival of Mv. 

 Hughes, and it is principally for this purpose that I now dispatch the 

 messenger Walsh to England. 



Although Mr. Middleton has not communicated to me the instruc- 

 tions which he has received, I have collected from him, with certainty 

 AAhat I had long had reason to suspect, that the United States, so far 

 from admitting that they have no territorial pretensions so high as the 

 51st degree of north latitude, and no territorial interest in the demar- 

 cation of boundary between His Majesty and the Emperor of Eussia to 

 the north of that degree are fully prepared to assert that they have at 

 least an equal pretension with those Powers to the whole coast 

 43 as high as the Cist degree, and an absolute right to be parties to 

 any subdivision of it which may now be made. 



Unless I greatly misconceive the argument of Mr. Middleton, it is 

 contended by the American Government that, in virtue of the Treaty of 

 Washington, by Avhich the Floridas were ceded by Spain to the United 

 States, the latter are become possessed of all claims, whatever they 

 might be, which Si)ain had to the north-west coasts of America, north 

 of the iL'nd degree of north latitude, and that when Great Britain, in 

 the year 1700, disputed the exclusive right of Spain to this coast, the 

 Court of Ilussia (as, indeed, appears by the declaration of Count Florida 

 Blanca, and as it would, perhaps, yet more clearly appear by reference 

 to the archives of the Foreign Department here) disclaimed all inten- 

 tion of interfering with thei)retensions of Spain, and, consequently, all 

 pretensions to territory south of the 61st degree, and that, therefore, 

 any division of the coast lying between the 42nd and 01st degrees ought 

 in strictness to be made between the United States and Great Britain 

 alone. 



Mr. Middleton, however, admits that the United States are not pre- 

 pared to push their pretensions to this extent. He says that they are 

 ready to acknowledge that no country has any absolute and exclusive 

 claim to these coasts; and, that it is only intended by his Government 

 to assert that, as heirs to the claims of Spain, the United States have, 

 in fact, the best pretensions which any of the three Powers interested 

 can urge. 



Assuming, upon these grounds, their right to a share in the division, 

 the United States, it seems, desire that, the division being" made, the 

 three Powers should enter into a joint Convention mutually to grant to 

 each other, for some limited period, renewable at the pleasure of the 

 parties, the freedom of fishery and of trade with the natives, and what- 

 ever other advantages the coasts may afford; and Mr. JNIiddleton has 

 confidentially acquainted me that he has in fact received from his Gov- 

 ernment the "projet" of a tripartite Convention to this effect, and he 

 has communicated to me a copy, which I now inclose, of the Full 



