412 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Powers witli which he has been furnished to negotiate such Conven- 

 tion with the Plenipotentiaries of Great Britain and Enssia. 



As neither the instructions nor the powers which I have received in 

 regard to this question were framed in contemplation of any such i^re- 

 tension as that which is now put forward by the American Govern- 

 ment, I have explained to Mr, Middleton how impossible it is for me to 

 proceed further with him in tlie business until 1 shall have received 

 fresh instructions from you, and I have, with his knowledge, informed 

 M. Poletica that I nuist, for the present, suspend the conferences (upon 

 the territorial part of the question at least) into which he and I had 

 already entered. 



I cannot disguise from myself that, judging from the conversations 

 which I have had, both with Count Nesselrode and M. Poletica, upon 

 the general subject of the Ukase, these new, and, I must think, unex- 

 pected pretensions of the United States are very likely to render a 

 satisfactory adjustment of the business a matter of more difficulty tlian 

 I at first apprehended. 



A full disavowal by Russia of her pretension to an exclusive mari- 

 time jurisdiction in the ]Morth Pacific Ocean will, I have no donbt, be 

 obtained; but I am strongly inclined to believe that this Governnient 

 will not easily be brought to acknowledge the justice of any claim of 

 the United States to any part of the territory in question north of the 

 51st degree, and, I am still more strongly inclined to believe, that a 

 division once made, this Government will never permit the United 

 States, if they can prevent it, either to fish, settle, or trade with the na- 

 tives within the limits of the territory which may be alloted to Enssia. 



I take this opportunity of inclosing to you a copy of the note which 

 I received from Count ISTesselrode the day before he left St. Petersburgh, 

 acquainting me that the Emperor had api)ointed M. Poletica to enter 

 into preliminary discussion with Mr. Middleton and myself, upon the 

 different questions growing out of the Ukase. 



As it appeared by this note that M. Poletica was not empowered to 

 treat, or indeed to pledge his Government to any precise point, I have 

 abstained from entering with him as fully into the matter as I should 

 have done had his powers been more extensive. 



I had, however, two conversations with him previously to Mr. Middle- 

 ton's receipt of his last instructions, upon the subject of territorial 

 boundary as it regarded ourselves, and I then gave him to understand 

 that the British (government would, I thought, be satisfied to take 

 Cross Sound, lying about the latitude of 57^°, as the boundary between 

 the two Powers on the coast, and a meridian line drawn from the head 

 of Lynn Canal, as it is laid down in Arrowsmith's last iMap, or about 

 the 135th degree of west longitude, as the boundary in the interior of 



the continent. 

 44 M. Poletica, not being authorized to do more than take any sug- 



gestion of this kind ad referendum, I am of course not yet able to 

 inform you, as lam instructed to do by your despatch No. 12, how far a 

 more fornml pro])Osition on this basis, or on the basis of a line drawn 

 at the 57th degree, as suggested in that despatch, might be agreeable 

 to the Iu)i)erial Government. M. Poletica seemed to suggest the 55th 

 degree as that which, in his opinion, Enssia would desire to obtain as 

 her boundary; and he intimated that it would be witli extreme reluct- 

 ance that Enssia would, he thought, consent to any demarcation which 

 would deprive her of her Establishment at Sitca, or rather at Novo- 

 Archangelesk. 



