440 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT r.PtlTAIN. 



this liberty to His Majesty's subjects at the expiration of ten years., 

 tliey can, nnder no circumstances, consent to divest tiieniselves for 

 ever of a discretionary i)0\ver iu this respect, by granting- such ii privi- 

 lege in ])erpetuity. 



Upon this point I reminded the Plenipotentiaries that the freedom 

 of the port of Novo-Archangelsk was originally offered to Great Britain 

 by themselves, unsolicited and unsnggested by me, in the tirst "Contre- 

 Projet" Avhich they gave to me in our former conferences; that the 

 same offer had been repeated by Count Nesselrode in his despatch to 

 Count Lieven of the 5th April last, and that ujjon neitlier occasion had 

 it been accompanied by any restriction as to any period of time. It is 

 admitted to me that no period of time was specified upon those occa- 

 sions, but that it was never intended to declare that the freedom should 

 be perpetual, aud that they could never be induced to grant it ui)on 

 such terms. 



As to the second point: The Eussian Plenipotentiaries declare that 

 thej^ are ready to grant to His Majesty's subjects for ten years, but 

 for no longer period, the liberty to navigate and trade along- the 

 68 coast of the Jisierc proposed to be ceded to llussia, from the Port- 

 land Channel to the OUth degree of north latitude, and the islands 

 adjacent; and that they are ready to grant /or ever the right of ingress 

 and egress into and from whatever rivers may ffow from the American 

 continent and fall into the Paciiic Ocean within the al)ove described 

 lisiere but that they can, under no circa nistances, and by no sui)posed 

 correspondent advantages, be induced to grant to any Power the [>rivi- 

 lege to navigate and trade iu perpetuity within a country the full sov- 

 ereignty of which was to belong to Kussia; that such i)erpetual conces- 

 sion was repugnant to all national feeling, and was inconsistent with 

 the very idea of sovereignty. 



As regards the third point, the Eussian Plenipotentiaries declared 

 that the coasts of Korth America extending from the GOth degree of 

 north latitude to Eehring's Straits, the liberty to visit which, under cer- 

 tain conditions, is sti})u]ated in the"Projet" by Great Britain, in return 

 for a similar liberty to be given, under tlie same conditions, to Eussian 

 subjects to visit tiie North American coasts belonging to llis Majesty, 

 are, and have always been, the absolute and uiKlisputcd territory of 

 His Imperial Majesty, and that it is not the intention of His Imperial 

 Majesty to grant to any Power whatever ibr any period of time the 

 liberty which is required. 



Tliesc are the three princijyal points upon which I was yesterday dis- 

 tinctly given to understand tliat the Kussiau Government would (;ou- 

 sider it their duty to insist, and, conseipiently, tliat, unless my instiuc- 

 tions should enable me to modify the" Projet" so far as regarded them, 

 the negotiation i must be considered as at an end. 



It is, I believe, scarcely necessary that, after having stated this, I 

 should trouble you with any further observatu)ns upon tiie subject. 



The other differences which exist between the "Projet" aud the 

 "Contre-Projet," though numerous, are, as I have said before, of minar 

 importance, and siu-h as would, I think, have been easily adjusted. 

 AVhat they aie will be best shown by the " (^ontre- Projet" inclosed. 



I hope that His Majesty's Goverinnent will give me credit for not 

 having too hastily supposed that the objections urged by the Eus- 

 sian Pleni])()tentiaries were insurmountable. I am, I think, too well 

 acquainted with, and hav(^ too long negotiated ujion, this subject to 

 luive deceived myself in this resi)ect, and I am fully ])ersuaded, IVom 

 what has passed between Count Nesselrode, M. Poletica, and myself 



