APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 481 



been imparted. Had the purport of tlie instruction, under which the 

 "Loriot" was violently seized and driven from her voyage, been com- 

 municated, it would not have been allowed to work injury and loss to 

 unoffending persons, without at least being first made the object of 

 candid remonstrance, or of precautionary notice. And the President of 

 the United States, unapprised of these Eegulations, or of the particular 

 points of the north-west coast on which Kussian establishments were 

 newly formed, could not but view the abrupt proceeding to which Cap- 

 tain Blinn was subjected as an act, under any aspect, of the most 

 unfriendly character. How far this sentiment will be changed or qual- 

 ified by unexpectedly finding the slight on the American fiag and the 

 armed opposition to American trade to have been ordered, and to be 

 now sanctioned, by the Government of His Imperial Majesty, upon the 

 principles stated, the Undersigned cannot venture to foresee. 



Nor is the "informal notice" (lying before the Undersigned) pub- 

 lished, at the repeated request of Baron de Krudener, in the " Wash- 

 ington Globe" on the 22nd August, 1835, to which his Excellency has 

 referred, susceptible, in the estimation of the Undersigned, of a con- 

 struction which can ascribe to the American Government, or any of its 

 citizens, the knowledge that a voyage like the one contemplated by 

 Captain Blinn was inconsistent with any colonial interdict or general 

 pretension of the Imperial authorities. Far from it. That publication, 

 while characteristic of the frank and confiding readiness with which 

 the American Executive proceeded to execute a Avish expressed by a 

 Power whose intercourse and relations inspire no distrust, compels, as 

 is conceived, with unfeigned deference, the opposite construction, and 

 imports a recognition of the entire lawfulness of such a voyage. In this 

 S])irit, and in this only, was it originally framed, and has ever since, 

 without a question, been understood by the Government and people of 

 the United States. True, it adverts to a Notice issued by the Governor 

 of the Russian Colonies after the expiration of the IVth Article of the 

 Convention, to the effect that the masters of American vessels could no 

 longer claim the right they enjoyed under that IVth Article of landing 

 at all the landing-places, without distinction, belonging to Russia on 

 the north-west coast; and it further proceeds to observe to all interested 

 in the trade that, under the Ilnd Article of the same Convention, it is 

 necessary for all American vessels resorting to any point where there 

 is a Russian establishment to obtain tlie permission of the Governor or 

 Commander. To the scope of phraseology of this " informal notice" it 

 is believed Baron de Krudener never, orally or in writing, took the 

 slightest exception. It will surely be perceived by his Excellency Count 

 Nesselrode to contain no inhibition of trading voyages generally to the 

 north-west coast of America, but, on the contrary, to confine its admo- 

 nition expressly and precisely to " landing-places belonging to Russia," 

 and to " any point on the coast where there is a Russian establishment." 

 Such landing-places and such points were alone supposed to be embraced 

 in the Notice of Governor Wrangel, and were alone designated in the 

 publication. American voyages to them were no longer as unembar- 

 rassed as during the operation of the lYth Article of the Convention, 

 but to all other i)oints of that vast and wild territory the freedom of 

 American navigation and trade remained unimpaired. It formed no 

 part of the purpose of Captain Blinn lo visit, with or without permis- 

 sion, any landing-place or point distinguished by Russian occu- 

 14 pancy or establishment; and it is therefore submitted that, even 

 supposing him to have read the paragraph adduced, he could at 

 least deduce from it nothing adverse to his voyage. 

 S. Ex. 177, pt. 4 31 



