174 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



wliat was tliere before. To add to the term "commouly called Pacific 

 Ocean" "as well north as south" adds nothing as far as touches this 

 point. 



Senator Morgan. — Is it shown anywhere, Mr. Phelps, which was 

 first submitted f 



Mr. Phelps. — Certainly, Sir; the British was first submitted, and 

 the Russian you will remember was the contreprojet. 



Xow, the attention of the British was called to this; and you will 

 perceive that it was criticised subseriuently in one of these letters 

 which will be found on page 72 of December the 8th from George Can- 

 ning to Stratford Canning. He criticises this contre-jyrqjet, and he 

 complains that Article I in his projet is made Article lYin the Kussiau 

 contreprojet; and he says in regard to that: 



You will observe in the first jilace that it is proposed by the Russian Plenipo- 

 tentiaries entirely to change that order, and to transfer to the latter part of the 

 instrument the Article which has hitherto stood first in the projet. 



To that trans])osition we cannot agree, lor the very reason which Count Nessel- 

 rode alleges in favour of it, namely, that the economie or arrangement of the Treaty 

 ought to have reference to the history of negotiation. 



The whole negotiation grows out of the Ukase of 1821. 



So entirely and absolutely true is this proposition that the settlement of the 

 limits of the respective possessions of Great Britain and Russia on the north-west 

 coast of America was proposed by us only as a mode of facilitating the adjustment 

 of the difl'erence arising from the Ukase by enabling the Court of Russia, under 

 cover of the more comprehensive arrangement, to withdraw with less appearance 

 of concession, the offensive pretensions of that edict; 



and he continues to the same eflect. 



Sir Charles Russell. — I should be glad if you will read the next 

 passage. 



Mr. Phelps. — I will certainly. 



It is comparatively indifferent to us whether we hasten or postpone all questions 

 respecting the limits of territorial possession on the Ct)ntinent of America, but the 

 pretensions of the Russian Ukase of 1821 to exclusive dominion over the Pacific 

 could not continue longer unrepealed Avithoiit comjjelling us to take some measure 

 of public and eft'ectiial remonstrance against it. 



You will therefore take care, in the first instance, to repress any attempt to give 

 this change to the character of the negotiation, and will declare without reserve 

 that the i)oint to which alone the solicitude of the British Government and the 

 jealousy of the British nation attach any great importance is the doing away (in a 

 manner as little disagreeable to Russia as possible) of the efi'ect of the Ukase of 1821. 



That this Ukase is not acted upon, and that instructions have been long ago sent 

 by the Russian Government to their cruisers in the Pacific to suspend the execution 

 of its provisions, is true ; but a private disavowal of a published claim is no security 

 against the revival of that claim. The suspension of the execution of a principle 

 may be perfectly compatible with the continued maintenance of the principle itself, 

 and when Ave have seen in the course of this negotiation that the Russian claim to 

 the possession of the coast of America down to latitude 59 rests in fact on no other 

 ground than the presumed acquiescence of the nations of Europe in the provisions 

 of an Ukase published by the Emperor Paul in the year 1800, against which it is 

 affirmed that no jniblic remonstrance was made, it becomes us to be exceedingly 

 careful that we do not, by a similar neglect on the present occasion, allow a sim- 

 ilar presumption to he raised as to an acquiescence in the Ukase of 1821. 



The right of the subjects of His Majesty to navigate freely in the Pacific cannot 

 be held as matter of indulgence from any Power. Having once been publicly ques- 

 tioned, it must be publicly acknowledged. 



The President. — How would you construe iu the meaning of Mr. 

 George Canning these words; — "The right of the subjects of His 

 Majesty to navigate freely in the Pacific?" How do you believe 

 Mr. Canning understood the word "Pacific"? 



Mr. Phelps. — I understand the word "Pacific" there means just 

 what it means in the Treaty. 



The President. — Not Behring Sea 1 



