62 



under tlieir control against foreign attacks. Only partners of the 

 companj'^ shall be employed in the administration of the new possessions 

 in charge of the company." U. 8. Case, Vol. 1, App., 14. 



This is the translation of the Ukase of 1799 as given in the origi- 

 nal Cases of both governments. It is also identical with that found 

 in Bancroft's History of Alaska, the author stating that the translation 

 adojited by him is based on the full text of the charter from Golovnin 

 in Materialui I. 77-80. Bancroffs Works, Vol. 33, History of Alaslca, 

 p. 379. 



In the British Counter Case it is said that the above translation is 

 inaccurate, and what is now claimed to be a correct rendering of the 

 original Eussian document, as given by Golovnin and Tikhmenie, is 

 produced. But at the oral argument it was admitted that the differ- 

 ences between these translations did not materially affect any questions 

 depending upon the construction of the Ukase of 1799. For that reason 

 the latter translation is not embodied in this opinion. 



Did this Ukase assert an exclusive jurisdiction upon the part of Rus- 

 sia over any part of Bering Sea beyond ordinary territorial waters'? 



It is quite true that at the time the Ukase of 1799 was issued all the 

 islands in Bering Sea had become a part of the territory of Russia by 

 right of discovery and occupancy, within the rules announced by the 

 Supreme Court of the United States in Johnson vs. McItosU, 8 Wheat., 

 543, 572. In that case Chief Justice Marshall, speaking for the court, 

 said: " On the discovery of this immense continent, the great nations of 

 Europe were eager to appropriate to themselves so much of it as they 

 could respectively require. Its vast extent afforded an ample field to 

 the ambition and enterprise of all; and the character and religion of its 

 inhabitants afforded an apology for considering them as a x^eople over 

 whom the superior genius of Europe might claim an ascendancy. The 

 potentates of the old world found no difflculty in cojivincing themselves 

 that they made ample compensation to the inhabitants of the new by 

 bestowing upon them civilization and Christianity in exchange for unlim- 

 ited independence. But as they were all in pursuit of nearly the same 

 object it was necessary, in order to avoid conflicting settlements and con- 

 sequent war with each other, to establish a principle, which all should 

 acknowledge as the law, by which the right of acquisition, which they all 

 asserted, should be regulated as between themselves. This principle 

 was that discovery gave title to the government by whose subjects, or 



