73 



tectingthe interests of the Russo American Company; and, moreover, 

 it would appear to be based upon incontestable rights. For, on the 

 one hand, to remove all foreign ships, once for all, from the coast above 

 referred to, would be to put an end forever to the illegal operations 

 which it is necessary to prevent. On the other hand — considering tlie 

 Kussian possessions, whicli extend on the northwest coast of America 

 from the Bering Strait to the fifty-first degree of north latitude, as 

 well as on the coast of Asia opposite and on the adjacent islands, from 

 the same strait to 45° — it can not be denied that the sea of which these 

 possessions form the bounds embraces all the conditions that the most 

 widely known and best accredited publicists have attached to the 

 definition of a closed sea, and that, therefore, the Russian Government 

 lias perfect authority to exercise the rights of sovereignty over that sea 

 and particularly that of forbidding the approach of foreigners. Never- 

 theless, however important the considerations may have been that 

 claimed such a measure, however legitimate such a measure would in 

 itself have been, the Imperial Government did not wish, on this occa- 

 sion, to exercise a power which is assured to it by the most sacred title 

 of possession, and which is, besides, confirmed by irrefragable author- 

 ities. The Government, however, limited itself— as can be seen by the 

 newly published regulation — to forbidding all foreign vessels not only 

 to land on the settlements of the American Company, and on the 

 Peninsula of Kamschatka and the coasts of the Okhotsk Sea, but also 

 to sail alonfj the coast of these possessions, and, as a rule, to ajjproacJi 

 them tcithin 100 Italian miles. 



" Vessels of the Imperial Marine have just been sent to see that this 

 arrangement is carried out. The arrangement appears to us to be as 

 lawful as it is urgent. For, if it is shown that the Imperial Govern- 

 ment had strictly the right to close to foreigners that portion of tlie 

 Pacific Ocean which is bouiuled by our ])ossessions in America and 

 Asia, a fortiori the right in virtue of which it has just adopted a much 

 less restrictive measure should not be called in question. This riglit, 

 in effect, is universally admitted, and all maritime powers have exer- 

 cised it more or less, in their colonial system." British Case, Vol. 2, 

 App., p. 1. 



These official declarations of the Russian Govermment through its 

 accredited representatives are in harmony with the words of the Ukase 

 of 1821. They show: (1) That the object of that Ukase was to prevent 

 foreigners (to use the language of M. de Poletica) "from exercising upon 



