76 



Subsequently, September 27,1822, Mr. George CaTining, the successor 

 of Lord Londonderry, in the British Foreign Office, writing to the Duke 

 of Wellington, who had been commissioned to acquaint the Russian 

 Government with the views held by the British Government said 

 that with respect to the points in the Ukase which had the effect of 

 extending the territorial rights of Eussia over the adjacent seas to 

 the '^ unprecedented " distance of 100 miles from the line of coast, and 

 of closing a hitherto unobstructed passage (through Bering Straits), 

 at that time the object of important discoveries for the i)romotion of 

 general commerce and navigation, those pretensions were considered 

 by the best legal authorities as positive innovations on the right of 

 navigation, and as such, could receive no explanation from further 

 discussion, nor by any jiossibility be justified. Common usage, he said, 

 which has obtained the force of law, had indeed assigned to coasts and 

 shores an accessorial bouiulary to a short limited distance for purposes of 

 l)rotection and general convenience, in no manner interfering with the 

 rights of others, and not obstructing the freedom of general commerce 

 and navigation. But that important qualification, he observed, the 

 extentofEussia's claim entirely excluded, and when such a j)rohibi- 

 tion was applied to a long line of coasts, and also to intermediate 

 islands in remote seas, where navigation was beset with innumerable 

 and unforeseen difficulties, and where the i^rincipal employment of the 

 fisheries must be pursued under circumstances that were incompatible 

 with the prescribed courses, " all particular considerations concur, in an 

 especial juanner, with the general princij)le, in repelling such a preten- 

 sion as an encroachment on the freedom of navigation, and the inalien- 

 able rights of all nations." He expressed satisfaction in believing 

 from a conference which he had had with Count Lieveu that upon 

 these two points — "the attempt to shut up the passage altogether, 

 and the claim of exclusive dominion to so enormous a distance from 

 the coast — the Russian Government are prepared entirely to waive their 

 X)retensions." British Case, Vol. II, App., 22. 



After receiving this letter, the Duke of Wellington, November 28, 

 1822, delivered to Count Nesselrode, at the head of the Russian min- 

 istry, a confidential memorandum, in which ne objected first, to the 

 claim of sovereignty set forth in the Ukase; and, secondly, to the mode 

 in which it is exercised. "The best writers on the laws of nations," 

 he observed, " do not attribute exclusive sovereignty, particularly 

 of continents, to those who have first discovered them, and although 



