78 



If any doubt conld arise from previous correspondence as to whether 

 Great Britain recognized and conceded any jurisdiction upon the part 

 of Russia in the waters of Bering Sea, outside of ordinary territorial 

 limits, as those limits are defined by international law, that doubt will 

 be removed by the examination of the letter of Mr. George Canning to 

 Mr. Stratford Canning, of December 8, 1824, Avhich was after the Treaty 

 of 1824 between the United States and Russia was signed. That letter, 

 inclosing a projet of settlement, is too lengthy to be inserted in full here, 

 and the following extract from it must suffice: 



" 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 resjiective possessions of Great Britain and Russia on the 

 Northwest coast of America was proposed by us only as a mode of 

 facilitating the adjustment of the difference arising from the Ukase by 

 enabling the Court of Russia, under the cover of a more comprehen- 

 i^ive arrangement, to withdraw, with less ai)pearance of concession, 

 the offensive pretensions of that edict. It is comparatively indifferent 

 to us whether we hasten or postpone all questions respecting the 

 limits of territorial possession on the continent of America, but the 

 pretensions of the Russian Ukase of 1821 to exclusive dominion over 

 the Pacific could not continue longer unrepealed without compelling 

 us to take some measure of public and effectual remonstrance 

 against it. * * 



" 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 5 but a yni- 

 vate 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 we have seen in the course of this negotiaticm that the 

 Russian claim to the possession of the coast of America down to lati- 

 tude 59° rests in fact on no other ground than the presumed acquies- 

 cence of the nations of Europe in the provisions of the Ukase pub- 

 lished by the Emperor Paul in the year 1800 [1799], against which it 

 is affirmed that no public remonstrance was made, it becomes us to be 

 exceedingly careful that we do not, by a similar neglect, on the pres- 

 ent occasion allow a similar presumption to be raised as to an acquies- 

 cence in the Ukase of 1821. The right of the subjects of His Majesty 

 to navigate freely in tlie Pacific can not be held as a matter of indul- 



