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called the Pacific Ocean"? In view of the grounds upon which Great 

 Britain, during negotiations extending over three years, steadily rested 

 its objections to the Ukase of 1821, can it be presumed or supposed 

 that she intended to leave that Ukase in force as to the waters of Ber- 

 ing Sea and thereby recognize the right of Eussia to prohibit British 

 vessels from approaching any of the coasts of that sea nearer than 100 

 Italian miles? 



It seems to me that these questions must all be answered in the 

 negative. What waters, according to the understanding of Russia, at 

 the date of the treaty, were in fact embraced in the Pacific Ocean? 

 Upon this point there is scarcely room for doubt. In the letter of 

 Baron Nicolay, dated November 12, 1821, in which he gave notice to 

 the British Government of the Ukase of 1821, he states that the pos- 

 sessions of Eussia ^' extend on the northwest coast of America from the 

 Bering Strait to tlie 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 forty-five degrees," and that if " the Imperial Government had 

 strictly the right to close to foreigners that portion of the Pacific 

 Ocean which is bounded by our possessions 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." In the letter, 

 already referred to, of February 28, 1822, in which M. Poletica stated 

 fully the grounds upon which Eussia based the Ukase of 1821, he 

 stated that the first discoveries of Eussia on the northwest coast of 

 America went back to the time of Peter I, and belonged to the attempt 

 made towards the end of his reign " to find a passage from the Icy Sea 

 into the Pacific Ocean"; implying that the Icy Sea, which is now 

 known as the Arctic Ocean, was connected with the Pacific Ocean. 

 In the same letter, in which he describes the limits assigned to Eussian 

 possessious by the Ukase of 1821, M. Poletica states that "the Eussian 

 possessions in the Pacific Ocean extend on the northwest coast of 

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

 on the opposite side of Asia and the islands adjacent from the same strait 

 to the forty-fifth degree." It thus appears that Eussia, by its repre- 

 sentatives, in language too clear to admit of doubt as to its meaning, 

 regarded all of its possessions on the northwest coast of America, 

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

 as being on the Pacific Ocean. 



It is equally clear that Great Britain so understood the matter. In 



