66 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



In December, 1799, the Emperor Paul had signed a ukase granting 

 to the Russian-American Fur Company exclusive rights to hunt and 

 trade on the northwestern coa^t of America between latitude 55°N. 

 and Bering strait and on the islands in the vicinity. This grant was 

 not protested by other powers and the ukase of 1821 was virtually 

 an extension of it southward and seaward. Between December, 

 1799, and September, 1821, however, the North West Company 

 of Montreal and their successors, the Hudson's Bay Company, had 

 reached the Pacific and established themselves on the coast and in the 

 interior of what is now British Columbia. 



Doubtless, principally at the instigation of the Hudson's Bay Co.» 

 the Government of Great Britain protested these extraordinary claims 

 to jurisdiction over territory containing British trading posts and to 

 the open ocean far beyond limits acknowledged by international law. 



The United States also protested against the attempt to exclude 

 American traders and whalers from this territory. 



September 10, 1822, Count Lieven, Russian ambassador to Great 

 Britain, suggested confidentially that Great Britain bring forward 

 her claims to territory on the northwest coast of America "so as not 

 be shut out by any agreement made between Russia and the United 

 States. 'i 



January, 1823, Count Lieven informed George Canning, Secre- 

 tary of State for Foreign Affairs, that he was instructed to propose 

 "that the question of strict right be temporarily set aside on the part 

 of both" and that the differences "be adjusted by an amicable arrange- 

 ment to be negotiated at St. Petersburg." 



April, 1823, John Q. Adams, United States Secretary of State, 

 suggested joint negotiations by Great Britain and the United States 

 at St. Petersburg, and stated that the United States had no territorial 

 claims as high as 51°N. lat. Canning wrote Sir Charles Bagot, 

 British ambassador to Russia, that a joint negotiation would be 

 mutually advantageous, as two maritime powers acting together 

 could probably secure greater concessions than if acting separately. 



In August, 1823, Bagot wrote Canning that Count Nesselrode 

 considered "the proposed concert of measures between Great Britain 

 and the United States" as the most agreeable mode in which the ques- 

 tion could be brought under discussion." 



Two months later, however, he wrote that, notwithstanding 

 Adams' statement, the United States were "fully prepared" to assert 

 an equal pretension with Great Britain and Russia to the whole 

 coast as high as 61 °N. basing their claim as the successors in title 

 to Spain by virtue of the Treaty of Florida Blanca, 1819. 



