74 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



I send this letter to Clanwilliam by a Colonel Loucadou, a Prussian, who 

 goes to night en Courier to Berlin. I had not intended to report my progress 

 in the négociation till I should do so officially and in despatch, but Loucadou's 

 departure is a tempting opportunity to write, and it was at least desirable that 

 you should know as soon as possible that there was an end of Middleton's 

 protest. 



Neither Count Nesselrode nor I have yet received any news from Constan- 

 tinople since Minciaky's arrival. 



The Emperor goes on well, but is still in His room — and I suppose that it 

 may be still a month before He is on His horse. 



I am &c 



CHARLES BAGOT 



Sir Charles Bagot to Mr. George Canning 



St. Petersburgh, 



March 10, 1824 

 Private, By Russian Courier 



I had expected that I should by this time have been enabled if not to send 

 you a Messenger with the definite arrangements respecting The N. W. Coasts 

 of America, at least to have told you that I had so far come to an understanding 

 with the Russian Plenipotentiaries, as that there remained little more to do 

 than to put our agreement into good and due form; I still hope that I shall 

 very shortly have it in my power to do so, but I find, since I wrote to you on 

 the 28th of last month, that whatever disposition there may have been on the 

 part of this Government to recede from the territorial pretensions advanced 

 by the Oukaze of 1821, there is an invincible reluctance on the part of The 

 Emperor to renounce any part of those advanced by The Emperor Paul to the 

 Russian American Company in 1799. These pretensions extend, as you are 

 aware, to the 55th degree of N. Latitude, but whatever may be the extension 

 allowed to them so far as regards the islands upon the coast, it cannot be main- 

 tained that they extend to the same degree of latitude upon the continent, 

 and even if it could, they would be inadmissible, under the stipulated basis 

 of our négociation (viz: that of the mutual convenience of the two parties) 

 as interfering directly with the actual present interests of England in those 

 quarters. 



In my last letter I acquainted you with the amended projet which I had 

 oflFered in consequence of the contre-projet given to me by the Russian Pleni- 

 potentiaries in answer to my original proposition. This amended projet of 

 mine has been replied to by insisting upon the first contre projet as being 

 strictly according to our "convenances mutuelles." To this reply I have pre- 

 pared a rejoinder which I shall give in at our conference the day after 

 tomorrow. Upon this rejoinder the negotiation must depend. I dare go no 

 further without specific orders to do so. 



If by the cession of the Prince of Wales's Island, reserving to His Majesty 

 the islands lying between it and the continent or high as the 56^th degree 

 (the point from which it is proposed that a narrow strip shall be allotted to Russia 

 upon the mainland, and which shall follow the bend of the coast Northward) 



