150 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



west question, and I now forward a copy of it marked A, The subject 

 must be trite to you; but I bave found here that it is indispensable to 

 make some statements of facts and x)rinciples in tbis case before I can 

 proceed further in the negotiation. I hope you will approve of the 

 course I am pursuing, and that you will find that I have stated cor- 

 rectly both facts and principles. I felt it to be necessar}^ to broach 

 the subject in this mode, knowing- the erroneous impressions which pre- 

 vail. 1 have now great hopes, notwithstanding the unfavorable ap- 

 pearances which this aifair has worn for a few weeks past, that it may 

 lake a new turn, and that I may yet be enabled to succeed in attaining 

 the main object of the negotiation. 



Sir Charles Bagot is now daily expecting the return of his messenger 

 with new powers and instructions respecting the same matters. I 

 mentioned in my last, and I now repeat, that I have a reasonable ex- 

 l^ectation that he will be instructed to i^ursue the course of policy so 

 obviously pointed out by the true interests of England, and suggested 

 by a sense of the propriety of being consistent, and of persevering in 

 the principles which marked the Nootka Sound contestation. Neither 

 he nor I foresee any difficulty in reconciling and adjusting the interests 

 of our respective countries upon this question. 



(For inclosures see American State Papers, Foreign Eelatious, vol. 

 V, p. 449, et seq.) 



Mr. Bush to Mr. Adams. 



Ko. 353.] London, JDccemher 19, 1823. 



Sir: Since I last wrote, Mr. Canning has been confined to his house 

 hy a sharp attack of gout; nevertheless, he wrote me a note the day 

 before yesterday inviting me to call upon him on that day for the pur- 

 pose of having our proposed conference on the topic of the Northwest 

 Coast. I went accordingly and was received byhim in his chamber. 



He repeated his wish to learn from me our general grounds upon this 

 subject preparatory to his sending off instructions to Sir Charles Bagot. 



I at once unfolded them to him by stating that the pro]>osals of my 

 Government were, first, that as regarded the country lying between 

 the Stony Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Great Britain, the United 

 States, and Kussia should jointly enter into a convention, similar in its 

 nature to the third article of the convention of the 20th of October, 

 1818, now existing between the two former i)owers, by which the whole 

 of that country westward of the Stony Mountains and all its waters 

 would be free and open to the citizens and subjects of the three powers 

 as long as the joint convention remained in force. This my Govern- 

 . ment proposed should be for the term of ten years. 



And, second, that the United States were willing to stipulate to make 

 no settlements north of the fifty-first degree of north latitude on that 

 coast, provided Great Britain stipulated to make none south of 51° or 

 north of 55°, and Eussia to make none south of 55°. 



These, I said, were the princii)al points which I had to put forward 

 upon this subject. The nmp was spread out before us, and, in stating 

 the points, I endeavored to explain and recommend them by such a])- 

 propriate remarks as your instructions supi)lied me with, going as far 

 as seemed fitted to a discussion regarded only as preparatory and in- 

 formal. 



