248 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



SEPARATE ARTICLE II. 



Tt is understood in like raauner that the exceptions, immnnities, and privileges 

 hereinafter mentioned shall not be considered as at variance with the principle of 

 reciprocity whicli forms the basis of the treaty of this date, that is to say : 



1. The exemption from navigation dues during the first three years which is en- 

 joyed by vessels built in Russia and belonging to Russian subjects. 



2. The exemptions of the like nature granted in the Russian ports of the Black 

 Sea, the sea of Azof, and the Danube to such Turkish vessels arriving from ports of 

 the Ottoman Empire situated on the Black Sea as do not exceed 80 lasts burden. 



3. The permission granted to the inhabitants of the coast of the Government of 

 Archangel to import duty free, or on payment of moderate duties, into ports of the 

 said Government dried or salted fish, as likewise certain kinds of furs, and to export 

 therefrom, in the same manner, corn, rope and cordage, pitch, and ravensduck. 



4. The privilege of the Russian American Company. 



5. The privilege of the steam navigation companies of Lubeck and Havre; lastly, 



6. The immnnities granted in Russia to certain English companies, called "yacht 

 clubs." 



To suppose that under tlie simple words " the privilege of the Rus* 

 sian American Company," placed in connection with the privilege of 

 French and German steam navigation companies and the immunities 

 of yacht clubs, it was intended to acknowledge a claim of jurisdiction 

 against which Her Majesty's Government had formally j^rotested as 

 contrary to international law, and which it had avowedly been one of 

 the main objects of the treaty of 1825 to extinguish, is a suggestion too 

 improbable to require any lengthened discussion. 



But Her Majesty's Government did not of course agree to the article 

 without knowing what was the exact nature of the privileges thus ex- 

 cepted from reciprocity. They had received from the Russian ambas- 

 sador, in December, 1842, an explanatory memorandum on this subject, 

 of which the following is the portion relating to the Russian American 

 Company ; 



IV. 



La Compagnie Russe Amt'sricaine a le privil^ge d'exp6dier francs de droits de 

 Cronstadt autour du moude et d'Ochotsk dans les colonies riisses, les produits riisses 

 ainsi que les marchandises etrangercs dont les droits out d6,]h 6t6 prc^lev^s; de memo 

 d'importer an retour de ces colonies des cargaisons de pelleteries et d'autres produits 

 de ces colonies, sans payer aucun droit, si d'apres les lois g^n^rales il n'est pas 6tabli 

 d'imput particulier interieur sur les marchandises de pelleterie. 



Observation. — D'aprfes le tarif envigueur, I'importation des fourrures dans les ports 

 de St.-P6tersbourg et d' Archangel, de production russe et sur des vaisseanx russes, 

 est admise sane* droits. 



It is surely incredible that if the privilege of the Russian American 

 Company did comprise a right of excluding vessels from approaching 

 within 100 miles of the shore it should not even have been alluded to 

 in this explanation. 



Nor is it possible to agree in Mr. Blaine's view that the exclusion of 

 foreign vessels for a distance of 100 miles from the coast remained in 

 force pending the negotiations and in so far as it was not modified by 

 the conventions. A claim of jurisdiction over the open sea, whicli is 

 not in accordance with the recognized principles of international law or 

 usage, may of course be asserted by force, but can not be said to have 

 any legal validity as against the vessels of other countries, except in 

 so far as it is positively admitted by conventional agreements with 

 those countries. 



I do not suppose that it is necesaary that T sliould argue at length 

 upon so elementary a point as that a claim to prohibit the vessels of 

 other nations from approaching within a distance of 100 miles from the 



