JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS IN BERING SEA. 275 



The preamble closes by saying that the line of demarcation between 

 the possessions on the coast "shall be drawn in the manner following," 

 viz: From Prince of Wales Island, in 54° 40', along Portland Channel 

 and the summit of the mountains parallel to the coast as far as their in- 

 tersection with the one hundred and forty-first degree oflovijitude. After 

 having described this line of demarcation between the possessions of 

 both parties on the coast, the remaining sentence of the article shows 

 that, "finally, from the said point of intersection, the said meridian line 

 * * * shall form the limit between the Enssian and British posses- 

 sions on the continent of America.''^ South of the x)oint of intersection tlie 

 article describes a line of demarcation between possessions on the coast; 

 north of that point of intersection the article designates a meridian 

 line as the limit between possessions on the continent. The argument of 

 Lord Salisbury appears to this Government not only to contradict the 

 obvious meaning of the seventh and third articles, but to destroy their 

 logical connection with the other articles. In fact. Lord Salisbiuy's at- 

 tempt to make two coasts out of the one coast referred to in the third 

 article is not only out of harmony, with the plain provisions of the 

 Anglo-Eussian treaty, but is inconsistent with the preceding part of 

 his own argument. 



These five articles in the British treaty (the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, 

 and seventh) are exj)ressed with an exactness of meaning which no 

 argument can change or pervert. In a later i>art of my note I sliall be 

 able, I think, to explain why the Enssian Government elaborated the 

 treaty with Great Britain with greater precision and at greater length 

 than was employed in framing the treaty with the United States. It 

 will be remembered that between the two treaties there was an interval 

 of more than ten months — the treaty with the United States being ne- 

 gotiated in April, 1824, and that with Great Britain in February, 1825. 

 During that interval something occurred which made Eussia more 

 careful aud more exacting in her negotiations with Great Britain than 

 she had been with the United States. Wbat was it"? 



It is only necessary to quote the third and fourth articles of the 

 American treaty to prove that less attention was given to their con- 

 sideration than was given to the formation of the British treaty with 

 Eussia. The two articles in the American treaty are as follows : 



Art. III. It is moreover agreed that hereafter there shall not be formed by the 

 citizens of the United States, or under the authority of the said States, any cstMli- 

 lisliment upon the Northwest Coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, 

 to the north of 54*^ 40' of north latitude; and that in the same manner there sliall be 

 none formed by Russian subjects, or under the authority of Russia, south of the 

 same parallel. 



Art. IV. It is, nevertheless, understood that during a term of ten years, counting 

 from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both powers, or whicli 

 belong to their citizens or subjects respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without 

 any hindi'ance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks ujton the coast 

 mentioned in the preceding article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the 

 natives of the country. 



It will be noted that in the British treaty four articles, with critical 

 ex^jression of terms, take the j)lace of the third and fourth articles of 

 the American treaty, which were evidently drafted with an absence of 

 the caution on the part of Eussia w^hich marked the work of the Ens- 

 sian plenipotentiaries in the British negotiation. 



From some cause, not fully explained, great uneasiness was felt in 

 certain Eussian circles, and especially among the members of the Ens- 

 sian- American Company, when the treaty between Eussia and the 

 United States was made public. The facts leading to the uneasiness 



