DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 231 



to the British Government, the United States 

 were ro<|iu-stod to consent, and did consent, to 

 it ItritUli occupation of tin; Hudson's 

 . ..m]>:iny's furl. Droiniii^ it important, 

 . er, that the boundary-line should bo defi- 

 nitely fixod by a joint commission of the two 

 iniionts, estimates of the oust of such a 

 . .mmi-Mou wore submitted by the President 

 to Congress at the beginning of its pri'-.-nt 



<>n. 



International Coinage. The Senate of the 

 United States having, by resolution, requested 

 the President to invite correspondence with 

 Groat Britain and other foreign powers, with 

 a view to promote the adoption of a common 

 unit and standard of an international gold coin- 

 age, the Secretary of State, by direction of the 

 President, on the llth of June addressed a cir- 

 cular, upon the subject, to the legations of the 

 United States m Great Britain and in Continen- 

 tal Europe. The circular contains an elaborate 

 and forcible statement of the reasons rendering 

 the adoption of such a measure desirable, and 

 suggests, as a plan favorable to the United 

 States, the scheme known as the dollar scheme. 

 This scheme proposes a reduction in the value 

 of the dollar of three-tenths of one per cent., in 

 order to make the coin of metrical weight, so 



that three dollars coined of nine-tenths fineness, 

 Hhall weigh five grammes, while two dollars shall 

 rontiiin throe grammes of finegold. [taboeOH- 

 t.-ni|.latr> thut tin- British p.-mi y hhull be equiv- 

 alent to two iiiftri'- cents, and that the sover- 

 eign and a new French coin of twenty-five 

 francs, shall each be brought to the weight, 

 fineness, size, and value of the half-eagle as re- 

 duced. It suggests (for consideration only, and 

 not as the best theoretical solution of the ques- 

 tion) that the international value of the coins 

 of the nations that may become parties to any 

 monetary convention, or who may in any other 

 way arrange this question between themselves, 

 shall bo determined by the quantity of pure 

 gold which it contains, which measure shall bo 

 expressed in a common standard of weight 

 upon its face ; and that, unless absolute unifi- 

 cation can be obtained, all other questions of 

 coinage be left to local law and experience. 

 The French decigramme is suggested as the most 

 convenient common measure by which to de- 

 termine this quantity, and that it is desirable, 

 if possible, to avoid running this expression 

 into a fraction. 



The Government of the United States sug- 

 gests (also for consideration only) the following 

 as a practicable table : 



These suggested changes are slight, and need 

 scarcely be accounted for. If adopted, they 

 afford in the decigramme an international unit 

 which will be easily convertible from one ex- 

 pression into another, and fine gold is made 

 the standard, without reference to the quantity 

 of alloy. 



On the 2d of July, Mr. Bancroft communi- 

 cated to this Government a statement relating 

 to the subject, which he had received from the 

 Government of North Germany. He said that 

 a reform of German coinage was contem- 

 plated ; that certain steps of legislative inquiry 

 indicated that fact. It seemed that the ten- 

 dency in Germany was strong toward the 

 adoption of the five-and-twonty franc gold- 

 pieces as a standard. 



JAPAN". Deportation of Christians. In 

 1869 there were statements made to the rep- 

 resentatives of Western powers in Japan, that 

 native Christians in the islands of Soto had 

 been persecuted to death by Japanese officers 

 in charge of the islands. The investigations 

 made by the Japanese Government failed to 

 find any substantial grounds for the report. 

 Early in 1870 it reached the ears of the for- 



eign representatives that a system of deporta- 

 tion of the native Christians had been under- 

 taken, and that the inhabitants of an entire 

 Christian village were to be dispersed in the 

 surrounding country. 



On the 19th of January an interview was 

 held in the city of Yeddo between the highest 

 Japanese officers of state and the foreign rep- 

 resentatives, in which the arrest of the depor- 

 tation of Christians was under consideration. 

 The result of the interview was a full under- 

 standing of the policy of the Mikado's govern- 

 ment in decreeing that native Christians should 

 be deported " to labor in the mines and live in 

 the forests." 



Mr. DeLong, United States minister in Ja- 

 pan, reported that a distinct and positive avow- 

 al was obtained to the effect that the Mikado's 

 government, based upon the Sintoo creed, and 

 depending for its perpetuity on tho mainte- 

 nance of that faith, foresaw in the propagand- 

 ism of Christianity the overthrow of its faith 

 and the fall of its dynasty. 



The Government, while intrenching itself 

 IK- hind the legal shield of an abstract right to 

 manage its own internal affairs without inter- 



