254 THE TKEATY OF WASHINGTON. 



ada as elsewhere in America, wliicli you see in its re- 

 sults, if not in its jirogress. It is like the advancement 

 of the sun in the sky, imperceptible as movement, but 

 plain as to stages and ultimate destination. It is not 

 an effect actively produced by the United States. It 

 is an event which we would not precipitate by violence 

 if we could, and which we scarcely venture to say we 

 wish for, lest in so doing we should possibly wound 

 respectable susceptibilities; but which we neverthe- 

 less expect to hail some day with hearty gratulation, 

 as an event auspicious alike to the Dominion and to 

 the United States. 



If Lord Milton's appreciation of the course of events 

 be correct, — and no person has written more intelli- 

 gently or forcibly on the British side of these ques- 

 tions than he, — the consummation is close at hand. 

 Arguing from the British stand-point of the San Juan 

 Question, he says : 



" If Great Britain retains the Island of San Juan and tlie 

 smaller islands of the archipelago lying west of the compromise 

 channel proposed by Lord Russell, together with Patos Island 

 and the Sucia group, she will preserve her power upon the 

 Pacific, and will not in any Avay interfere with or menace the 

 harbors or seas which a))pertain to the United States. If, on 

 the other hand, these islands should become United States ter- 

 ritory, the highway from the British possessions on the main- 

 land will be commanded by, and be at the n;ercy of that 

 Power, . . . 



"Such a condition of affairs must inevitably force British 

 Columbia into the United Slates federation; and the valuable 

 district of the Saskatchewan . . . must, ex necessitate rei^ fol- 

 low the fortunes of British Columbia. Canada, excluded from 

 the Pacific, and shut in on two sides by United States terri- 

 tory, must eventually follow the same course." 



