156 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



I cherish the hope that this document will enable your excellency, 

 in communicating to the company the resolution of His Imperial Ma- 

 jesty, to prove to it that the Government has never lost sight of its 

 interests. 



[Inclosure in No. 14.] 



Proceedings of the conference held July 21, 1824. 



Count Nesselrode opened the conference with a statement as to the 

 present condition of the matter intrusted by His Majesty the Emperor 

 to the investigation of the assembled committee. 



He called attention to the articles of the treaty concluded with the 

 minister of the United States concerning the northwest coast of Amer- 

 ica and to the remonstrances which had been made against that act by 

 the Russian American Company in two letters communicated by the 

 Minister of Finance to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Finally, he pre- 

 sented a draft of a communication which he intended to forward to 

 Lieut. Gen. Kankrin, in which were inclosed the replies of the minister 

 of foreign affairs to the above-mentioned remonstrances. This draft, 

 having been laid before His Majesty the Emperor, has received the 

 imperial approval; but His Imperial Majesty imposes upon the mem- 

 bers of the committee the duty of again examining it. 



After the reading of this document (which is annexed to the pres- 

 ent protocol, together with the two letters from the Russian American 

 Company) the deliberations were opened. The members turned their 

 chief attention to the causes of the fears expressed by the company, 

 as well as to the reasons which spoke in favor of the convention con- 

 cluded with the plenipotentiary of the Washington Cabinet; and also 

 to the means which the imperial ministry thinks best calculated to pre- 

 vent all injurious and unjust interpretations. The members of the 

 committee agreed by a majority of votes to the following resolutions: 



1. That the treaty of April 5-17 confirms to Russia rights which 

 have hitherto been called in question; that by virtue of that treaty 

 those rights are acknowledged by the Government which could dis- 

 pute them with great advantage and violate them with great ease; 

 that by it the undisputed possessions of Russia are henceforward ex- 

 tended even beyond those boundaries within which the Russian Amer- 

 ican Company was required under its original charter to carry on the 

 trading privileges granted to it. 



2. That since by this treaty the strict prohibition of the sale of arms, 

 munitions of war, and spirituous liquors to the natives of the north- 

 west coast is put into effect, the American Company acquires by it the 

 protection which it has always valued so highly, but which it has 

 hitherto never been able to obtain. 



3. That this last provision is the more important, because such a pro- 

 hibition, if promulgated on the part of Russia alone, would either draw 

 upon her disagreeable consequences and the most unpleasant embar- 

 rassments, or would not accomplish its object, in consequence of the 

 lack of means necessary for the prevention of its violation and for the 

 repression of prohibited traffic. 



4. That the treaty of April 5-17 contains another not less important 

 guaranty, namely, that the Americans will not establish settlements 

 on the northwest coast above 54° 40'. By this provision all the settle- 

 ments hitherto founded by the Russian American Company above 57° 

 are placed on a firm basis, and it is permitted to continue to found new 

 ones under parallels farther to the south. 



