28 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



UNITED STATES ADMIT NO PART OF RUSSIAN CLAIMS. 



Thus in the letter from Mr. Adams to Mr. Middletou of 

 the 22ud July, 1823, the writer states that — 



Appendix vonT ^^^ pretensions of the Imperial Government extend to an exclusive 

 Partll, p.'4. territorial jurisdiction /roni the 45th degree of north latitude, on the 

 Asiatic coast, to the latitude of 51° north on the tvestern coast of the Amer- 

 ican Continent; and they assume the right of interdicting the naviga- 

 tion and the fishery of all other nations to the extent of 100 miles from 

 tlie whole of that coast. The United States can admit no part of these 

 claims. Their riglit of navigating and of fishing is perfect, and has 

 been in constant exercise from the earliest times, after the Peace of 

 1783, throughout the whole of tlie Southern Ocean, subject only to the 

 ordinary exceptions and exclusions of the territorial jurisdictions, 

 "which, so far as Russian rights are concerned, are confined to certain 

 islands'^ north of the 55th degree of latitude, and have no existence 

 on the Continent of America. 



Mr. Middletou's opinion upon the subject of the Ukase, 

 with its claim to close even Behring Strait, clearly 

 British Case, 29 appcars in his Memorial of the 1st (13th) December, 

 ^■^'*"^*' 1823, which contains the following passage : 



UNITED STATES OBJECT TO SHUTTING UP OF A STRAIT NEVER BEFORE 



SHUT UP. 



British Case, The Ukase even goes to the shntting up of a strait which has never been 



P^'^T/'^ 7 °^ "' ^'^' ''^"' '**''"' "P' ^"'^ 'which is at the present the principal object of 



' discoveries interesting and useful to the sciences The 



extension of territorial rights to the distance of 100 miles from the 

 coasts upon two opposite continents, and the prohibition of approaching 

 to the same distance from these coasts, or from those of all the inter- 

 vening islands, are innovations in the law of nations and measures 

 unexampled. 



rbid., Part I, Mr. G. Canning, writing to Sir C. Bagot, Her Majesty's 

 ^'^^' Ambassador at St. Petersburgh, on the 12th July, 1824, 



inclosed the draft of a "Projet" of Convention, which Sir 

 C. Bagot was authorized to sign. 



BRITISH '^PROJET." 



This "Projet" contained the following: 



His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, ami His Majesty the Emperor of All the Russias, being desir- 

 ous of drawing still closer the ties of friendship and good under- 

 standing which unite them, by means of an Agreement which shall 

 settle, upon the basis of reciprocal convenience, the different points 

 connected with the commerce, navigation, and fisheries of their sub- 

 jects on the Pacific Ocean, as well as the limits of their possessions 

 and establishments on tlie north-west coast of America; their said 

 Majesties have named their Plenipotentiaries to conclude a Conven- 

 tion for this purpose, that is to say : 



His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, &c., &c., &c. ; 



And His Majesty tlie Emperor of all the Russias, &c., &c., »fec. ; 



Who, after having communicated to each other their respective 

 full powers, found to bo in due and iiro2)er form, have agreed upon 

 and concluded the following Articles : 



* This word is in italics in the original. 



