56 ' COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



BUT CHARTER OF 1829 ONLY PURPORTS TO EXCLUDE 

 OTHER RUSSIAN SUBJECTS. 



In the first Charter granted subsequently to the Treaties 

 of 1824 and 1825, viz., that of the 2S>th March, 1829, there 

 is a striking change in the language used. 

 TJnited States Articles 2 and 3 of this Charter are as follows: 



Case, Appendix, 



^''■^'^' ■ (2.) The limits of navigation and industry of the Company are 



determined bv the Treaties concluded with the United States of 

 America April' 5 (17), 1824, and with England February 16 (28), 1825. 

 (3.) In all the places allotted to Russia by these treaties there shall 

 1)6 reserved to the Company the right to profit by all the fur and fish 

 industries, to the exclusion of all other liussian subjects. 



If the Russian Government had considered itself entitled, 

 in spite of the Treaties, to close Behring Sea to the ap- 

 proach of foreigners, it is inconceivable that the Charters 

 should not have been so worded as to reserve the waters 

 and coast of Behriug Sea, while opening to foreigners the 

 waters and coasts to the southward of that sea. 

 Ibid., p. 68. If this distinction was to be drawn at any time, it must 



of necessity have been drawn upon this occasion, and the 

 omission to do so becomes more significant wheu the Chart- 

 ers of 1829 and 1814 are read in connection with the pro- 

 tests of the Russian- American Company against the terms 

 of the Treaties, and with the proceedings of the Committee 

 which investigated those complaints in 1824. 

 Ibid., p. 28. The Charter of 1844 is equally signifie^^nt. 



Section 2 sets out the boundary-line which was described 

 by the Treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia. 



Section 3 is in the following terms : 



company's charter of 1844 only purports to exclude other 



russian' subjects. 



Ibid., p, 29. Sec. 3. In all places annexed to Russia by the above-mentioned 



delimitation there is granted to the Company the right to carry on 

 the fur and fishing industries to the exclusion of all Bnssian subjects. 



The above extracts show conclusively that, after the 

 Treaties which resulted from the negotiations upon the 

 question of the Ukase of 1821, the claim to exclude foreign- 

 ers from navigating, hunting, and fishing, asserted 

 63 by Russia in that Ukase, was definitely abandoned 

 and never revived. The reference to foreigners dis- 

 appeared from the Charter of the Company. 



It is further to be noted that the limits of the Company's 

 territories are clearly defined in each of the three Charters 

 quoted above; and though they are not described in iden- 

 tical terms in each Charter, the coast-line which is granted 

 includes in each case the whole Russian shore from the 

 Arctic Ocean to the southernmost limit. 

 TJiiited states Further quotations are made at ])]). 08 and 09 of the 

 Case, pp.68, 69. United States Case, as to all of which it may be remarked 

 that the documents quoted are of a purely municipal char- 

 acter, affecting Russian subjects only. 

 Two points, however, deserve more detailed notice: 



