578 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
The overtures made on this subject to the Government of His Britannie Majesty 
by Count de Lieven at the moment when that Ambassador was about to leave Lon- 
don must already have proved that the opinion which the Cabinet of St. James’ had 
formed of the measures in question was not founded on an entirely accurate appre- 
ciation of the views of His Imperial Majesty. 
Russia is far from failing to recognize that custom aud occupation constitute the 
most solid title upon which a State can claim rights of sovereignty over any por- 
tion of the mainland. Russia is still further from having wished to arbitrarily 
transgress the limits which that title assigns to her dominions on the north-west 
coast of America, or to exalt into a general principle of maritime law the rules 
which a necessity of purely local character had obliged her to lay down for foreign 
navigation in the neighbourhood of the portion of that coast which belongs to her, 
It was, on the contrary, because she regarded those rights of sovereignty as legit- 
imate, and becausé imperious considerations involving the very existence of the 
commerce which she carries on in the latitudes of the north-west coast of America 
compelled her to establish a system or precautions which became indispensable, that 
she caused the Ukase of the 4th (16th) September, 1821, to be issued. 
525 Russia would be always ready to explain the motives which justify the 
provisions of that document; but for the moment she will confine herself to 
the following observations: 
The Duke of Wellington asserts, in his Confidential Memorandum of the 17th 
October, that English establishments belonging to two Companies, the Hudson’s 
Bay Company and the North-West Company, have been formed in a country called 
New Caledonia, which extends along the coast of the Pacific Ocean from the 49th to 
the 60th deeree of north latitude. 
Russia will not refer to the establishments which may exist between the 49th and 
51st parallel; but, with regard to the others, she does not hesitate to admit that she 
is, up to the present, ignorant of their existence in so far at least as to their 
touching the Pacific Ocean. 
Even the most recent and most minute English Maps give absolutely no indication 
of the trading stations, mentioned in the Memorandum of the 17th October, on the 
coast of America between the 51st and 60th degree of north latitude. 
On the other hand, since the expeditions of Behring and Tchirikoff, that is nearly 
a century ago, Russian establishments have extended progressively from the 60th 
degree, so that by the year 1799 they had reached the 55th parallel, as is shown by 
the first Charter of the Russo-American Company, a Charter which received official 
publicity at the time, and drew forth no protest on the part of England. 
This same Charter granted to the Russian Company the right to extend its estab- 
lishments towards the south beyond the 55th degree of north latitude, provided that 
such increase of territory could not give rise to objections on the part of any foreign 
Power. 
Nor did England protest against this provision either, nor did she even object to 
the new establishments which the Russo-American Company was able to form to the 
south of the 55th degree in virtue of that privilege. 
Russia was therefore fully entitled to profit by a consent which, for being tacit, 
was none the less solemn, and to fix as the boundary of her dominions the degree of 
latitude up to which the Russian Company had extended its operations since 1799. 
Be this as it may, and whatever force these circumstances may give to the titles 
of Russia, His lmperial Majesty will not deviate at this juncture from the habitual 
system of his policy. : 
His first wish will always be to prevent all discussion, and to strengthen more and 
more the relations of friendship and complete understanding which he is happy to 
maintain with Great Britain. - 
_ Consequently, the Emperor has charged his Cabinet to declare to the Duke of 
Wellington (such declaration not to prejudice his rights in any way if it be not 
accepted) that he is ready to fix, by means of friendly negotiation and on the basis 
of mutual accommodation, the degrees of latitude and longitude which the two Pow- 
ers shall regard as the utmost limits of their possessions and of their establishments 
on the north-west coast of America. 
His Imperial Majesty is pleased to believe that this negotiation can be completed 
without difficulty, to the mutual satisfaction of the two States; and the Cabinet of 
Russia can, from this moment, assure the Duke of Wellington that the measures of 
precaution and superintendence which will then be taken on the Russian part of 
the coast of America wiil be entirely in conformity with the rights derived from sov- 
ereignty and with the established customs of nations, and that there will be ne 
possibility of legitimate cause of complaint against them. 
