THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY - LINE. 925 
Britain the concession of recognizing certain preten- 
sions of that Company in Oregon and Washington, 
founded on mere encroachment, and, in order to be re- 
lieved of these pretensions, paying to the Company a 
small sum in satisfaction of its claims, about one tenth 
of what was demanded for it in the name of the Brit- 
ish Government. 
Lord Milton expresses the opinion that “On a just 
and equitable solution of the so-called San Juan Water- 
boundary Question depends the future, not only of 
British Columbia, but also of the entire British pos- 
sessions in North America.” By “just and equitable 
solution” he means, of course, decision in favor of 
Great Britain. If the premises are correct, then the 
consequences are a fact accomplished. But he over- 
estimates the value of the Archipelago of San Juan to 
' Great Britain. His opinion assumes what is impossi- 
ble, the acquisition of considerable intrinsic strength 
on the part of British Columbia, sustained by railroad 
connection with the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. 
But what would avail, in a military point of view, a 
railroad running through a thousand miles of com- 
paratively uninhabited country within easy reach at 
every point to the armies of the United States? I 
think the future of the British possessions in North 
America depends on a different order of facts, of which 
something will be said in another chapter in speak- 
ing of the commercial relations of the United States 
and the Canadian Dominion. 
P 
