254 THE TREATY OF WASIIINGTON. 
ada as elsewhere in America, which you see in its re- 
sults, if not in its progress. It is like the advancement 
of the sun in the sky, imperceptible as movement, but: 
plain as to stages and ultimate destination, It is not 
an effect actively produced by the United States. It 
is an event which we would not precipitate by violence 
if we could, and which we scarcely venture to say we 
wish for, lest in so doing we should possibly wound 
respectable susceptibilities; but which we neverthe- 
less expect to hail some day with hearty gratulation, 
as an event auspicious alike to the Dominion and to 
the United States. 
If Lord Milton’s appreciation of the course of events 
be correct,—and no person has written more intelli- 
gently or forcibly on the British side of these ques- 
tions than he,—the consummation is close at hand. 
Arguing from the British stand-point of the San Juan 
Question, he says: 
“Tf Great Britain retains the Island of San Juan and the 
smaller islands of the archipelago lying west of the compromise 
channel proposed by Lord Russell, together with Patos Island 
and the Sucia group, she will preserve her power upon the 
Pacific, and will not in. any way interfere with or menace the 
harbors or seas which appertain to the United States. If, on 
the other hand, these islands should become United States ter- 
ritory, the highway from the British possessions on the main- 
land will be commanded by, and be at the mercy of that 
Power. . 
“Such a condition of affairs must inevitably force British 
Columbia into the United States federation; and the valuable: 
district of the Saskatchewan .. . must, ex necessitate rei, fol- 
low the fortunes of British Columbia. Canada, excluded from 
the Pacific, and shut in on two sides by United States terri- 
tory, must eventually follow the same course.” 
