THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY "427 



Affairs, George Canning, to the British negotiators. At the very 

 inception of the negotiations he directed the attention of the first 

 negotiator, Sir Charles Bagot, to " the extravagant assumption of 

 maritime jurisdiction " as the essential point to be adjusted, and 

 as Russia was prepared to waive her pretensions, the mode and 

 degree of disavowal was to be so made as to least offend the 

 national dignity of Russia.* It was therefore determined that it 

 would be made more eas}^ for Russia to retire from its maritime 

 claim under cover of a treaty of limits. This is made clear in 

 the instruction given by the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 

 December 8, 1824, to Sir Stratford Canning, who had succeeded 

 Mr Bagot in the negotiations. He says : t 



" The whole negotiation grows out of the ukase of 1821. So entirely 

 and absolutely true is this proposition that the settlement of the limits of 

 the respective possessions of Great Britain and Russia on the northwest 

 coast of America was proposed by us as a mode of facilitating the adjust- 

 ment of the differences arising from the ukase by enabling the court of 

 Russia, under cover of the more comprehensive arrangement, to with- 

 draw, with less appearance of concession, the offensive pretensions of that 

 edict. 



" It is comparatively indifferent to us whether we hasten or postpone 

 all questions respecting the limits of territorial possession on the continent 

 of America, but the pretensions of the Russian ukase of 1821 to exclusive 

 dominion over the Pacific could not continue longer unrepealed without 

 compelling us to take some measure of public and effectual remonstrance 

 against it. 



" You will . . . declare without reserve that 'the point to which 

 alone the solicitude of the British government and the jealousy of the 

 British nation attach any importance is the doing away (in a manner as 

 little disagreeable to Russia as possible) of the effect of the ukase of 1821.'' 



Near the close of this instruction, which was quite lengthy, 

 Secretary Canning, impressed with the importance of the main 

 object, repeats himself in these words : 



" It remains only in recapitulation to remind you of the origin and 

 principles of this whole negotiation. 



" It is not X on our part essentially a negotiation about limits. 



" It is a demand of the repeal of an offensive and unjustifiable arroga- 

 tion of exclusive jurisdiction over an ocean of unmeasured extent. . . . 



" We negotiate about territory to cover the remonstrance upon prin- 

 ciple." \ 



With this object in view and under these instructions, the 

 negotiations were initiated at St Petersburg. It will not be 

 possible to follow them in all their details, which are set forth in 



* Hi., 4(i.'i. tU>.,440. % The italics appear in the original. ~ § lb., 448. 



