452 THE ALASKAN BO UNBAR Y 



Evarts consented to accept it as a provisional line, without preju- 

 dice to the rights of the parties when the permanent boundary 

 came to be fixed.* 



The foregoing citations show that whenever the British govern- 

 ment or those holding interests under it have had occasion to 

 express their views as to the strip of territory secured to Russia 

 under the treaty of 1825 they have made it plain that they re- 

 garded it as an unbroken strip on the mainland following around 

 the inlets of the sea, and that the interior waters enclosed in 

 such strip were Russian or American territorial waters. 



When, in 1822, the Duke of Wellington was about to depart 

 as the British plenipotentiary to the International Congress of 

 Verona, he carried with him an instruction from Secretary Can- 

 ning to bring the protest of his government against the ukase 

 of 1821 to the attention of the Russian plenipotentiaries at that 

 congress. After obtaining the opinion of the great English 

 law}'er, Lord Stowell, he wrote : 



" Enlightened statesmen and jurists have long held as insignificant all 

 titles of territory that are not founded on actual occupation, and that 

 title is, in the opinion of the most esteemed writers on public law, to be 

 established by practical use." f 



There is no claim or pretense that the British authorities or 

 subjects ever occupied any of the territory now in dispute ex- 

 cept under the lease cited, or ever exercised or attempted to 

 exercise any acts of sovereignty over the strip or waters enclosed 

 by it. On the other hand, let us examine the acts of occupation 

 and sovereignty exercised by Russia and the United States. 

 First, we have seen that very soon after the treaty of 1825 the 

 Russian government published a map claiming the strip of ter- 

 ritory and all the interior waters of the sea enclosed by it. 

 Second, the Russian American Company established forts and 

 trading posts within the strip. Third, by virtue of the lease 

 cited, which was a recognized assertion of its sovereignty, it 

 temporarily transferred these forts and posts to the British com- 

 pany. Fourth, at the termination of the extended lease it re- 

 entered and took possession and remained in possession till the 

 cession of Alaska to the United States. Fifth, it received the 

 allegiance of the native Indians inhabiting the strip, and exer- 

 cised control and supervision over them. Sixth, immediately 

 after the cession in 1867 the Department of State of the United 



* U. S. Foreign Relations, 1878, pp. 339, 340. 

 t Fur Seal Papers, etc., vol. 4, p. 388. 



