1818.] BRITISH VIEWS OF NATIONAL FAITH. 313 



consider as sufficient, protests and exceptions made in that manner, 

 and brought forward long after, without acknowledgment of any 

 kind on the part of those to whom they are said to have been ad- 

 dressed. The only communication received by the American gov- 

 ernment, on the occasion of the restitution of Astoria, is explicit : 

 " We, the undersigned, do, in conformity to the first article of the 

 treaty of Ghent, restore to the government of the United States the 

 settlement of Fort George, on the Columbia River ; " and this direct 

 and unqualified recognition of the right of the United States cannot 

 be affected by subsequent communications to or from any persons. 



It may also be remarked, that although the British government, 

 in 1826, pronounced as sufficient a reservation contained in a secret 

 despatch from one of its own ministers to one of its own agents, and 

 withheld from the other party interested in the matter, yet, in 1834, 

 the same government pronounced the reservation contained in the 

 Declaration publicly presented by the Spanish ambassador at Lon- 

 don, in 1771, on the conclusion of the dispute respecting the Falk- 

 land Islands, " not to possess any substantial weight," * inasmuch as 

 it had not been noticed in the Acceptance presented by the British 

 government in return. The circumstances connected with the last- 

 mentioned transaction have been already so fully exposed, that it 

 is unnecessary to repeat them here. 



Immediately after the conclusion of the surrender of Astoria, 

 Mr. Keith presented to Mr. Prevost a note containing inquiries — 

 whether or not the government of the United States would insist 

 upon the abandonment of the post by the North- West Company,-)- 

 before the final decision of the question as to the right of sove- 

 reignty over the country ; and whether, in the event of such a 



* Letter from Viscount Palmerston to Senor Moreno, envoy of Buenos Ayres 

 at London, dated January 8th, 1834. See the note in p. Ill, containing a sketch of 

 the circumstances of the dispute respecting the Falkland Islands. 



t The buildings, and, indeed, the whole establishment at Astoria, had been consid- 

 erably increased, since it came into the hands of the North- West Company. Accord 

 ing to the plan and description of the place sent by Mr. Prevost to Washington, the 

 factory consisted, in 1818, of a stockade made of pine logs, twelve feet in length 

 above the ground, enclosing a parallelogram of one hundred and fifty by two hundred 

 and fifty feet, extending in its greatest length from north-west to south-east, and 

 defended by bastions or towers at two opposite angles. Within this enclosure were 

 all the buildings of the establishment, such as dwelling-houses, magazines, store- 

 houses, mechanics' shops, &c. The artillery were two heavy eighteen-pounders, 

 six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two six-pound cohorns, and seven 

 swivels, all mounted. The number of persons attached to the place, besides a few 

 women and children, was sixty-five, of whom twenty-three were whites, twenty-six 

 Sandwich Islanders, (or Kanakis, as they are generally called in the Pacific,) and 

 the remainder persons of mixed blood, from Canada. 



40 



