342 TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND GREAT BRITAIN. [1825. 



of fishing and trading with the natives of the country : " it being, 

 however, stipulated by the remaining fifth article, that spirituous 

 liquors, fire-arms, other arms, powder, and munitions of war, are 

 always excepted from this same commerce permitted by the fourth 

 article, and that, in case of contravention of this part of the agree- 

 ment, the nation whose citizens or subjects may have committed 

 the delinquency, shall alone have the right to punish them.* 



This convention does not appear to offer any grounds for dispute 

 as to the construction of its stipulations, but is, on the contrary, clear 

 and equally favorable to both nations. The rights of both parties to 

 navigate every part of the Pacific, and to trade with the natives of 

 any places on the coasts of that sea, not already occupied, are first 

 distinctly acknowledged ; after which it is agreed, in order to pre- 

 vent future difficulties, that each should submit to certain limitations 

 as to navigation, trade, and settlement, on the north-west coasts of 

 America, either perpetually or during a fixed period. Neither party 

 claimed, directly or by inference, the immediate sovereignty of any 

 spot on the American coasts not occupied by its citizens or sub- 

 jects, or acknowledged the right of the other to the possession of 

 any spot not so occupied ; the definitive regulation of limits being 

 deferred until the establishments and other interests of the two 

 nations in that quarter of the world should have acquired such a 

 development as to render more precise stipulations necessary. 



The Russian government, however, construed this convention as 

 giving to itself the absolute sovereignty of all the west cq/ists of 

 America north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, while deny- 

 ing any such right on the part of the United States to the coasts 

 extending southward from that line. In February, 1825, a treaty 

 was concluded between Russia and Great Britain, relative to North- 

 West America, containing provisions similar to those of the con- 

 vention between Russia and the United States, expressed in nearly 

 the same words, but also containing many other provisions, some 

 of which are directly at variance with the evident sense of the last- 

 mentioned agreement. Thus it is established, by the treaty, that 

 " the line of demarcation beiiveen the possessions of the high contract- 

 ing parties upon the coast of the continent, and the islands of 

 America to the north-west," shall be drawn from the southernmost 

 point of Prince of Wales's Island, in latitude of 54 degrees 40 



* This convention will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, 

 in the concluding part of this volume, under the letter K, No. 4. 



