378 TREATY BETWEEN THE U. STATES AND G. BRITAIN. [1842. 



rectors of the Hudson's Bay Company, who possessed more exact 

 information, on all subjects connected with North- West America, 

 than could be obtained from any other source. The British gov- 

 ernment and the Hudson's Bay Company have, indeed, always 

 acted in concert ; and the measures devised by them are carried 

 into execution immediately, without previous reference to the legis- 

 lature. Beyond the limits of the government offices, and of the 

 Hudson's Bay House, no one in England seems to have taken the 

 slightest interest in any thing relating to North- West America. 



In the spring of 1842, Lord Ashburton arrived at Washington, 

 as minister extraordinary from Great Britain, with instructions and 

 powers to settle certain questions of difference between the two 

 nations ; and it was, at first, generally supposed, in the United 

 States, and, indeed, in Great Britain, that the establishment of 

 boundaries on the Pacific side of America would be one of the 

 objects of his mission. A treaty was, however, concluded, in 

 August of that year, between him and Mr. Webster, the secretary 

 of state of the United States, in which all the undetermined parts 

 of the line separating the territories of the two powers, on the 

 Atlantic side of America, were defined and settled ; but no allu- 

 sion was made to any portion of the continent west of the Rocky 

 Mountains. Whether or not Lord Ashburton was empowered by 

 his government to treat for a settlement of the question at issue 

 respecting the latter territories, no means have yet been afforded for 

 learning. No mention of countries west of the Rocky Mountains 

 is to be found in the published correspondence relative to the nego- 

 tiation ; but the question was discussed by the plenipotentiaries, as 

 declared in the following passage of President Tyler's message to 

 Congress, at the opening of the session, on the 7th of December, 

 1842: "In advance of the acquisition of individual rights to 

 these lands, [west of the Rocky Mountains,] sound policy dictates 

 that every effort should be resorted to, by the two governments, to 

 settle their respective claims. It became evident, at an early hour 

 of the late negotiations, that any attempt, for the time being, satis- 

 factorily to determine those rights, would lead to a protracted 

 discussion, which might embrace in its failure other more pressing 

 matters ; and the executive did not regard it as proper to waive all 

 the advantages of an honorable adjustment of other difficulties, of 

 great magnitude and importance, because this, not so immediately 

 pressing, stood in the way. Although the difficulties referred to 

 may not, for several years to come, involve the peace of the two 



