464 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [H. 



Britain, on the waters of Hudson's Bay, to the territory bordering on that 

 ocean. Above all, they have been earnestly desirous to preserve and 

 cherish, not only the peaceful, but the friendly relations, which happily 

 subsist between the two countries. And, with that object in view, their 

 offer of a permanent line of demarkation has been made, under a perfect 

 conviction that it was attended with the sacrifice of a portion of what they 

 might justly claim. 



Viewed as a matter of mutual convenience, and with equal desire, on 

 both sides, to avert, by a definitive line of delimitation, any possible cause 

 of collision in that quarter, every consideration connected with the sub- 

 ject may be allowed its due weight. 



If the present state of occupancy is urged, on the part of Great 

 Britain, the probability of the manner in which the territory west of the 

 Rocky Mountains must be settled, belongs also essentially to the subject. 

 Under whatever nominal sovereignty that country may be placed, and 

 whatever its ultimate destinies may be, it is nearly reduced to a certainty, 

 that it will be almost exclusively peopled by the surplus population of 

 the United States. The distance from Great Britain, and the expense in- 

 cident to emigration, forbid the expectation of any being practicable, 

 from that quarter, but on a comparatively small scale. Allowing the rate 

 of increase to be the same in the United States, and in the North Ameri- 

 can British possessions, the difference in the actual population of both is 

 such, that the progressive rate which would, within forty years, add three 

 millions to these, would, within the same time, give a positive increase of 

 more than twenty millions to the United States. And if circumstances, 

 arising from localities and habits, have given superior facilities to British 

 subjects, of extending their commerce with the natives, and to that expan- 

 sion which has the appearance, and the appearance only, of occupancy, — 

 the slower but sure progress and extension of an agricultural population, 

 will be regulated by distance, by natural obstacles, and by its own amount. 

 The primitive right of acquiring property and sovereignty, by occupancy 

 alone, admitting it to be unlimited in theory, cannot extend beyond the 

 capacity of occupying and cultivating the soil. 



It may also be observed, that, in reality, there were but three na- 

 tions which had both the right and the power to colonize the territory 

 in question — Great Britain, the United States, and Spain, or now the 

 new American states. These are now excluded, in consequence of the 

 treaty of 1819. The United States, who have purchased their right for a 

 valuable consideration, stand now in their place, and, on that ground, in 

 the view entertained of the subject by the British government, are, on a 

 final partition of the country, fairly entitled to two shares. 



Under all the circumstances of the case, as stated on both sides, the 

 United States offer a line, which leaves to Great Britain by far the best 

 portion of the fur trade, — the only object, at this time, of the pursuits of 

 her subjects in that quarter, — and a much greater than her proportionate 

 share of the country, with a view to its permanent settlement, if the rela- 

 tive geographical situation, and means of colonizing, of both parties are 

 taken into consideration. From the 42d degree of north latitude to 

 the Observatory Inlet, in about 55° 30', there is a front on the Pacific 

 of almost fourteen degrees of latitude, which the 49th parallel divides 

 into two nearly equal parts. The mouth of the Columbia River, if 



