boundary line should run from the Gulf of Georgia to the Straits of Fuca. The principal arguments and evidence on both sides of the question are referred to in the preceding pages. The correspondence embodying the whole discussion will show that the disagreement did not result from any inherent difficulty in the question, but from the assumption on the part of the British commissioner of an infallible interpretation of the treaty, by refusing to admit contemporaneous evidence of the intentions either of his own Government or that of the United States to have any weight with him.

"The contemporaneous evidence which I produced and exhibited to him to show the fallacy of his interpretation of the treaty and the correctness of mine, to say the least, proved his interpretation to be a studied misconstruction of the word 'southerly,' (so as to exclude the Canal de Haro from the terms of the treaty,) and a disingenuous inversion of the real meaning of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island,' to secure the group of islands between the Canal de Haro and Rosario Straits to the British Government.

"Up to the period of the meeting of the joint commission, the Canal de Haro and Rosario Straits were the only channels that had ever been mentioned in connection with the question of the boundary; but before I left Washington for this coast, in the spring of 1857, in an interview I had with Lord Napier, I saw an indication that another channel, in the shape of an ' amicable compromise,' was likely to be proposed before the matter was settled. I was, therefore, not altogether unprepared, however much reason I might have had to be surprised, when Captain Prevost, having failed to convince me of the infallibility of his interpretation of the treaty and the utter worthlessness of my own (wishing it at the same time to be distinctly understood' that he was 'induced thereto by no change of opinion on any one point') announced that he conceived it had become our positive, as well as our conscientious duty, to endeavour, in a conciliatory spirit and by mutual concession, to settle the matter.' Having seen 'a way

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by which he could, in part, meet my views without any gross violation of the terms of the treaty,' he proposed that we should consider the whole space between the continent and Vancouver's Island as one channel,' and run the line through the "middle" of it, in so far as islands will permit.' In submitting the proposition he says: 'I make the present offer without committing either my Government or myself, or any any other person, to a renewal of it at any subsequent period, should it not now be accepted.' It is unnecessary to say that I declined entertaining such a proposition. I have reason to believe that the offer, in some form or other, will be renewed by the British Government, notwithstanding the threatened penalty in the event of a non-compliance on my part. It is not at all improbable that a new reading of the treaty will be resorted to, by which the whole space between the continent and Vancouver's Island will be interpreted to be the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island.'

"If the British Government should propose to the United States such a reading of the treaty, it would be with the view of securing possession of the island of San Juan, and of destroying the unity of the group of islands so important to the United States in a military point of view. If, however, the 'generally-admitted principle' in regard to the main channel be adhered to, the line would still run, as heretofore claimed by the United States, through the Gulf of Georgia and Canal de Haro, the two channels which, in connection, constitute the main channel between the forty-ninth parallel and the Straits of Fuca, and on such a condition there might appear to be no objection to adopting the whole space between the conti. nent and Vancouver's Island as the channel' of the treaty.

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"But there is another view of the question to be taken into consideration before adopting this reading of the treaty. Even though the line may be carried through the middle of the Gulf of Georgia and Canal de Haro, whether the whole space or a particular channel be considered the channel' of the treaty, there may be some difference in the effect of the proviso to the first article, according to the interpretation to be

placed upon the channel.' The proviso declares that the navigation of the whole of the said channel and straits south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude remain free and open to both parties.'

"Had Rosario Straits been agreed to by the United States, and adopted as the channel' of the treaty, there can be no doubt that the British Government would have so construed the proviso as to confine the navigation of American vessels to that particular channel; and a similar construction of the proviso I presume will be applied by the United States to British. vessels, if the Canal de Haro be adopted as the channel.'

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"If, however, the whole space between the continent and Vancouver's Island be considered the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island,' under the proviso the navigation of the whole of its waters will be 'free and open to both parties.' And, according to the views of the British Government, as recently indicated by the British commissioner at a meeting of the joint commission, every harbour, cove, and inlet on the coutinental side of the channel' and straits may be claimed as part of the channel,' and consequently ‘free and open to both parties.'

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"I transmit herewith a copy of the record of the proceedings of the meeting referred to, which was convened for the purpose of definitively fixing and marking, by suitable monuments, certain important points, therein specified, at and near the western terminus of the boundary line on the continent, viz. : (')—

"1st. The point where the forty-ninth parallel strikes the western coast of the continent or the eastern shore of the Gulf of Georgia, on the small peninsula of Point Roberts, a few miles south of Fraser's River.

"2d. The point where the forty-ninth parallel strikes the eastern shore of Point Roberts or western shore of Simiahmoo Bay, about three miles east of the first point.

"3d. The point where the forty-ninth parallel strikes the

(1) Ante pp. 154, 155.

eastern shore of Simiahmoo Bay, fifteen miles east of the first point.

"Captain Prevost expressed his readiness to adopt the points as determined by the astronomers of the joint commission; but when I proposed to mark the first point as the initial point of the land and water boundary, it being the common point where the forty-ninth parallel intersects the western coast of the continent and the eastern shore of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, Captain Prevost 'declined entering into any discussion as to which was or was not the initial point,' on the ground, as he stated verbally, that the whole question of the channel was now in the hands of his Government. Notwithstanding the reserve of Captain Prevost, enough transpired at the meeting to disclose the pretence of the British Government that the eastern shore of Simiahmoo Bay, on the forty-ninth parallel-entirely within the continent, and fifteen miles from its western coast-is the eastern shore of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island.' While Captain Prevost's refusal to agree to an initial point hinged upon the question of 'the channel,' I could not agree to any joint determination of the points in question.

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"The principal motive of the British Government in attempting to push the initial point of the water boundary fifteen miles to the eastward of its true position is, I presume, to bring the middle of the channel' (the western termination of the boundary line on the forty-ninth parallel, and its deflection, thence southerly' down the channel) as far from Vancouver's Island as possible, in the event of their being successful in obtaining the consent of the United States to consider the whole space between it and the continent as the channel of the treaty. The middle of the channel in such case would be brought at the forty-ninth parallel, some miles nearer the continent. It is more than probable, however, that they are not uninfluenced by the increased privileges which they would acquire under the proviso by this wide construction of the channel' at the forty-ninth parallel.

"Although there is no special reference in my instructions to the proviso of the first article, nor has it any apparent connection with the true determination of the boundary line, yet, as under the act of Congress authorising the organisation of the present commission, I am commissioned to carry into effect the first article of the treaty of June, 1846,' I deem it my duty to keep its terms in view in consideration of its intimate connection with the subject of the channel' in all its bearings, and of its susceptibility to a latitudinous construction by the British Government, always on the alert to take advantage of the vagueness or generality of the terms of a treaty.

"If the views of the British Government in relation to the extent of the channel,' as developed in regard to it at this parallel, should be considered as tenable and be adopted by the United States, as far as I can judge all the inland waters between the continent and Vancouver's Island, south of the forty-ninth parallel, including all their arms and branches as far south as Puget Sound, would be free and open to the navigation of British vessels. Of course the harbours on Vancouver's Island (few in number) would be equally open to the navigation of American vessels.

"Whether such is the object the British Government have in view in the point they are disposed to make in regard to Simiahmoo Bay, I am unable to say; but from the caution manifested by the United States in the correspondence between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. McLane, on the subject of free and open ports,' I do not think such a liberal interchange of ports would be in accordance with their views and policy. The debate between yourself and Mr. Benton on this very proviso indicates your apprehensions that Great Britain would construe it so as to exclude American vessels from the free and open navigation of the waters north of the parallel, so as to prevent free egress and ingress to and from the ocean in that direction. I have not a copy of your remarks at present with me, and do not recollect how far they touched upon any other question than that great right of navigating throughout its whole extent a public channel like that between the continent and Vancouver's Island.