been because the President, in view of his own strong convictions on the subject, still entertains the hope that the treaty itself may be found sufficient for the parties to it, and that there may be no necessity, therefore, for seeking a line outside of it. You will present these views to Her Majesty's Government in that same conciliatory spirit which in the despatch of Lord John Russell is urged upon Lord Lyons, and you will enforce them with such appropriate arguments as may occur to you, and you may find it suitable and convenient to present. "You will also read this despatch to Lord John Russell, and leave with him a copy of it.

"I am, sir, your obedient servant, "George M. Dallas, Esq., &c. &c. &c."

"LEWIS CASS.

This despatch was shown to Lord Russell by Mr. Dallas, and the former replied by a letter to Lord Lyons :(1)

66

'Foreign Office, November 29, 1859.

"MY LORD,—I have received from Mr. Dallas a note from General Cass to him, dated the 20th ultimo, on the subject of the disputed territory of San Juan.

"That despatch has been the subject of serious consideration by Her Majesty's Government, and I hope, in the course of a week or ten days, to be able to send you an answer to it.

"In the meantime I wish you to remove, if possible, an unfavourable impression from the President's mind with respect to a declaration contained in my despatch of the 24th of August.

"That declaration, which was to the effect that no settlement of the question will be accepted by Her Majesty's Government which does not provide for the island of San Juan being reserved to the British Crown,' appears to have given rise to some misconception.

"When the meaning of a treaty is, in the opinion of one (1) American State Papers, p. 241.

of the parties, clearly in favour of the interpretation it has adopted, but the interests at stake are unimportant, the point in dispute may be willingly yielded for the sake of peace and good neighbourhood. But when the meaning is in the opinion of one of the parties clearly in their favour, and the interests at stake are at the same time highly important, a concession which would involve both an evident right and a valuable interest, can hardly be expected.

"Such was the sense in which I wrote that we could not accept a settlement which would deprive the British Crown of the island of San Juan. The right to the sovereignty of that island is, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, evident on the face of the treaty; the importance of that island to the security of Her Majesty's possessions in Vancouver's Island and British Columbia is as well known to the citizens of the United States as to the Queen's subjects in North America.

"You will assure General Cass that if, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, the United States could rightfully claim the island of San Juan, Her Majesty would be advised to surrender it, however great, in our eyes, the importance of the position which might thus be yielded.

"Or if the importance of the island, in our eyes, were trifling, although our right was, in our opinion, perfectly clear, we should be disposed to consider the matter with a view to remove every source of difference with the United States in which great interests were not involved.

"Further than this Her Majesty's Government can hardly be expected to go. It is in this spirit that I shall address you, as I have already intimated, upon the whole subject in dispute, and I hope to do so very shortly.

"P.S.-You will read this despatch to General Cass, and

will leave with him a copy of it.

"Lord Lyons, &c. &c."

"J. R.

This letter was followed by a long despatch from

Lord Russell to Lord Lyons, in which he reviewed at length the whole subject, in reply to the despatch of Mr. Cass :(1)—

"Foreign Office, December 16, 1859.

"MY LORD,- Mr. Dallas communicated to me on the 12th ultimo the despatch from General Cass, of which I enclose a copy, in reply to the communication which, by my despatch No. 42, of the 24th of August, you were directed to make to the Government of the United States, on the subject of the water boundary between Her Majesty's possessions and those of the United States, under the treaty of 1846.

66

Although Her Majesty's Government cannot concur in the conclusions at which General Cass has arrived, they receive with satisfaction the assurance that the Government of the United States reciprocate their desire that this question may be discussed between the two Governments in a friendly spirit.

"My instruction of the 24th of August, as your lordship is aware, was sent off from this country many days before the intelligence of General Harney's proceedings had reached Her Majesty's Government; the proposal, therefore, which it contained was not made, as General Cass seems to think, in view of the seizure of San Juan by United States troops. So far was this from being the case that I cannot help saying that if that instruction had not been already on its way to Washington when the news of General Harney's aggression became known in this country, it would have been impossible for Her Majesty's Government to have acted upon their intention to propose a friendly compromise of the question in dispute, until they had learned that General Harney's proceedings had not been approved, and that matters had been restored to their former footing.

"My despatch, however, was already, or shortly afterwards, in your lordship's hands, and, under the circumstances, you acted judiciously in at once communicating its contents to the

(1) American State Papers, p. 242.

United States Government. On the other hand, the explanations which that Government has since given, and the instructions furnished to General Scott, have relieved Her Majesty's Government from all further difficulty as to pursuing this negotiation.

"I have already, in my despatch No. 114, of the 29th ultimo, instructed you to explain to the United States Government the sense in which I had stated that no settlement of the question will be accepted by Her Majesty's Government which does not provide for the island of San Juan being reserved to the British Crown.'

"Your lordship is aware that the question in dispute was not restricted to the island of San Juan only. The Commissioners, indeed, seem to have been agreed as to the general direction which the boundary line, running westwards from the continent, should follow on reaching the centre of the Gulf of Georgia; but as to the particular course which it should take in order to arrive at the Straits of Fuca, the divergence of opinion was extreme. Captain Prevost considered that the line should be continued down the Rosario Strait. Mr. Campbell held that it should be run through the Haro Channel. contest was not, therefore, a contest for the island of San Juan only, but it also embraced the important islands of Lopez and Orcas, and the cluster of smaller islands in their immediate neighbourhood. In short, the area in dispute was the whole archipelago lying between Rosario Strait and the Haro Channel.

The

"In pointing out, therefore, to your lordship that in whatever manner the question was ultimately settled, Her Majesty's Government could not yield the island of San Juan, Her Majesty's Government were, by implication, abandoning a large part of the territory they had claimed, and were merely insisting on the retention of an island, which, from the peculiarity of its situation, it was impossible for Her Majesty's Government to cede without compromising interests of the gravest importance.

"The Government of the United States further takes

exception to the tenor of the instructions given to the British Commissioner, as limiting the free exercise of his judgment in regard to the island of San Juan.

"Her Majesty's Government cannot admit that a Government is precluded from laying down rules for the guidance of its Commissioner, or from restricting his discretionary power, within certain bounds; but the fact is, that, by the instructions with which Captain Prevost was furnished, he was authorised, in case he should be of opinion that the claims of Her Majesty's Government to consider the Rosario Strait as the channel of the treaty could not be sustained, to adopt any other intermediate channel on which he and the United States Commissioner might agree.

"The Government of the United States animadverts on the contingency of a disagreement between the Commissioners having been contemplated by those instructions, and alludes to Captain Prevost having been authorised to propose the very compromise which you were instructed, by my despatch No. 42, of the 24th of August, to offer.

"But it surely is not unreasonable in entering into a negotiation to contemplate the possibility of failure, and to provide for such a contingency by directing, in that case, a compromise to be proposed; and it appears to Her Majesty's Government that no other inference can fairly be drawn from this circumstance, than that the British Government were always ready, with a view to a good understanding with that of the United States, to waive their extreme claim, and to agree to divide between the two states the islands over which they severally claimed exclusive sovereignty.

"I now pass to a consideration of the main portion of General Cass's note. There are three points of importance which the Secretary of State relies upon in support of the United States claim :—

"1. That the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude was fixed by common consent as the boundary between the respective possessions of the two countries in that region.