•The rights of Great Britain are recorded and defined in the convention of 1790. They embrace the right to navigate the waters of those countries, to settle in and over any part of them, and to trade with the inhabitants and occupiers of the same. These rights have been peaceably exercised ever since the date of that convention; that is for a period of nearly forty years. Under that convention, valuable British interests have grown up in those countries. It is admitted that the United States possess the same rights, although they have been exercised by them only in a single instance, and have not, since the year 1813, been exercised at all; but beyond these rights they possess none.

"In the interior of the territory in question, the subjects of Great Britain have had, for many years, numerous settlements and trading posts; several of these posts are on the tributary waters of Columbia; several upon the Columbia itself; some to the northward, and others to the southward of that river; and they navigate the Columbia as the sole channel for the conveyance of their produce to the British stations nearest to the sea, and for its shipment thence to Great Britain; it is also by the Columbia and its tributary streams that these posts and settlements receive their annual supplies from Great Britain.

"To the interests and establishments which British industry and enterprise have created Great Britain owes protection; that protection will be given, both as regards settlement and freedom of trade and navigation, with every intention not to infringe the co-ordinate rights of the United States, it being the desire of the British Government, so long as the joint occupancy continues, to regulate its own obligations by the same rules which govern the obligations of every other occupying party."

No definite settlement of the controversy was arrived at in that year, but a convention was concluded between the two powers, which was in the terms following:

"Art. 1. All the provisions of the third article (1) of the convention concluded between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on the 20th of October, 1818, shall be, and they are, hereby further indefinitely extended and continued in force, in the same manner as if all the provisions of the said Article were herein specifically recited.

"Art. 2. It shall be competent, however, to either of the contracting parties, in case either should think fit at any time. after the 20th October, 1828, on giving due notice of twelve months to the other contracting party, to annul and abrogate this convention; and it shall, in such case, be accordingly entirely anulled and abrogated after the expiration of the said term of notice.

"Art. 3. Nothing contained in this convention, or in the third article of the convention of the 20th of October, 1818, hereby continued in force, shall be construed to impair, or in any manner affect, the claims which either of the contracting parties may have to any part of the country westward of the Stony or Rocky Mountains."

From the foregoing discussions and treaties it is manifest, that Great Britain claimed an exclusive right to what is termed the Hudson's Bay Territory, north of the 49th parallel of north latitude, and claimed also a right of joint occupancy, in common with other states, in respect of the territory lying between the 49th and 42nd parallels. When, therefore, in the interests of peace, she surrendered her rights to the last-mentioned territory by the treaty about to be described, she must be taken to have surrendered so much only of those rights as is defined by that treaty. contended, on the part of the United

And if it is now

States, that Great

Britain ought to have surrendered, and intended to

(1) Ante, p. 35.

surrender, certain other rights which she possesses (as, for instance, to the islands lying off the coast), the obvious answer is that, inasmuch as she did not specifically surrender those rights under the last-mentioned treaty, it is too late to argue as to what ought to have been, or what was intended to have been further provided thereunder.

To sum up this chapter, Great Britain formerly claimed a right of joint occupancy, in common with other states, in respect of the territory lying between the 42nd and 49th parallels, and the islands adjacent thereto it remains to be seen how those rights were affected by the treaty about to be described.

:

CHAPTER V.

SUBSEQUENT to the passing of the last mentioned convention, new discussions were raised between the Governments of Great Britain and of the United States, (1) and as a result thereof a treaty was concluded between them on the 15th June, 1846.

The 1st article provided as follows: (2)—

"From the point on the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, where the boundary laid down in existing treaties and conventions between the United States and Great Britain terminates, the line of boundary between the territories of the United States and those of Her Britannic Majesty shall be continued westward along the said forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, and thence southerly, through the middle of the said channel, and of Fucas Straits, to the Pacific Ocean. Provided, however, 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."

The second article provided for the free navigation of the Columbia River by the Hudson's Bay Company, and the British subjects trading with them, from the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to the ocean.

The third article provided that the possessory

(1) The correspondence between the two Governments will be found in a Blue Book of the year 1846, entitled, "Correspondence relative, &c., to the Oregon Territory."

(2) American State Papers, p. 2.

rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and all other British subjects, to the territory south of the said forty-ninth parallel, should be respected.

The circumstances, under which this treaty was made and signed, are explained in a memorandum subsequently drawn up by Sir Richard Pakenham, the negotiator thereof on the part of Great Britain, as follows:

"I have examined the papers put into my hands by Mr. Hammond, relating to the line of boundary to be established between the British and United States possessions on the north-west coast of America, and I have endeavoured to call to mind any circumstance which might have occurred at the time when the Oregon treaty was concluded (15th June, 1846) of a nature either to strengthen or invalidate the pretension, now put forward by the United States Commissioner, to the effect that the boundary contemplated by the treaty would be a line passing down the middle of the channel, called Canal de Haro, and not, as suggested on the part of Great Britain, along the middle of the channel called Vancouver's or Rosario Strait, neither of which two lines could, as I conceive, exactly fulfil the conditions of the treaty which, according to their literal tenor, would require the line to be traced along the middle of the channel (meaning, I presume, the whole intervening space) which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island. And I think I can safely assert that the treaty of 15th June, 1846, was signed and ratified without any intimation to us whatever, on the part of the United States Government, as to the particular direction to be given to the line of boundary contemplated by Article 1 of that treaty.

"All we knew about it was that it was to run through the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island, and thence southerly through the middle of the said channel, and of Fuca Strait to the Pacific Ocean.'