CHAPTER XVI.

I HAVE now laid before the public the evidence I have been able to collect upon the San Juan water boundary. By the information which I have reproduced, the public in this country are placed on an equal footing with the people of the United States, and will be able to take part in and form their own opinions upon any discussions which may arise with reference to that boundary. The time has passed when it was considered wise and politic to keep the public mind in ignorance upon imperial questions. The people should know "the whole truth," as well as "nothing but the truth," and I believe that the greater the intricacy, the greater the delicacy of a question arising between us and another power, the more important is it that the public mind should be put in possession of the facts connected therewith. All the care and skill of diplomacy are thrown away, if the minds of nations are kept asunder by an imperfect appreciation of the questions at issue between them. From the correspondence which has been printed it will have been seen that I have not over estimated the importance of the subject, or the interest which the controversy excites in the United States and in our American possessions. If Great Britain retains the Island of San Juan and the smaller

islands of the archipelago lying west of the compromise channel proposed by Lord Russell, together with Patos Island and the Sucia group, she will preserve her power upon the Pacific, and will not in any way interfere with or menace the harbours or seas which appertain to the United States.

If, on the other hand, these islands should become United States territory, the highway from the British possessions on the mainland will be commanded by and be at the mercy of that power, which will gain no other advantage by such possession, except that derived from the ownership of a few islands, the largest of which is some fifty-four square miles in extent.

It is impossible to believe that the United States would have so persistently advanced their alleged claims to the Haro Archipelago, unless influenced by some ulterior motives; as for instance, by the wish to destroy our existence as a power on the Pacific.

It may be replied that the treaty of June, 1846, provides that the whole of the channel and straits between the continent and Vancouver's Island shall be free and open to both parties, but according to American statesmen that proviso would be annulled by a war between the two countries.

In the course of the Oregon controversy Mr. Buchanan(1) (subsequently President of the United States) declared that "the general rule of national law is that war terminates all subsisting treaties between

(1) Correspondence relative to the negotiation of disputed rights to the Oregon Territory, presented to both Houses of Parliament, &c. (1846), p. 36.

the belligerent powers," and he based this dictum on the practice of Great Britain herself. At the time when the proviso should be in force, it would, on this view, become ipso facto void. The straits leading from the Pacific to the extreme north of Queen Charlotte Sound would in such case be in fact a "mare clausum," so far as Great Britain is concerned.

Such a condition of affairs must inevitably force British Columbia into the United States federation; and the valuable district of the Saskatchewan, which has been described by Hinde, Palliser, Dr. Rae, and by Dr. Cheadle and myself, must, ex necessitati rei, follow the fortunes of British Columbia. Canada, excluded from the Pacific, and shut in on two sides by United States territory, must eventually follow the

same course.

I have lately heard from Vancouver's Island that Mr. Seward has recently landed there on his way to and from Alaska. He openly, I am informed, expressed his belief that not only Vancouver's Island, but also British Columbia, would, ere long, become part of the Union. I may add that General Thomas, United States army, in his official report upon Alaska, states that its only value is to be found in the fact that its possession tends to hasten the annexation of the above-mentioned territories to the United States.

“ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ εὐθέως το τέλος.”

PRINTED BY CASSELL, PETTER, AND GALPIN, BELLE SAUVAGE WORKS, LONDON, E.C.

The North-West Passage by Land.

By VISCOUNT MILTON, M.P., F.R.G.S., F.G.S., &c., and W. B. CHEADLE, B.A., M.D. Cantab., F.R.G.S. 8vo, cloth, with Twenty-two Full Page Illustrations and Two Maps. Sixth Edition, 21s. Ditto, ditto, Smaller Edition, complete, with Eight Illustrations, crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.

CASSELL, PETTER, AND GALPIN, LA BELLE SAUVAGE YARD, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.

Preparing for Publication, and will be shortly ready.

Topographical Section of the Continent of North America.

Showing the Boundary Line between the British Possessions and the United States Territories, the Route of Viscount Milton and Dr. Cheadle across the Continent; also a Proposed Line of Railway from Ottawa to New Westminster and Bute Inlet, with the Line of the Central and Union Pacific Railways, from Omaha to San Francisco, as executed by the Citizens of the United States; together with Comparative Sections of these Lines as far as surveyed. Compiled from the most Authentic Documents extant, as well as from the recent Surveys of Mr. Waddington in British Columbia, and Mr. Dawson in Canada. Drawn under the Superintendence of VISCOUNT MILTON, by W. E. GAINE, Topographical Engineer.