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 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE

202

present interests of the two nations in the Oregon territory namely, of letting it alone for another half century at local least, or deciding the matter by arbitration before any interests have sprung up too powerful to be so disposed of. "But, since the Americans, and even the press of the United States, are determined that the question shall be allowed to since they have rejected the proposal for an rest no longer arbitration, and ostentatiously announce claims and measures utterly inconsistent with the system of joint occupation, or the that,

fit equitable recognition of any concurrent rights at all, it is that they be warned in the most explicit manner that their pretensions amount, if acted upon to the clearest causa belli which has ever yet arisen between Great Britain and the Amer-

ican Union."

Such was the view of the Times, and such was the

attitude

of the British press in general, although there were suggestions that the whole matter might still be arranged if the proper attitude on the part of the

American government could be

The more moderate papers went so far as to suggest modifications which might be made on each side to effect

restored.

the

a settlement, suggestions which were in the air on both sides of the Atlantic and which eventually found their way into the

London Examiner after setting it would be madness

treaty.

So

on both

sides claimed that

the

forth the claims for either party

maximum, hence the only question was what was minimum which would be accepted by each; forty-nine to

to claim its

the the

sea

with

all

Vancouver's Island for Great Britain,

it

15 The thought, was the basis for such a mutual surrender. same proposal was made by Senior in the Edinburgh Review, much to the disgust of the more radical prints. 16 The Examiner admitted that whatever policy Lord Aberdeen should adopt "The American his course would be attended with difficulty. negotiator will employ against him every sort of misrepresenta-

and facts for though the national law of the American courts and legal writers is admirable, that of their diplomatists, and indeed of diplomatists in general, is usually a tissue of sophistry and falsehood. We trust that the English tion of principle



15 25 April, 1845, quoted in Register, 14 June. liberally from those of the opposite side.

16

Of

July. 1845; Vol. 82:123-37.

Papers on both sides quoted