local claims of both parties: it left to England the Upper Columbia, which she had first explored; it gave to the United States Clarke's and Lewis's Rivers, which they had first explored; and it divided between them the Lower Columbia and the estuary, including Astoria, where Gray, and Broughton, and Thomson, and Lewis had, all, partial claims of discovery and exploration. Nothing could at first sight appear more fair than such a division which reconciled and satisfied the local claims of the several parties-reserving to each the points where they could fairly allege any peculiar title. But with this the United States were dissatisfied. We believe that they already contemplated the production of the new claims based on the watercourse theory, and on the Transatlantic repudiation of the law of nations; but at first produced a more reasonable objection. The harbour of the mouth of the Columbia-highly as, in other parts of the argument, they affect to rate the importance of Gray's discovery -is of such difficult and dangerous access that its real importance is the internal river communication, and it has little or no value as a harbour; and as there is no harbour whatsoever to the southward, the American vessels would have no refuge in case of bad weather on any part of their own territory; they therefore insisted on carrying the line 49°, not only to Admiralty Inlet, which was reasonable, but across the inlet and the south part of Vancouver's Island to the ocean-offering, however, to render the Lower Columbia free to British trade. To this, on the other hand, Great Britain-admitting so far the doctrine of convenience-replied, that this would subject her to a greater inconvenience than what in the other case America could complain of; for that it would cut her off, not only from Admiralty Inlet-which she had discovered and surveyed and taken formal possession of, and even settled-but would cut her off from the Strait of Fuca, which she had also discovered, and from the most convenient outlet for the trade of Fraser's River and the great Archipelago lying behind Vancouver's Island, and would entail the additional anomaly of cutting off and giving to America a corner of Vancouver's Island itself. But she was not insensible to the reasons urged by the United States as to the want of a safe harbour. She therefore offered to them the peninsular district round Meares's Mount Olympus comprised between the ocean, Fuca's Straits, and Admiralty Inlet, by which they would have harbours at least as good as Great Britain herself. This proposition was so reasonable-it so fully satisfied all the principles that the United States had ever advanced-convenience and contiguity to the interior territories of either party-possession of the waters where there had been exclusive exploration community community of possession where there had been community of exploration-the site of Astoria and ports on Fuca's Straits, which compensated to both parties the insufficiency of the Columbian harbour; all these considerations, we say, constituted so reasonable an offer, that the United States could not otherwise reject it than by throwing aside all idea of common rights and equitable partition, and setting up a claim to the exclusive possession of the whole-though this claim of exclusive possession was directly at variance with all the principles of convenience, contiguity, discovery, exploration, &c., for which they had hitherto contended. We will not trust ourselves to say with what feelings we regard this claim to exclusive dominion, founded on that new and intolerable proposition that the United States have some peculiar right over the whole North American continent, which they will not submit to the control of any principles of that public law which has hitherto regulated and balanced the international interests of mankind. To that assumption-newalarming and fit only for barbarous times-Great Britain cannot with honour or safety, and therefore never will, submit— nor do we believe that any other European nation, however jealous they might be of us, would tolerate such a disruption of the ties of public equity and justice, without which there can be no peace among the strong and no security for the weak. But to the British proposition itself, we-if we may presume to mention our opinion-had from our very first knowledge of it, thought that an advantageous amendment might be made, as the insulation of a portion of the territory round Mount Olympus seems to us objectionable even on the principle of accommodation on which it was offered. Enclaves' of this sort are always inconvenient, and pregnant with quarrels; and with regard to national as well as to individual properties, everybody has been in modern times anxious to get rid of them. It is, we think, bad policy to sow such seeds of strife in that new soil. If that insulated portion of land should grow into consequence as it one day may, and a modern Boston or another New York grow up in one of its harbours, what would be its condition, with no land communication with its main territory, nor any water communication but the precarious entrance of the Columbia-would that be reasonable? It would also be liable to the same objection which we make to carrying the boundary of 49° across the corner of Vancouver's Island-that of separating by an ideal line a district naturally united. We are not insensible that the waiving our wishes for the right bank of the Columbia involves some sacrifice on our part; but we are, on the whole, persuaded that, considering-on the one hand 2 R 2 hand how very much the navigation of the Middle Columbia is interrupted by rapids and falls-the inconvenience and liability to collisions incident to portages-and the inaccessibility of the harbour for nine months of the year-and on the other hand, the convenience, not to say necessity, to the United States of a harbour communicating with their territory, and that Great Britain has so far admitted the weight of that consideration as to offer to cede the Olympian district-it seems, we say, on the whole, that the simplicity and probable practicability of the mode suggested by Mr. Dargan for settling so complicated and important a question overbalance the opposite considerations. We may regret the loss of the agricultural establishments on the Cowlitz, at Fort Vancouver, and in Puget's Sound; of which, however, the last only is, we believe, of any importance: as to the original object of the posts on the Lower Columbia-the fur trade-it is diminishing so rapidly that the loss will be inconsiderable; and we cannot doubt that our traders will find in Fraser's River and the extensive shores to be appropriated to them, various opportunities of internal communication where they will be safe from rivalry and interruption. But there is a third party, who has been hardly mentioned and less thought of, in all these negotiations and discussions, but of whom we cannot refrain from taking some notice—the rightful owners of the land,—the native Indians. It is painful to think of the violence and injustice which have pioneered colonization throughout the New World; and even in the mitigated form it has assumed in North America it is very repugnant to the feelings of natural justice. In North America the increase westward of the United States has been driving before it, or rather, in fact, exterminating the native population-not so much by violence (though that has not been spared) as by the introduction of disease and vice, and by the natural results of the agricultural occupation of the territory, which unfits it for the pursuits of savage life, and forces the daily dwindling tribes into the daily diminishing wilderness of the West. In British America the Natives are treated with more kindness and encouragement. The Hudson's Bay Company have been indulgent masters, as well, we hope, from natural humanity as in obedience to the injunctions of their charter; but there is a more practical reason why their rule should be more conservative of the rights of the Natives than that of the United States. The object of the latter is to occupy the soil, and therefore to dispossess the Indians; whereas the object of the British Company is the fur trade, to which the natives, in their original possessions and habits, are necessary auxiliaries. At the same time we are glad to be able to say, that while the Company Company are thus inclined, by interest as well as feeling, to cherish the peculiarities of the Indian race, they have not been negligent of their moral and social improvement; and we read with satisfaction that the natives under their rule are favourably distinguishable from their neighbours of the Russian or States' territories. The Indians in the Oregon district consist of some twenty nations or tribes, and their numbers are estimated at thirty thousand. It would, we fear, be thought a visionary crotchet to wish that the disputed territory-we mean south of the 49th parallel, and west of the Columbia-could have been allotted and recognised as an independent asylum for these interesting remains of the aboriginal lords of that wide world! They would there have constituted, as it were, a neutral power, and exhibited a tardy tribute paid by civilization to the long-neglected claims of humanity and justice. We admit that in the crisis at which matters have now arrived -perhaps at any time-this vision could hardly be realised; and that at all events we should not be justified in pressing an arrangement of that nature in opposition to the wishes of the United States; but at least it behoves us to see that those people who have been now living for forty years under our protection, shall not be wholly abandoned and left without resource against the plunder, expulsion, or extermination with which they are menaced. The British Government should at least give an example to that of the United States by providing within its appropriated boundary convenient territorial allotments for all the Indians who may be driven from their present seats by the effects of the political arrangements between the rival nations. It is due to justice and to humanity and even to policy-for these people are capable of becoming useful auxiliaries and good subjects. The settlers and missionaries have already, at several posts, turned the labour of the Natives to their own profit, and, in some instances, to higher purposes; and what we read in Mr. Nicolay's little volume, of the aptitude of these poor people for indigenous colonization is very gratifying, and pregnant with hope for the success of such a policy as we venture to recommend. There have been heretofore occasions, not a few, on which we have been able to advise our readers on authority higher than that of a mere literary fraternity-but it is needless to disclaim any ministerial influence or responsibility for our present opinions; and we therefore with the less reserve venture to express our hope that our Government may have proposed something equivalent to Mr. Dargan's scheme, as the basis of an arrangement of the whole difficulty, rational and equitable in itself, and which, being a new expedient, consistent at once with principles which Great Britain Britain can never abandon, and with offers which the United States have already repeatedly made, may be adopted by both parties, with, we believe, mutual advantage, and obviously without the slightest sacrifice of national honour. Of the success of such a proposition we should have no doubt whatsoever, but that it seems to us that the present cabinet of Washington, by the promulgation of a Transatlantic law of nations, seems determined to put an end to all negotiation, and to attempt to seize by violence what reason and justice would never give them. In negotiating this matter, however, we should recollect that every President of the Republic since this question has arisen, and most of the leading statesmen, had persuaded themselves that the right of the United States to the possession of the whole territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable. Mr. Polk has done so still more decidedly than his predecessors, and has publicly and solemnly proclaimed this conviction. The same declaration has been repeated in his official notes by the Secretary of State; and the principal speakers in Congress, in the interest of the President, all assert that they go for the whole of Oregon. The claim thus announced and supported is too flattering to national vanity and prejudice not to meet with a ready assent from the great body of the people, by whom no doubt this, however extravagant, belief in the justice of their pretensions is obstinately shared. This being the case, it is obvious that the concession of any portion of the territory south of 54° 40′ will be in their eyes a sacrifice of American rights, made with reluctance, and naturally regarded by a great portion of the public with strong dislike. We trust, however, that notwithstanding these exaggerated feelings, there is still a superiority of good sense and good faith in the people and in Congress that will prevent the extremities to which Mr. Polk's extravagant pretensionswhich we venture to say that Great Britain never can admit-would inevitably lead. The House of Representatives has indeed resolved by large majorities, and the Senate, we have no doubt, will concur, to authorise the Executive to notify to Great Britain the termination at the end of the year's notice of the convention of joint occupancy which has now existed for eight-and-twenty years -a period in itself long enough to create a title. But it is said, and we believe truly, that this resolution by no means indicates on the part of the majority of either body a sympathy with the extreme views and pretensions of the executive, but was prompted in a great measure by a desire to hasten the settlement of the question; and we should not be surprised if it should have that effect it will have, it is thought, the support of Mr. Webster and some other of the most respectable names in the Republic, : and |