mitting for the opinion of that body the draught of a convention for the settlement of the Oregon question, which I was instructed by your lordship's dispatch, No. 19, of the 18th of May, to propose for the acceptance of the United States.

After a few hours' deliberation on each of the three days, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the Senate, by a majority of thirty-eight votes to twelve, adopted yesterday evening a resolution advising the President to accept the terms proposed by Her Majesty's government. The President did not hesitate to act on this advice, and Mr. Buchanan accordingly sent for me this morning, and informed me that the conditions offered by Her Majesty's government were accepted by the Government of the United States, without the addition or alteration of a single word.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

The Right Hon. the EARL OF Aberdeen, K. T., &c.

R. PAKENHAM.

Sir Robert Peel

of dissension be

America at an end.

and

Thus, sir, the governments of two great nations, impelled, I believe, by the public opinion of each country in favor of peaceby that opinion which ought to guide and influence states- declares every cause men-have, by moderation, by mutual compromise, averted tween Britain the dreadful calamity of war between two nations of kindred origin and common language, the breaking out of which might have involved the civilized world in general conflict. A single year, perhaps a single month, of such a war would have been more costly than the value of the whole territory that was the object of dispute. But this evil has been averted consistently with perfect honor on the part of the American Government, and on the part of those who have at length closed, I trust, every cause of dissension between the two countries. Sir, I do cordially rejoice that, in surrendering [55] power at the feet of a majority of this House, I have the *opportunity of giving them the official assurance that every cause of quarrel with that great country on the other side of the Atlantic is amicably terminated.

No. 47.

Mr. McLane to Lord Palmerston.

JULY 13, 1846.

The American

President regards the

treaty of June, 1846, as establishing amity.

The treaty, as concluded and ratified by the President, appearing to be in all in respects identical with the project admitted of Her Majesty's Government, the ratification on the part of Her Majesty may be anticipated as not likely to occasion any hesitation; and the undersigned has been instructed to express a desire, on the part of the President, that he should be able, before the adjournment of Congress, to acquaint that body with the final consummation of an act which, he cherishes the hope, may be regarded as establishing the foundation of a cordial and lasting amity between the two countries.

38 HARLEY STREET, July 13, 1846.

*

**

LOUIS MCLANE.

#

No. 48.

Extract from Exploration du territoire de l'Orégon, etc., exécutée pendant les années 1840, 1841, et 1842, par M. Duflot de Mofras, attaché à la légation de France à Mexique; ouvrage publié par ordre du roi, sous les auspices de M. le Maréchal Soult, Duc de Dalmatie, president du conseil, et de M. le ministre des affaires etrangères. Paris, 1844. Tome II, p. 135.

Mofras describes

as the best.

Dans l'espace qui s'étend de la terre ferme jusqu'à la partie est de la grande île de Quadra, il existe une foule de petites îles qui, the channel of Haro malgré les abris sûrs qu'elles offrent aux navires, présentent à la navigation de grandes difficultiés. Le passage le plus facile est par le Canal de Haro, entre l'ile de Quadra et Van Couver et celle de San Juan.

Paley's Works, edition of 1825, vol. iv, page 85.

II. In what sense promises are to be interpreted.

Ambiguity no e

Where the terms of promise admit of more senses than cape from the proper one, the promise is to be performed "in that sense in which sense of a promise. the promiser apprehended at the time that the promisee

received it."

This will not differ from the actual intention of the promiser, where the promise is given without collusion or reserve; but we put the rule in the above form, to exclude evasion in cases in which the popular meaning of a phrase, and the strict grammatical signification of the words, differ; or, in general, wherever the promiser attempts to make his escape through some ambiguity in the expressions which he used.

*

*

*

*

No. 50.

Secretary Monroe to the American commissioners for treating for peace with Great Britain.

1814 to yield nothing

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, March 22, 1814. GENTLEMEN: Should a treaty be concluded with Great Britain, and American commis a reciprocal restitution of territory be agreed on, you will sioners instructed in have it in recollection that the United States had in their south of 49. possession, at the commencement of the war, a post at the mouth of the river Columbia, which commanded the river, which ought to be comprised in the stipulation, should the possession have been wrested from us during the war. On no pretext can the British government set up a claim to territory south of the northern boundary of the United States. It is not believed that they have any claim whatever to territory on the Pacific Ocean. You will, however, be careful, should a definition of boundary be attempted, not to countenance, in any manner, or in any quarter, a pretension in the British government to territory south of that line.

JAMES MONROE.

II.

CASE

OF THE

GOVERNMENT OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY,

SUBMITTED TO THE

ARBITRATION AND AWARD

OF,

HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY,

IN ACCORDANCE WITH

ARTICLE XXXIV OF THE TREATY BETWEEN GREAT
BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
SIGNED AT WASHINGTON, MAY 8, 1871.

Articles XXXIV to XLII of the treaty between Great Britain and the United
States of America, signed at Washington on May 8, 1871....

No. II.

Copy of treaty between Great Britain and the United States of America, signed at Washington on June 15, 1846..

No. III.

A narrative of the passage of His Britannic Majesty's ships Discovery and Chatham, under the command of Captain Vancouver, through the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and through the channel known at the present day as the Rosario Strait, to Birch Bay, situated in the ancient Gulf of Georgia, S. 23 W. and N. 72 W. (Extracted from vol. i of "Captain Vancouver's Voyages," published in 1798)..

No. IV.

A narrative of the voyages made by the Spanish vessels Sutil and Mexicana, in the year 1792, to explore the Straits of Fuca. (Extracted from the account of the voyage, published at Madrid in 1802)

41 88

No. V.

Declarations of W. H. McNeill, W. Mitchell, Captain Swanson, Messrs. Anderson, H. G. Lewis, and Finlayson, master mariners, &c., who have commanded or are in command of vessels navigating the straits between Vancouver Island and the continent of America..

No. VI.

Attested copy of the log of Her Majesty's steamship Cormorant, in the months of September and October, 1846...

CHARTS.

No. I.

Carta Esférica de los Reconocimientos hechos en la Costa N. O. de America, en 1791 y 1792, por las goletas Sutil y Mexicana, y otros buques de Su Magestad. (Published at Madrid, 1802.)