The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-24 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JAN. 24, 1870.

Loan MILTON has done timely service by his
volume on the San Juan Water Boundary. The
merits of a dispute which has been on hand for nearly
a quarter of a century, as the San Juan dispute ha,
been, may well be forgotten, even though, as that
dispute did, it may have at one time brought us to the
very verge of a disastrous war, and though it ma,
still be as far from a settlement as it ever was. WE.
cannot afford to have any open question with a people
like that of the United States. In a country where the
game of politics is often played by unscrupulouL
players with great recklessness, and where leading
statesmen sometimes find their highest ideal in the
Israelite judge who tied burning brands to the tail,
of jackals, and sent them into the corn-fields of the
Philistines, it is exceedingly unsafe to allow such e
controversy as this to remain undetermined. For be
it remembered this is not a question merely of terri-
tory. The amount of land involved is insignificant,
is merely a few square miles. The real question at
issue is, shall British America be shut out from the
Pacific ? Shall that country be deprived of its share
of the great carrying trade between Eastern Asia and
Western Europe. In a word, shall British America
cease to be British, and be forced to enter the Union
against its will ? If we are prepared to cut all our
colonies adrift, then cadit qucestio? But if we think that
imperial, equally with private, property has its
duties "as well as its rights, and that we are not
justified in separating from our colonies unless they
wish to be separated from us, then the San Juan
boundary question i; a very important one in-
deed, although ninety readers out of every
hundred may be iznorant where San Juan is.
The modern theory that colonies are useless to us.
and not only useless but sources of weakness, is at
least open to question. Wars have diminished of
late years and commerce has increased; therefore
never did our dependencies make so few demands
upon our military resources as they do now, and
never was our trade with them so important. The
markets of the world are overstocked, and it
is our policy to open new and unex-
plored regions to our trade. But, as Lord
MILTON remarks, "at this very period
the United States are seeking to exclude our com-
merce, and to overshadow with their protective and
selfish system those almost boundless territories
which a generous and consistent policy on the part
of Great Britain might cover with loyal subjects well-
intentioned towards their mother country. The key
of the East is the key of the world, and should the
United States monopolise the Eastern trade by the
Pacific railroad, or the Isthmus of Panama, our power
and influence as a nation must rapidly decrease. It
is absolutely necessary that great Britain should
make and preserve direct communication with the
East through the continent of America, the passages
through which continent the United States wil
otherwise ere long close against us. This communica-
tion can be made by means of a railroad connecting
our possessions on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards,
and would prove a benefit to ourselves and to the
colonies."

What, then, is this " San Juan question" upon
which so much depends ? Where is San Juan ?
some, at least, of our readers will ask. San Juan is
an Island with an area of 54 square miles, lying in
the Gulf of Georgia, which separates "Vancouver's
Island from British Columbia and the United
States Territory of Washington. The San
Juan question took its rise in the unfortunate
ASHBURTON treaty of 1846. That treaty was intended
to settle the boundary question between British
America and the United States, which had been left
open since the war of 1812. At the time that the
treaty was signed Lord ABERDEEN was Foreign
Minister, and neither he nor the American Govern-
ment was accurately acquainted with the geography
of the locality which has given rise to the present
controversy. The treaty provided that the forty-
ninth parallel of latitude shoilld be the
boundary line throughout the continent of
America, and that on approaching the
Pacific coast, it should be continued westward
along the said 49th parallel to the middle of the
channel which separated the continent from 'Van-
couver's Island, and thence southerly through the
middle of the said channel, and of Fuca Straits to
the Pacific Ocean : Provided, however, that the
navigation of the whole of the said channel and
strait, south of the 49th parallel, remain
free and open to both parties. After the treaty
was signed, LORD ABERDEEN bethought himself that it
would be as well to make a survey of the country which
he had thus defined. At the same time, the American
Government made a survey, which was effected by
General FREMONT, who in 1860 was a candidate for
the presidency. His map shewed the boundary which
I our Government has always claimed to be the
one intended by the Ashburton Treaty, namely,
through the Rosario channel, thus giving San
Juan Island to England. The maps published
subsequently shewed the same boundary. In
spite of this clear evidence the "Washington
Territory Government (not the Federal Government
at Washington capital be it noted) passed
a local. Act declaring that the numerous islands called
the Hare Archipelago belonged to Washington Terri-
tory. In other words it shifted the boundary a few
miles eastwards, and shut us out from San Juan
Island and the Rosario channel. This Act does not
appear to have been sanctioned by Congress. In fact
Mr. MAncv, who was then United States Secretary
of State, wrote to the Governor of Washington Ter-
ritory, carefully
warning him against any collision
with our Government in consequence of the uncer-
tainty which prevailed respecting the boundary, and
a copy of the despatch was sent to Mr. (now
Sir JOHN) CRAMPTON, at that time our Minister in
the United States. The despatch received a suitable
acknowledgment, and at length, hi 1856, it was de-
termined that each Government should appoint a
commission to examine and define the boundary. A
very long correspondence passed between the two
Commissioners, and being wholly unable to agree,
they drew up a report to their respective Govern-
ments, and numerous despatches were written by
both.

In 1859 the disputa assumed a vyarlike phase.
7.)I_,LLAt. Juan had alwitiLltasist