The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-03-14


great man says that all the articles Of ono and tn
same treaty are conditonally concluded in one an
= other as IL il had been formally said will do this
= provided you will do that And he Justly adds
that when IL is designed that the engagement sha
be rendered Intellectual thereby, this express claus
ia inserted that though any one Of the articles Of
treaty should be broken, the Others nevertheless
shall subsist in their full force Such an agree
nlent may u9auestionably be made. But il thi
clause Dc not expressly specified Ia the sais ne ttuid
hon Of one single @ties ob,,hS0lSs he ,bh0is treaty"
And orotius says: ".iu the articles of treaty
have the force Of conditions, which, by default are
rendered nall"
The convention, them having plainly forbid both
parties from claiming or exercising an exclusive use
or sovereignty IN the territory, could It have been
other than breach Of such a stipulation for Great
Britain TO take exclusive possession Of one moety, in
the naH,s Of The British king? But she did so; she
ayows IT, she boasts of IT. and the law OF nations has
pronounced the consequence IT oYERrHREw THE
WHOLE TREATY"
But In very truth, this convention nsutr took effect.
4 The parties never agreed upon the meaning OF Its
terms Spain and Great Britain each claimed, and
persisted in having, The same thing. Vancouvers
very presence IN those was in the capacity of
British envoy, TO receive the surrender Of Nootka
| from Spain She denied that she had stipulated To
do any such thing, and she would not and she did
not do H. and Vancouver failed Of his embassy and
returned home He repeated his voyage in the fol-
lowing year, with a rene wal Of his powers, but
with the same result. The contracting parties never
did agree in their Interpretation. They never came
TO terms Nothing was gained. Nothing was
lost Spain held on, and Great Britain held back;
and so few by the years from the making of the
convention, down TO the war of 1896. One of two
things, then, seems evident enough either that the
convention never took effect from the misunder-
standings Of the parties il it did, 1t was quickly
put All end to, by breach Of its most vital stipula
IONS. Thus the convention had terminated long be-
fore the advent Of war aud when that came il found
Great Britain without post a settlement in all
northwestern America
II. rHL WAR OF 1876 PUT AN End TO rHl CON.
NERTIoH OF HooTEA
II the convention had purported 10 vest interests
Of permanent and lndefeasibe character to transfer
property, sovereignty eminent domain title, there
could not be doubt but that such interests would
have survived a rupture Of the common peace. But
II is PLAIN that such interests were conferred or
acquired. Great Britain does not say they were.
She says otherwise. She says all such interests
were put and leh Sin abeyance )" and limits her ac-
QUESTION to joim use. Well, Joint use il, of all
others, that very interest which could not
exist ~ state Of war. That relation
would Justify and enjon each nation, and
each Of its subjects, to coyet and take from the
other all that they could and all that each had and
hence the great struggle Of the war throughout the
locus IN quo must have been 10 convert the joint into
Jeraal use, to make freehold out Of a usufruct
and turn right Of common into a segnory. III
war would terminate any interest, II would termi-
nate this; and the general rule u.s. that it terminates
all, and the instances in which 1t does not are but
exceptions, which make good the rule and prove
IL. That general rule, is thus laid down by Vatte
He says:
THE conventlons-the treaties made with ma
ton-are broken or annulled by war arising be- !
tween the contracting parties both as they tacitly
the al and hecanas ench bain
empowered TO deprive the enemy Of what belongs
TO him, he takes from him those rights which had
been given him by treaties" And one of Great
Britain's own eminent statesman, Lord Bathurst,
gives her Interpretation OF the rule in still more un-
qualified terms He said to Mr.. Adams, in 1915,
that "Great Britain knows Of no exception 10 the
rule, that all treaties put end to by a subse-
quent war between the same parties"
II is not deemed necessary to carry the doctrine
to these lengths. Ii is enough to maintain that war
nbrogates all treaties which contain no reservations
that they are to survive a war. The Nootka con-
vention was without such stipulation, and hence
came to an end when the war began. There 10 no
evidence higher in dignity than the merest conjec-
ture, that the convention thus put an end TO was
never revived. The whole burden Of the case,
then, rests upon the shoulders Of Great Britain III
she fails show that there special and control
ling suuations IN that convention, which under the
code Of nations, exempts it from the common fate
of treaties, when encountered by war, that there
revival of its provisions after its close, what
is there left to contestto discuss, arbrate?-
Nothing;-for her original title abandoned as
vaueless-and her only other title persisted under the
blight of She was not left with inch Of
Oregon to stand upon; and nothing remains to her,
but that indomitable perseverance which has long
survived her rights and, II is painful 10 add, stands
fair chance to ortlive her justice!
Ill. WAS THE CONVENTION THUS PUT AN END TO
EVER REvIvEp'
Great Britain says il was How By treaty
with Spain. When In 1914. Surprising this so
it must follow that from 1876 up to lSli-that is to
say, during eighteen years-she had not the vestige
of right in Oregon by virtue Of the Nootka con-
venton! Well, did she desist from her operations
in Oregon during the suspension Of her treaty
rights So far otherwise is the fact, that she
carried them forward with increased activity. In
Mr.. Pakenham's note to Mr.. Buchanan of the 29th
of July last, he gives quite fourishing summary
of her movements ad interim. He says
''On the return of Mackenzie to Canada, the
Northwest Company established trading posts in
the country to the westward of the Rocky noun
tans."
'In 1906 and 1911, respectively, the same compa-
ny established posts on the Tacoutche Jesse, and
the Columbia"
"In 1911 Thompson discovered the northern head
waters Of the Columbia" &c.
"The Northwest Company continued to extend
their operations throughout the Oregon territory and
TO occupy IL may DC salu, as far as occupation
can be effected in regions so inaccessible and desti-
tute of resources"
Observe, it is Great Britain who makes known to
that all her rights in Oregon were fixed and de-
fined by the convention Of Noo,ka." 1t is Great
Britain who makes 1t quite vital point in her
to establish that her rights, though suspended by
the war of 1885, yet were revived again by the
treaty of 1914 and yet it is her own envoy who
tells that she exercised all the proprietary rights
of sovereignty IN Oregon Just mentioned, at time
when all her rights thither confessedly in a
state of suspension and allegiance! If all her rights
leaned for their support on that convention, what
were all these acquisitions but undisguised aggres-
sions upon the rights Of Spain? And then to insist
upon the fact and admit the necessity, Of revival of
the convention what less is it than acknowledg-
meut that those acquisitions were valueess, and
awaited her nothing without III
But was the convention revived The only clause in
the treaty of Madrid of the 18th August 1914, from
which such inference has been deduced, was this
alt is agreed that pending negotiation of treaty
Of commerce, Great Britain shall be admitted 10 trade
Nth Spain upon the conditions as those which
existed previously to 1885, all the treaties Of commerce
uhtrh Mt hat tod h.t,