The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-09-29


lc &c. per Id. Some desirable and rather fancy lots
were sold at advance Of about 10 cent above the
current rates Of previous sales.
The Northwestern Boundary Difficulty
with Engln nd-Who Owns the Arro0
Islands:
The difficulty with the English government
officials in British Columbia relative to the
boundary line of our territory through the
Gulf of Georgia and the Fuca Straits, and the
right of possession to the Arroo group of
islands lying between Washington Territory
and Vancouvers Island, unless General Scott
succeeds in keeping the peace, may prove
somewhat difficult Of solution. In the present
tons having established military occu-
pancy of San Juan island the most i'm
portant of the group, and the hostile atti-
tudes assumed by the British Governor
Douglass and General Harney-the question
has already become highly interesting and i'm
portant In order that the public may form an
intelligent opinion on the disputed claims of the
two governments we give to-day an accurate
map OF that district of country, expressly drawn
and engraved for the HERALD. On this map
we show the Northwestern boundary line be-
tween our own territory and the British Anne
rican possessions, as agreed to by the treaty of
June Is, 1916, along the forty-ninth parallel
North latitude, and the water boundaries
claimed by the two nations respectively, and
now in dispute
Tho ~ of hot @bo
shall run along the forty-ninth parallel of lati-
tude to ''the middle of the channel separating
the continent from Vancouver's Island thence
southerly through said channel and the Straits
of Fuca to the Pacific Ocean,"
The question involved is, as to what is meant
by "the channel, for there may be said to be two
channels one running between the islands and
the American Territory Of Washington, the
other running between them and the British
possession of Vancouver's Island. The English
claim that the former was the channel indicated
in the treaty, which would give the group to
Vancouver's Island; while we claim that the
latter was clearly intended as the boundary
which, of course, would give them to us. We
think that the American claim holds good for
many reasons first, the channel which we
maintain is the boundary is the widest and
most direct from the Gulf of Georgia to the
Straits of Fuca and is most free from the OBJ
structions of small islands; next, the soundings
made by the coast surveyors show that it is the
deepest channel Of the two, as will be observed
by the table of figures which we append to our
map; and lastly it is a known rule that
islands are always held to belong to the nearest
mainland rather than to any other adjacent
island.
We hope, therefore, that the government will
resist any attempt to wrest from us these
islands, which, since the execution of the treaty,
have been considered American territory not
withstanding that the right of property in them
has been the subject of discussion at various
times. Since the discovery of gold in the Fra
ser river region these islands have attracted
more attention, commanding as they do the
entrance to Frazer river, and it is important
that our possession of them should be main
tanned at all hazard. The aggressive spirit of
the British government, always encroaching
where it can find a pretext, must be re-
sisted, and now is the opportune time
to do so effectively. In defining the
boundary of lS46 we gave more to
right the forty-ninth parallel would leave near
" three-fourths of Vancouver's Island to Ame-
rican territory; but in order to give her the
whole island, we ceded our rights in that par
ticular. England has had all that she claimed,
and more than she was fairly entitled to at that
time. We had perfect right to claim up to
the fifty -four-forty line, and it is fact worth
mentioning, that at the time when Mr.. Polk
made the compromise of the forty-ninth paral-
lei boundary, Mr.. Buchanan, then Secretary Of
State, and Robert J. Walker, Secretary Of the
Treasury, stood out to the last in favor Of the
fifty -four-forty line, and never yielded our
claim to it, though they were outweighed in
the Cabinet. 1t is not likely, then, that the
present administration will make any conces-
sions in the present controversy.
The British journals are clamorous in favor
of the English Interpretation of this boundary
line, and, in the usual grasping spirit of their
nation, insist upon securing the island of San
Juan for themselves; but the fact is, that they
neither know nor care what the lawful boun-
dairy is; if they can acquire an additional piece
Of territory by bamboozling or bullying us,
that is all they care. AS an instance Of how
little British journalists know of the boundaries
OF the United States, the London Post, the
Premier's own organ and mouthpiece, the other
day had the cool assurance to assert that by the
Ashburton capitulation in 1912 England had
coded to the United States the whole
State of Maine, including the fine harbor
of Portland, to which she was now about to send
hnr nrnat fri1lrnnh of marina architoa4,,xe a.