The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-11-07
Our Disp1tc with Engia pd-The Merits
OF the Aan Juan Question.

UU-Ane MERITS
or the Aan Juan Question.
Our Washington correspondence gives this
morning clear and thorough review of the
San Juan question, now pending between our
government and that OF England and which
threatens to involve the good relations between
the two countries.
The despatch of Lord John Russell, to which
General Cass has already replied in an able
manner was not such as to awaken any good
feeling or amicable disposition this side of the
water, and strenuous efforts were made in Lon
don at the time it was written to excite the
public mind there on the question. Palmer
ston's organ. the London Post, was excessively
belligerent, and the London Times and other
English journals followed in nearly the same
strain By the last steamer we have advices from
London which assertthat the English people took
little interest in the subject and that the course
Of Palmerston and Russell in the matter was
little more than an effort to raise an excitement
in order to divert the attention of the British
public from other questions. The English press
has also Gained down, and become quite silent
upon it. Palmerston and Russell are deserving
of severe Reproduction for the course they have
pursued. for nothing can be more criminal than
their attempt to endanger the good relations
between the two countries, in order to hide
their own errors in administration.
In addition to the facts and arguments pre-
scented by our Washington correspondence, we
can add the following, which we have received
from an authentic source. MI. McLane, while
Minister at London, writing on the 18th of May,
1916, to the State Department, detailing con-
versation he had held with Lord Aberdeen on
the 18th of the same month, in which the British
Minister laid down certain propositions of his
government on which they were willing to set.
tie the Oregon difficulty, says
have to state that instructions will be transmitted
TO Mr. Pkcnham, by the steamer of to morrow TO sub
NIT and further proposition on the part Of this
government for partition Of the territory in dispute
The proposition most probably will offer substantially,
Frst-To divide the territory by the extension Of the
limo the parallel Of forty nine to the sea- that is to say
TO the arm OF the called Birchs Bay; thence by the
Canal de Haro and Straits of Fuca to the ocean, and
frmng the United States what indeed they would pos
sess without any special confirmation the right freely to
use and navigate the Strait throughout its extent
The second and third paragraphs of the
above extract from Mr.. McLane's despatch have
been incorporated in note from Lord John
Russell to Lord Lyons, of recent date, with a
declaration that Lord Aberdeen does not re-
member about it but Lord John has pur-
posely omitted the first paragraph. These
instructions to Mr.. Pakenham, no doubt, may be
still found in the archives of her Britannia
Majesty's Legation at Washington, and perhaps
it would be>well for General Cass to ask Lord
Lyons for copy Of them.
The facts we publish to-day show conclusive
ly that we are entirely right in our claim to the
San Juan island, and that even the British
government knows that we are; and yet the
British Cabinet, for Interior purposes of their
own, set up an unfounded claim and write in
solent dispatches to Washington in support of
it. It is gratifying to know that Mr.. Buchanan
has made up his mind to treat the subject
seriously in his message, and to call upon Con-
gress to provide at once the means for defend
ing our rights.