RESTORATION OF ASTORIA
329
to settlements which cannot be abandoned without loss, and cannot be ceded without the alienation of subjects owing al-
legiance to one or another state."
Mr. Adams promptly replied regarding Great
Britain's posi-
tion in 1818,
"That he considered the claim then put forward as a mere moment. What more, he exclaimed, would at ? Could it be worth while to make a serious England grasp question of an object so trifling as the possession of the Columbia? What would be thought in England if Mr. Rush were to address the Secretary of State on the occasion of a regiment being destined for New South Wales, or the Shetland Islands? The United States had an undoubted right to settle wherever they pleased on the shores of the Pacific without being molested by the English Government and he really thought they were at least to be left unmolested on their own continent of North America." Those eighteen pages are rather interesting reading. But Lord Castlereagh, determined to keep peaceful relations between the two countries, wrote to Canning, on April 44 1st, 1821, directing him not to renew the discussion of the Oregon question without special instructions from the king. He reminded him that by article 3 of the treaty of 1818, "The rights of both parties were saved for subsequent adjustment, but no attempt was made either to determine those rights, to define what might be regarded as the existing state of occupation, or to preclude either party from forming new settlements chicaine of the
within the disputed territory during the period, viz., ten years together with the reservation of any right which the .
.
.
formation of such settlement might either appear to impeach or establish. Whatever therefore may be the pretensions of .
Great Britain upon the Columbia River, they must be urged But it is not His on antecedent grounds of right. to provoke circumstances under present Majesty's intention .
.
.
any discussion with the American Govt on the of these claims." 44 F. O.
5,
Vol. 156.
final
adjustment
