terms abrogated the provisions of the '46 Treaty in this particular. The arbitration only goes to settle the line which is to mark the boundary; and the stipulation that "the navigation of the whole of the said St. George's Channel and Straits [of Fuca] south of the 49th parallel of north latitude remains free and open to both parties" cannot be held to be in any way disturbed. In fact, our Commissioners need not have mooted the question, and the answer they received amounts to nothing.

THE TREATY CONDEMNED.

THE Conclusion we feel compelled, though with much reluctance, to arrive at in regard to the Treaty of Washington, of 1871, by denouncing it as the most mischievous, and humiliating that was ever signed by a Minister of this country. Its errors appear in every line, and are such as would operate to the disadvantage of ourselves, and others dependent upon us, in various ways at present little dreamed of. The frantic outcry which has been raised throughout the length and breadth of the land against the demand for "indirect damages," under "what are generically known as the Alabama claims," and which a heated fancy had conjured up to dimensions to be measured by hundreds of millions sterling, has hitherto diverted attention from the other provisions of the Treaty, which do not come for arbitration before the Tribunal at Geneva; and all the power of red tape has been used to avert that dreadful money involve

ment, as the only impediment in the way of realising the dispositions of a Treaty considered to be, in all other respects, creditable and mutually advantageous. Delusive vision! The rights of our

colonial dependencies, in the fisheries, and the navigation of their waters, have been ruthlessly sacrificed, their just claims for compensation for outrages committed in the Fenian raids, have been unblushingly set aside, but-not abandoned; nay, more, the very strategic security of our North American possessions themselves, as involved in the North-Western Boundary question, has been put into the possibility of peril by being referred to arbitration. Add to this, the humiliating apology, or "expression of regret" for the escape of the Alabama cruisers, "from whatever cause;" the new rules," imposing intolerable responsibilities upon neutrals, which the United States insist upon straining" to an extent which must tend to render neutrality more onerous than War itself, by putting neutrals to the responsibility and cost of "keeping the ring" for others to fight in, and eventually, perhaps, calling upon them, under one pretence or another, to pay all the cost of the war; and we think there has been shown enough to make us thankful if, whatever the consequences, we may be saved from the operation of so iniquitous and suicidal an instrument.

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WOULD FAILURE OF ONE PART OF THE TREATY AFFECT THE WHOLE?

THE question has naturally occurred, in the course

of these proceedings, whether the breaking down of one part of the Treaty-as, for instance, the reference to arbitration of the Alabama Claimswould destroy the whole. It has been argued by the Government, and some of the leading organs of public opinion that such would not be the case; that the Treaty, being put together like an iron ship, in separate compartments, one may fail, yet the ship survive. We are inclined, however, to hold a different opinion. The preamble of the Treaty states that it is intended "to provide for an amicable settlement of all causes of difference between the countries," and there is no doubt that its various parts were framed with a view to a complete result; mutual-or shall we not rather say, one-sided sacrifices being made upon one point or another, in order to attain the one great object of arriving at a settlement of the whole mass of questions in dispute. On general principles it could not be allowed, that a power having signed a treaty concerning many distinct matters, should be at liberty afterwards to adhere to certain portions of the treaty, which it might consider conducive to its interests, and to repudiate the rest. Moreover, the repudiation of any portion of a treaty is ipso facto a casus belli, which, being acted upon, would destroy the whole treaty. In support of the opposite view of the case the Treaty of Vienna has been referred to, and it has been argued in an influential daily paper, that because the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands, contrary to part of the provisions of that treaty, was not held to destroy the

whole Treaty, the failure of the Geneva arbitration need not be fatal to the Treaty of Washington. But it occurs to reply, that the Treaty of Vienna was a general European settlement, agreed to at a congress of Sovereign States, and not restricted to a settlement of claims between one and another; whilst the Treaty of Washington is purely an agreement between two states for the settlement of certain matters in dispute between them, and until the carrying into execution of which, a right of some kind, on one side or the other, must remain in abeyance. Moreover, the conditions of the Treaty of Vienna were all duly carried out, the several arrangements agreed upon by the contracting parties fulfilled, and the Treaty completely executed, so far as it could be at the time. It was no violation of the Treaty that, in the course of subsequent events, many of its provisions should be rudely upset; nor even that, upon such occurrences taking place, the contracting parties, under altered views of policy, and in the altered circumstances of the case, should not have strictly enforced the guarantees entered into for the maintenance of its provisions.

But in the case of this Treaty with the United States, and the negociations which led to it, dating back to the time of Mr. Reverdy Johnson's mission, there are special grounds upon which we have a right to insist upon the operative unity of the Treaty in its several parts. And here, it is impossible to advance a step without impugning the American Government of bad faith, if not deliberate deception. It will be recollected, that four or five years ago, as

a consequence of the misunderstandings arising out of the Fenian raids, the United States Government demanded of us a treaty, and enactment, by which British subjects in the United States should be allowed, under certain conditions, to renounce their natural allegiance to their Sovereign. A greater infraction of the very fundamental principles of natural law was never heard of, and our Government at first displayed a creditable horror at the proposal; but eventually, as usual with them, they yielded to the demand. Upon reference to the American correspondence and protocols of 1868-9, we find that on the 19th September in the former year, Mr. Reverdy Johnson informed Lord Stanley "that he was not authorized to discuss officially the Alabama question, till the Naturalization question had been disposed of; and a fortnight afterwards, the discussion of the St. Juan and Water Boundary question was also made dependent on carrying out the Naturalization Treaty; and, again, ten days after that, it was intimated that the signing of the St. Juan Boundary Convention should be made conditional on the previous execution of the Alabama Claims Convention. Well, the Naturalization Treaty was signed and ratified; and, in a communication announcing the fact, Lord Clarendon instructed Mr. Thornton to ask the United States Government, in consideration thereof, to cause to be signed and ratified the Claims Convention, and the St. Juan Boundary Convention. As we all know, they were not ratified, the Senate refusing its sanction; and in consequence of, or rather,