Confidential

You were informed by my Despatch No. 101 of the 20th December
that I should communicate with you again on the question how far
under International Law the United States are now bound by the Treaty
between Great Britain and Russia of 1825.

I have now to inform you that I am advised that the United
States are bound by the recitals from the convention of 1825 which
are incorporated into the Treaty of Cession as far as the
Geographical limits of the ceded Territory are concerned. Those
recitals, although they do not constitute any direct Treaty
engagement between Great Britain and the United States, make Articles
III and IV of the Convention, evidence against the United States that
Great Britain has an established title to the line of demarcation
described in those Articles: but as regards the other Articles of
that Convention whereby certain points connected with the Commerce,
Navigation and Fisheries of British and Russian Subjects were settled
for their reciprocal convenience, none of the obligations contracted
by Russia towards Great Britain under those Articles devolve upon the
United States by virtue of the Treaty of Cession.

In my Despatch No. 101 already referred to, I also informed you
that Her Majesty's Government considered that the United States
Officers should receive facilities for passing their Cattle through
British Columbia, but I take this opportunity of cautioning you that
such passage of Cattle should not be made the pretext for sending
backwards and forwards bodies of armed men as escorts. The habit of
it once commenced might be found equally difficult to stop and
dangerous to permit.