ers, not only as mail packets, and for passengers, but for the conveyance of the finer fabrics and of valuable merchandise from the United States to the British Channel and German Sea, touching at Cowes or Havre, and proceeding to Bremen. or Hamburg, from whence an intercourse was already established towards the East Indies by hydraulic works, parallel with the railroad route between the Adriatic and the German Sea, and forming a continuous communication between the waters falling into the German Ocean and those that emptied into the Black Sea. The obstacles to the navigation of the Danube had been removed, by the Treaty of 1840, between Austria and Russia, the advantages of which were accorded to all nations that had the right to navigate the Black Sea; while the common use of the rivers of Germany had been previously stipulated for by the Treaty of Vienna, of 1815. It may be remarked that the views above expressed, with regard to the patronage of the government to postal steamers, preceded any action of Congress on the subject; the first appropriation for that object, which was for the Bremen line, having been . made June 19, 1846.1

The suggestions with reference to the communication by the Isthmus of Panama, besides our author's having the benefit of all the learning on the subject then attainable in Europe, were made on consultation with the venerable Humboldt, who, on all matters connected with this Interoceanic Canal, has, since his travels in Mexico and South America, in the early part of the century, been deemed the highest authority. Mr. Wheaton incorporated, in his despatch, the last views of the great traveller, on the practical accomplishment of a work, the value of which to the United States, at its date, was principally estimated by the saving of 10,000 miles, in the voyage, by Cape Horn and the North-west coast of America, to China; attention being then particularly attracted to the trade of that country, an increased intercourse with which it was supposed would be effected by the treaty, recently concluded by Mr.

Cushing, with the Celestial Empire. The immense accessions subsequently made to our commercial facilities in the Indian Ocean, with the prospect of opening, through our means, to the trade of the world the Empire of Japan, have added greatly to the contemplated benefits of the proposed route, which, as well as the one through the Isthmus of Suez, it was suggested to put under the common guarantee of all the maritime powers, as part of the great thoroughfare of nations. But though only

1 The mission entrusted to Commodore Perry, who was also the commander of the United States naval forces in the East India Seas, resulted in the conclusion of a treaty with Japan on 31st of March, 1854, establishing commercial relations with that empire. By it, after declaring that there should be a perfect, permanent and universal peace between the two nations, it was stipulated that Simoda and Hakodadi should be ports for the reception of American ships, where they could be supplied with wood, water, provisions, and coals and other articles that their necessities might require, as far as the Japanese had them; that whenever ships of the United States are thrown or wrecked on the coast of Japan, that Japanese vessels would assist them and carry their crews to Simoda or Hakodadi, and hand them over to their countrymen appointed to receive them, with whatever articles they may have preserved, without the refunding of expenses for the rescue and support of Japanese and Americans thrown on the shores of either country; that those shipwrecked persons and other citizens of the United States shall be free as in other countries, and not subject to confinement, but amenable to just laws — that shipwrecked men and other citizens of the United States shall not be subject to such restrictions and confinement as the Dutch and Chinese are at Nangasaki, but shall be free at Simoda and Hakodadi to go where they please within certain defined limits that if there be any goods wanted or business requiring to be arranged, there shall be careful deliberation between the parties that ships of the United States resorting to the ports open to them shall be permitted to exchange gold and silver coin and articles of goods for other articles of goods under regulations to be established by the Japanese government, and to carry away what they are unwilling to exchange wood, water, provisions, coals, and goods required, are only to be procured through Japanese officers that if the government of Japan should grant to any other nation or nations privileges and advantages not granted by the treaty to the United States or the citizens thereof, the same privileges and advantages shall be granted likewise to the United States and their citizens, without any consultation or delay that ships of the United States shall not be permitted to resort to any other ports of Japan than Simoda or Hakodadi, and that agents or consuls shall be appointed by the United States to reside at Simoda, if either of the two governments deem the arrangement necessary, at any time after the expiration of eighteen months. A compact was also made, July 11, 1854, with Lew Chew, for supplies to vessels, and as to pilotm*

some nine years have elapsed since Mr. Wheaton wrote, our title to Oregon had not then been admitted; the war with Mexico had not yet commenced; much less had California been ceded to us, and the foundations laid of a State on the Pacific, which already rivals, in wealth and commerce, the most flourishing of the Atlantic Commonwealths. The prosperity of these newly acquired regions has justly diverted the attention of the American people from a communication through foreign territory, with guarantees depending on the good faith of maritime and commercial rivals, and the very attempt to form which has occasioned serious diplomatic embarrassments, to direct routes across the continent, wherever convenience may dictate, wholly within our own sovereignty, and binding together, with bolts of iron, the confederated States, extending over the immense tract separating the two oceans.1

The close scrutiny, which the long pending negotiations with the Zollverein rendered necessary, into the economical policy of the German States, induced the Minister to acquaint himself with all the conventional arrangements of that nature, which Prussia and her associate States were contracting with other powers, in and out of Germany. We have thus the objections of Prussia to any member of the Confederation entering into a commercial union with a State foreign to Germany, while in

age, wrecks, and a burying ground; and Americans are to have liberty to go over the island, subject to being, for bad conduct, arrested and reported to the captains of the ships for punishment. Cong. Doc. 33d Cong. 2 Sess., Senate Ex. Doc. 34, p. 153. The treaty of 1844 with China had been preceded by treaties with Siam and Muscat in 1833 and was followed by a treaty, in 1850, with Borneo. It had also been the intention of Commodore Perry to have entered into negotiations for a treaty with Cochin China.

! See the Clayton Bulwer Treaty of 19th of April, 1850, referred to in Part I., c. 2, § 14, page 55, note, and Part III., c. 2, § 5, page 328, note. Also the treaty of December 30, 1853, with Mexico, ceding territory through which, it is understood, a road may be constructed within the United States to California, and providing for the use by citizens of both countries, of the road that may be constructed across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as authorized by the Mexican government, 5th of February, 1853. U. S. Treaties, 1853-4, p. 124.

the refusal of the King of Holland to ratify a treaty for the union of Luxemburg with the Zollverein, we have an examination of the right of a sovereign to withhold his ratification, though the treaty has been made in strict conformity to instructions and in virtue of a full power.'

Reference is made, in connection with the mission to China, set on foot by Prussia for the purpose of promoting the general commercial interests of Germany, to the project, which was one of the objects of the short-lived Germanic Empire, the establishment of a national unity, as regards the navigation interests, by the adoption of a system, which might do for shipping what the Zollverein had proposed for commerce. "For this purpose, a plan had been prepared by Dr. Smidt, Senator and Burgomaster, at Bremen, (who governs that town as Pericles. governed Athens, with authority almost absolute, at the same time preserving the forms of a free State,) to establish a general union of all the maritime States of Germany, (including Austria,) for the purpose of protecting the common navigation interests of the entire Germanic Confederation. This Schiff-fahrts Verein, as it was to have been called, was to have been authorized to make treaties of navigation with foreign powers, for the purpose of securing to German shipping reciprocal advantages in foreign ports, to appoint consuls in those ports, and to adopt a common national flag." 2

The anomalous position of a government, where religion is an affair of State, but where the sovereign and the people belong to different creeds, is presented in the case of the difficulties which arose between the King of Prussia and the ecclesiastical authorities of the Rhenish provinces, where the Catholic religion predominates. The dispute with the Archbishop of Cologne, in 1837-8, for refusing to submit to the king's views as to mixed marriages, and other questions regarded as matters exclusively

1 See Part III, ch. 2, § 5, p. 326, note.

2 Mr. Wheaton to the Secretary of State, May 17, 1843.

of ecclesiastical cognizance, and which became almost a subject of European discussion, made the Prussian Cabinet anxious to oppose to the ultra-montane or Jesuit party of Germany the united force of the Protestant community. A very favorite measure of the king to bring about this object was the blending of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in one communion, to which effect, indeed, a decree was issued so far back as 1817. We have a notice of a conference of ecclesiastical and lay deputies, representing the different Protestant governments of Germany, assembled at Berlin, at the beginning of 1846, for the purpose of promoting unity of faith, discipline, and worship. The disappointment, however, which began to be felt at the evasions of the long deferred promise, made by Frederick William III., of a constitutional charter, did not aid the ecclesiastical projects of his successor; and, as Mr. Wheaton remarks, "under these circumstances a measure, which is intended to promote uniformity of faith and worship in the established national church, finds but little favor in public opinion, which tends more and more to tolerate dissent in religious matters, and to demand constitutional securities in political concerns."

Mr. Wheaton's mission terminated, even before the promulgation of the edict of February, 1847, for convoking the Prussian Diet, and by which it was attempted, most imperfectly, to fulfil the promises made under the edict of the 26th of October, 1810, and the declaration of the 25th of May, 1815, of a constitution founded on popular representation. Consequently the revolutionary movements of the succeeding year are not within the particular scope of this notice.3

Mr. Wheaton to the Secretary of State, March 28, 1838. 2 The Same to the Same, January 21, 1846.

3 The North American Review for January, 1849, vol. lxviii. p. 220, contains an able paper, justifying the people of Prussia who, during the political ferment following the revolutions of 1848, took up arms to wrest from the government the liberal institutions so often promised, and as often evasively withheld. It is from the pen of Robert Wheaton, the only son of Mr. Wheaton, who survived