The Treaty of Ghent in 1814 between the United States and Great Britain likewise provided for three commissions, all relating to boundary questions along the Canadian border, and the right to certain islands in Passamaquoddy Bay and the Bay of Fundy.
The next important question culmi nated in the year 1818, and required Great Britain on the part of this country to restore slaves in the British possessions at the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The Czar of Russia, who was chosen as arbitrator, decided in our favor, and a sum aggregating about a million and a quarter dollars was finally paid.
In the arbitration between this country and Great Britain in 1827 for the settle ment of the northeastern boundary, the King of the Netherlands as arbitrator failed to provide a settlement, and the matter was finally compromised in the Webster-Ashburton treaty. Important matters with France were settled in 1831 including claims for private depredations at sea during the Napoleonic wars, the French Beaumarchais claim, and claims for special commercial privileges under the Louisiana cession treaty—in all amounting to an indemnity of more than five and one half millions. The right to take fish in Canadian waters adjoining unsettled territory again came up in 1855 between the United States and Great Britain, and was only finally set tled in 1866.
The Treaty of Washington between the United States and Great Britain, in 1871, took up the San Juan water boundary, decided in favor of this country by the Emperor of Germany; the Nova Scotia fisheries question; all Civil War claims outside of the "Alabama" claims; and finally the "Alabama" claims. In the
Nova Scotia fisheries dispute Great Brit ain was awarded £1,100,000 and in the third case £386,000. The Samoan dispute involving Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, was attacked in 1889 by the establishment of a joint commis sion appointed by the King of Sweden in co-operation with the Chief Justice of Samoa. Complications arising ten years later, a joint high commission visited Samoa, and an agreement for the parti tion of the islands was signed Dec. 2, 1899.
The Behring Sea fisheries dispute be tween Great Britain and the United States was finally settled in 1896, the first commission having been established in 1892. The first award, mainly in favor of Great Britain, was rendered in 1893, but recognized the plea of the United States for the regulation of the seal fisheries and its proposals to that end. A second commission appointed in 1896 fixed the amount of damages due to Canadian sealers under the former deci sion at $471,151.
The next important question was the determination of the Alaskan boundary, which began in 1897, and was finally set tled in 1899.
Sealing disputes with Russia, arising out of the seizure of four American seal fishers by a Russian cruiser in Bering Sea in 1891, were finally settled by ar bitration in 1902, the decision being in favor of the United States with the enunciation of the principle that a war vessel has no jurisdiction over a vessel of another nation outside territorial waters. The Alaska boundary dispute was finally settled by a joint commission representing Great Britain and the United States in 1903. See PEACE MOVEMENT; LEAGUE OF NATIONS.