By the treaty of 1818 the question in dis pute as to the obligation of Great Britain to return the slaves which she had in her posses sion at the time of the signature of the Treaty of Ghent was referred to the emperor of Russia who in 1822 decided that Great Britain had not complied with the Treaty of Ghent, and that she should pay to the United States an indemnity. The mixed commission which was seleCted to fix the amount of compensation finally agreed on most points, but adjourned in 1827, its functions having been ended by the ratification of a convention concluded at Lon don in 1826 by which the United States received $1,204,906.
A convention at London in 1853 provided for a claims commission which'ended its sessions in 1855 after giving important decisions regard ing fishery rights and rendering awards in the famous McLeod and Creole cases. The reciproc ity treaty of 1854 provided a commission to adjust disputes regarding fishermen which might arise under the treaty, but no resort was made to the stipulation. In 1855 a commission was organized to determine the reciprocal re served fisheries rights, under the reciprocity treaty, which had renewed the privileges re nounced by the United States in the convention of 1818 as to in-shore places. The work was concluded in 1866.
In 1857 commissioners were appointed to de termine the boundary under the treaty of 1846, there having been a disagreement in regard to the San Juan water boundary— as to the middle of the channel separating Vancouver's Island from the continent. They held six in formal meetings in 1857 and finally disagreed. Discussion of the boundary continued until the Civil War, and was resumed in 1866. The Senate failed to vote upon the convention of 1869 for the submission of the question to the arbitration of the President of the Swiss Con federation. Under the treaty of 1863 commis sioners were appointed to settle the claims of the Hudson's Bay Company (q.v.) and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company arising under the Oregon treaty of 1816. In 1869 they awarded $450,000 and $200,000, respectively, to the companies, which in turn executed deeds relinquishing all claims.
The greatest arbitration treaty was that of Washington (1871) which provided for four distinct arbitrations: (1) The question of the San Juan water boundary was referred to the emperor of Germany who in 1872 rendered an award in favor of the American claim to the Haro Channel. (The boundary was fixed by
protocol in 1873). (2) The American claims for losses from Confederate cruisers of British origin (Alabama claims, q.v.) were referred to the Geneva tribunal, which in 1872 awarded $15,500,000 to the United States. (3) The claims and counterclaims growing out of the Civil War (outside of the cruiser claims) was referred to a mixed commission which in 1873 awarded Great Britain $1,929,819. (4) The claims for American use of the northeastern fisheries (of Nova Scotia) were referred to a commission of three persons which met at Hali fax in 1877 and awarded $5,500,000 to Great Britain.
Under a treaty of 1892, a commission was created to settle the Bering Sea controversy (q.v.) as to sealing. It met at Paris in 1893 and decided that the United States can claim no ex clusive rights in sealing in Bering Sea except within three miles of the coast of her territory, though it favored the American plea for the necessity of regulating pelagic sealing. Under the decision of this commission, there was created a new commission (1896) which awarded $471,151 to the Canadian sealers whose vessels had been seized. In 1897 the question of the boundary between Alaska and the British possessions was submitted to a board of arbi tration. After considerable delay, the arbi trators met at London (1903) and decided the main points in favor of the American con tentions.
There were two important Anglo-American cases in which a third party was involved: (1) Under a convention of 1889 between the United States, Great Britain and Germany, to settle conflicting interests in the Samoan Islands (q.v.), the nomination of the chief justice of the islands was to be referred to the king of Sweden in case the three powers could not agree. In 1899 a joint high commission, which was sent to investigate the complications which had arisen, decided that a partition of the is lands between the United States and Germany was the best solution of the problem. An agree ment for partition was signed at Washington in December of the following year. (2) In 1890 the United States, Great Britain and Portugal agreed to submit to three eminent jurists, to be selected by the President of Switzerland, the settlement of a dispute caused by the seizure and the annulment of the charter (by Portugal) of the Delagoa Bay Railway, which had been constructed under a concession to an American.