Agriculture This volume consists of four different sections of agricultural interest: sugar production, the manufacture and use of oleomargarine, cattle diseases and the agricultural condition generally. In addition, there are a number of miscellaneous reports dealing with such local matters as tea raising in South Carolina and coffee culture in the Hawaiian Islands.
Bering Sea Seal Fisheries The parliamentary papers devoted to the Bering Sea dispute contain the correspondence surrounding the problem, the treaties which emerged from it and the full British and American cases to the tribunal of arbitration, as well as Sir D’Arcy’s valuable report on seal life. Besides being a complete record of this extremely important event in British, American and Canadian relations, these papers are of interst in that the deliberations of the Bering Sea Commission were something of a landmark in the history of successful international arbitration.
British-American Relations The diplomatic correspondence and other papers relating to this early period reflect the abrasiveness between Britain and her former colony. Both sides were not without stubborn men and, despite Madison’s peacemaking efforts, the prospect of war was becoming more of a reality. The second and third volumes of this set consist of evidence given to a committee of the whole House by British merchants and manufacturers engaged in commerce with the US. The Treaty of Ghent settled very little apart from ending the fighting in the War of 1812. The papers that follow the treaty indicate that most aspects of the peace were negotiated through additional conventions and arbitrations, some of which are included in this volume (those relating specifically to the Canadian boundary can be found in the IUP Canada Set).
Canadian Relations The papers in the first volume devoted to American-Canadian relations are primarily concerned with the disputed north-eastern boundary of the United States. A subsidiary issue of the boundary dispute was the question of fishing rights off the coasts of the areas concerned, and some smaller papers deal directly with this matter. But the bulk of the material relates to the boundary itself during the 1830s and 1840s, and the particular point of contention concerned the interpretation of the boundary line which had been drawn in 1783. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, which is included in volume 12, provided the means of bringing the boundary dispute to an end. Also included in the second volume are papers relating to the long-disputed Oregon boundary. The other major area of disagreement between Canada and the United States was fishing, and it is this subject which occupies most of volumes 13 and 14.
Central and South America The instability and frequent insurrections in the young Central American republics, as well as the possibilties of a ship canal between the two great oceans, were continually involving both nations in troublesome affairs. The first paper dealing with the projected Panama Canal is as early as 1850, but most of the correspondence on this subject dates to the 1880s and is concerned with the neutrality of the proposed canal. There is also correspondence in this volume devoted to the disputed Venezuela-British Guiana boundary in the 1890s.
Civil War The opening stages of the American Civil War caused considerable diplomatic uncertainty in the relationship between Great Britain and the United States. The suspension of the federal custom house at Charleston, South Carolina, and the future status of the British consul in that city, are typical of some of the relatively minor, but nonetheless significant, problems treated by the sessional papers. Of rather greater importance are papers devoted to the Federal blockade of Southern ports and to the activities of British nationals in both the Union and the Confederacy. Volume 18 includes papers concerned with the closing stages of the Civil War and the occasional papers relating to claims arising from the conflict during the period 1865 to 1870, or until just before the Treaty of Washington. A lengthy paper is devoted to the Confederate raid launched from Canada into Vermont, and other papers deal with the assassination of Lincoln and the end of the war itself. Naval affairs are a continuing topic-the Alabama story is temporarily closed with its sinking at the hands of the Kearsage, and a long paper gives the saga of the Confederate raider Shenandoah. The final papers in the volume comprise a general picture of the claims between the two countries arising out of the Civil War.
Commercial Reports Irish University Press researchers examined over 4,000 commercial reports from the nineteenth century and have extracted all those relating to the United States, thus making available for the first time, in usable form, an important source of information on American national and local history. The commercial reports are of two kinds. The first, the annual series, consists of the yearly reports of British consulates and legations on the social and economic life of the district in which the officer resided. The second, the miscellaneous series, deals with specific social or economic problems affecting the consular district or the nation at large.
Education The most important paper in the volume is the one which covers the American educational system as a whole. It was compiled by a distinguished cleric and educationalist, the Rev. James Fraser, who in March 1865 was appointed a commissioner to report on education in the United States and Canada. His visit to North America lasted from May until October of that year, and his report discusses such matters as public and religious education, financing, the effects of compulsory education on juvenile delinquency, co-education and the organization of the American educational system.
Exhibitions The New York Exhibition of 1853 was the first international exhibition to be held in the United States. It had been inspired by the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 and, though on a much smaller scale than that event, the New York fair attracted over 4,800 exhibitors from the United States and 23 foreign countries. Volume 42 contains the reports of the British Commissioners of the New York exhibition. The reports themselves are technically detailed, in some cases with considerable illustration, and are not simply confined to the exhibition itself. The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 commemorated the signing of the Declaration of Independence in that city one hundred years before. This exhibition was conceived on a far grander scale than that of New York in 1853. Three vo1umes of parliamentary papers were devoted to the Philadelphia Exhibition. In 1893, Chicago was the site of the World’s Columbian Exposition, an event also represented in this collection of papers, though not with the thoroughness devoted to the New York and Philadelphia fairs. The three short papers on the Columbian Exposition are included in the first of the exhibitions volumes.
Fugitive Criminals and Slave Trade The papers in this volume fall into two general categories: cases involving the slave trade stemming from the middle of the century, and cases of extradition involving particular fugitive criminals-cases happening, mainly, in the second half of the century. Both categories also contain treaties and correspondence between the two countries on the respective subjects. Among the slave trade papers is a lengthy series of correspondence devoted to a main point of contention between Great Britain and the United States during the 1850s.
Immigration, Naturalization and Alien Status The bulk of this volume is devoted to a report to the Board of Trade by Mr. John Burnett and Mr. David Schloss on immigration into the United States during the 1890s. The board was particularly interested in destitute persons from Eastern Europe, who had recently been emigrating in great numbers to England as well as to America. Burnett and Schloss were to inquire into the following aspects of immigration into the United States: the laws and practical methods of enforcing them, public opinion relative to restrictions on immigration, congressional proposals on immigration and the economic effect of immigration.
Industry As with the volumes on agriculture and social conditions, these papers dealing with industry and industrial relations represent British interest in American technological development as it might affect British industry. Thus, most of the reports cover subjects that were of basic importance to Britain-railways and mining.
Postal Services This material consists mainly of papers relating to the revision of postal arrangements and contracts between Great Britain and the United States during the period 1867-69. A new postal convention between the two countries was signed in London on 18 June 1867, and as a result new contracts had to be drawn up with various steamship companies to accommodate the changed regulations. The contracts which resulted from the new postal convention are included, and they reveal much about the economic impact of the postal service on the viability of steamship travel in the nineteenth century.
Samoa Initially, the United States (as well as Great Britain and Germany) was interested in harbour and refuelling facilities in Samoa. Treaties of friendship with the king of Samoa granted these and other rights to the three powers but failed to segregate their strategic interests enough to prevent conflict. The period 1886-89 was one of such conflict that a conference of the three powers was necessary. The agreement was only partially successful in straightening out the tangled affairs of Samoa, so another convention had to be held in 1899 in order to settle matters. This volume contains a large amount of correspondence describing the events from 1885 to 1889 in narrative historical form. Other papers report on the conferences of 1889 and 1899.
Social Conditions Among the reports is a lengthy and thorough account of the American prison system compiled by William Crawford, a philanthropist interested in prison reforms, who was sent as a commissioner to the United States in 1833 to examine the working of American prisons and penitentiaries. A report on American poor laws by local government inspector l. J. Henley further reveals the increasing British interest in the American experience and its institutions. Many of these reports were commissioned for the aid they might give in the framing of British legislation, and the series in the 1880s and 1890s on liquor traffic is an excellent example of the influence of American institutions on British ways of life.
Trade and Tariffs John MacGregor (1797-1857), statistician, historian and joint secretary of the Board of Trade, compiled twenty-two comprehensive commercial reports for parliament during the 1840s. The fifteenth such report (in two volumes) is devoted to ... the several Treaties of Commerce and Navigation in Force between the United Kingdom and the United States of America-also the Customs’ Tariff-Commercial Regulations-the Monies, Weights, and Measures, and various Statements relative to the Trade, Navigation, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Finances, of that Republic.
This report is a monumental undertaking, and, in effect, it may stand as an excellent statistical history of the growth and progress of the United States during its first fifty years. The report is in three basic sections: a general rundown of the country as a whole, followed by a state-by-state examination and, lastly, a topical cross-section of American industrial and natural resources and trade.
Treaty of Washington Parliamentary papers devoted to the Treaty of Washington effectively cover every aspect of the negotiations, including cases and counter cases, the proceedings of the tribunal and even the correspondence between the British and Canadian governments. Many specific cases are dealt with as well, a typical one being that of Mr. Anthony Barclay, a British subject long domiciled in the United States and owning plantations in Georgia, who claimed damages against General Sherman’s army. These papers are a history of what was perhaps the most important confrontation between Great Britain and the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Miscellaneous In the British parliamentary papers of the nineteenth century there are many important reports and papers relevant to the United States which either do not fit into a convenient subject grouping or which, if conceivably grouped under one heading, are deficient in length to merit a separate volume. These papers have been arranged chronologically under the heading Miscellaneous Papers. Many of these reports deal with various aspects of shipping and navigation, particularly navigation laws, insurance, pilotage, merchant seamen deserters and even a notable ship collision, that of the American corvette Oneida and the British steamship Bombay in Yokohama harbour in 1870. Also included here are three papers which describe a dramatic and potentially explosive episode in the history of British-American relations - the agitation for the recall of Lord Sackville, British ambassador to Washington, for alleged interference in the American presidential election of 1888. Other papers deal with the republic of Texas, currency, trademarks, trusts, international arbitration and copyright, while a few minor and topical reports deal with such local subjects as oyster fisheries in Maryland and the improvements undertaken at Galveston harbour.
