art of the
Dominion of Canada and are made subject to "such rules and regulations
and conditions for the protection of the revenue as the governments of
the said possessions may from time to time prescribe." The first and
second and the third and fourth of these provisions are reciprocal in
their nature. The fifth, which provides for the transit of merchandise
from one point in the United States, through Canada, to another point in
the United States, is not met by a reciprocal provision for the passage
of Canadian goods from one point in Canada to another point in Canada
through the United States. If this article of the treaty is in force,
the obligations assumed by the United States should be fully and
honorably observed until such time as this Government shall free
itself from them by methods provided in the treaty or recognized by
international law. It is, however, no part of the obligation resting
upon the United States under the treaty that it will use the concessions
made to it by Canada. This Government would undoubtedly meet its full
duty by yielding in an ample manner the concessions made by it to
Canada. There could be no just cause of complaint by Great Britain or
Canada if the compensating concession to the United States should not
be exercised. We have not stipulated in the treaty that we will permit
merchandise to be moved through Canadian territory from one point of the
United States to another at the will of the shipper. The stipulation is
on the part of Canada that it will permit such merchandise to enter its
territory from the United States, to pass through it, and to return to
the United States without the exaction of duties and without other
burdens than such as may be necessary to protect its revenues.

The questions whether we shall continue to allow merchandise to pass
from one point in the United States, through Canadian territory, to
another point in the United States, and, if so, to what exactions and
examinations it shall be subjected on reentering our territory, are
wholly within the power of Congress without reference to the question
whether Article XXIX is or is not in force.

The treaty of Washington embraced a number of absolutely independent
subjects. Its purpose, as recited, was "to provide for an amicable
settlement of all causes of difference between the two countries."
It provided for four distinct arbitrations of unsettled questions,
including the Alabama claims, for a temporary se