Affairs, under date of the 12th January, 1829, agreeably to the 5th Article of the Treaty of Ghent, of the 24th December, 1814, and to the 1st Article of the Convention concluded between those Powers, at London, on the 29th of September, 1827, in the difference which has arisen between them on the subject of the boundaries of their respective possessions:

"Animated by a sincere desire to respond, by a scrupulous and impartial decision, to the confidence they have exhibited in us, and thus to give them a new proof of the high value we attach to it:

"Having, to that end, duly examined and maturely weighed the contents of the First Statement, as well as those of the Definitive Statement of the said difference, which the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty, respectively deliv ered to us on the 1st of April of the year 1830, with all the documents thereto annexed in support of them:

"Desirous of fulfilling, at this time, the obligations we contracted in accepting the functions of Arbitrator in the aforesaid difference, by laying before the two High Interested Parties the result of our examination, and our opinion on the three points into which, by common accord, the contestation is divided:

"Considering that the three points above mentioned ought to be decided according to the Treaties, Acts and Conventions concluded between the two Powers; that is to say, the Treaty of Peace of 1783, the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation of 1794, the Declaration relative to the river St. Croix of 1798, the Treaty of Peace signed at Ghent in 1814, the Convention of the 29th September, 1827; and Mitchell's Map and the Map A referred to in that Convention:

"WE DECLARE, THAT,

"As to the first point, to wit, the question, what is the place designated in the Treaties as the Northwest Angle of Nova Scotia, and what are the Highlands dividing the Rivers that empty themselves into the River St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, along which is to be drawn the line of boundary from that angle to the Northwesternmost head of Connecticut River:

"CONSIDERING:

"That the High Interested Parties respectively claim that line of boundary at the south and at the north of the river St. John; and have each indicated upon the Map A the line which they claim:

"CONSIDERING:

"That, according to the examples given, the term Highlands applies not only to a hilly or elevated country, but also to land

which, without being hilly, divides waters flowing in different directions; and therefore that the more or less hilly and elevated character of the country through which are drawn the two lines respectively claimed, at the north and at the south of the river St. John, cannot form the basis of a choice between them; "That the text of the 2nd Article of the Treaty of 1783 recites, in part, the words previously used in the Proclamation of 1763 and in the Quebec Act of 1774 to indicate the southern boundaries of the Government of Qubec, from Lake Champlain, ‘in forty-five degrees of North latitude, along the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Sea, and also along the North Coast of the Bay des Chaleurs;'

"That in 1763, 1765, 1773, and 1782, it was established that Nova Scotia should be bounded at the north, as far as the western extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs, by the southern boundary of the Province of Quebec; that this delimitation is again found, with respect to the Province of Quebec, in the Commission of the Governor General of Quebec of 1786, wherein the language of the proclamation of 1763, and of the Quebec Act of 1774, has been used, as also in the Commissions of 1786 and others of subsequent dates of the Governors of New Brunswick, with respect to the last mentioned Province, as well as in a great number of maps anterior and posterior to the Treaty of 1783; and that the 1st Article of the said Treaty specifies, by name, the States whose independence is acknowledged;

"But that this specification does not imply the entire coincidence of the boundaries between the two Powers, as settled by the succeeding Article, with the ancient delimitation of the British Provinces, whose preservation is not mentioned in the Treaty of 1783, and which, owing to its continual changes, and the uncertainty which continued to exist respecting it, created from time to time differences between the Provincial authorities;

"That there results from the line drawn under the Treaty of 1783, through the great Lakes, west of the river St. Lawrence, a departure from the ancient Provincial charters, with regard to those boundaries;

"That one would vainly attempt to explain why, if the intention was to retain the ancient Provincial boundary, Mitchell's Map, published in 1755, and consequently anterior to the Proclamation of 1763, and to the Quebec Act of 1774, was precisely the one used in the negotiation of 1783;

"That Great Britain proposed, at first, the river Piscataqua as the eastern boundary of the United States; and did not subsequently agree to the proposition to cause the boundary of Maine, or Massachusetts Bay, to be ascertained at a later period;

"That the Treaty of Ghent stipulated for a new examination on the spot, which could not be applicable to an historical or administrative boundary;

"And that, therefore, the ancient delimitation of the British Provinces, does not, either, afford the basis of a decision;

"That the longitude of the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, which ought to coincide with that of the source of the St. Croix river, was determined only by the Declaration of 1798, which indicated that river;

"That the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation of 1794, alludes to the doubt which had arisen with respect to the river St. Croix; and that the first instructions of the Congress, at the time of the negotiations, which resulted in the Treaty of 1783, locate the said angle at the source of the river St. John.

"That the latitude of that angle is upon the banks of the St. Lawrence, according to Mitchell's Map, which is acknowledged to have regulated the joint and official labors of the negotiators of the Treaty of 1783; whereas, agreeably to the delimitation of the Government of Quebec, it is to be looked for in the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the sea;

"That the nature of the ground east of the before mentioned angle not having been indicated by the Treaty of 1783, no argument can be drawn from it to locate that angle at one place in preference to another;

"That, moreover, if it were deemed proper to place it nearer the source of the River St. Croix, and look for it, for instance, at Mars Hill, it would be so much the more possible that the boundary of New Brunswick, drawn thence northeastwardly, would give to that province several Northwest angles, situated farther north and east, according to their greater remoteness from Mars Hill since the number of degrees of the angle referred to in the Treaty is not mentioned;

"That, consequently, the Northwest angle of Nova Scotia, here alluded to, having been unknown in 1783, and the Treaty of Ghent having again declared it to be unascertained, the mention of that historical angle in the Treaty of 1783 is to be considered as an evasion of the question (petition de principe), affording no basis for a decision; whereas, if considered as a topographical point, having reference to the definition, viz: 'that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix River to the Highlands,' it forms simply the extremity of the line along the said Highlands, which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean,' an extremity which a reference to the Northwest angle of Nova Scotia does not contribute to ascertain, and which still remaining itself to be found, cannot lead to the discovery of the line which it is to terminate;

"Lastly, that the arguments deduced from the rights of sovereignty exercised over the Fief of Madawaska, and over the Madawaska Settlement-even admitting that such exercise

were sufficiently proved-cannot decided the question, for the reason that those two settlements embrace only a portion of the territory in dispute, and that the High Interested Parties have acknowledged the country lying between the lines respectively claimed by them, as constituting a subject of contestation, and that therefore possession cannot be considered as derogating from the right; and that if the ancient delimitation of the Provinces adduced in support of the line claimed at the north of the river St. John, and especially that which is mentioned in the Proclamation of 1763, and in the Quebec Act of 1774, be set aside, there would be no ground for admitting, in support of the line claimed at the south of the river St. John, the arguments tending to prove that that part of the territory in dispute belongs to Canada or to New Brunswick:

"CONSIDERING:

"That the question, divested of the inconclusive arguments drawn from the nature, more or less hilly, of the ground,—from the ancient delimitation of the Provinces,-from the Northwest angle of Nova Scotia, and from the actual possession, resolves itself, in the end, into these questions: What is the line drawn due north from the source of the river St. Croix, and what is the ground, no matter whether hilly and elevated or not, which, from that line to the Northwesternmost head of Connecticut river, divides the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean; That the High Interested Parties only agree upon the fact that the boundary sought for must be determined by such a line, and by such ground; that they further agree, in view of the Declaration of 1798, as to the answer to be given to the first question, with the exception of the latitude at which the line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix river is to terminate; that said latitude coincides with the extremity of the ground which, from that line to the Northwesternmost source of Connecticut river, divides the rivers which empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean; and that, therefore, it only remains to ascertain that ground;

"That on entering upon this operation, it is discovered, on the one hand:

"First, that if, by adopting the line claimed to the north of the river St. John, Great Britain cannot be considered as obtaining a territory of less value than if she had accepted in 1783 the river St. John as her frontier, yet, that, taking into view the situation of the country lying between the rivers St. John and St. Croix in the vicinity of the sea, and the possession of both banks of the river St. John in the lower part of its course, this compensation would nevertheless be destroyed by the interruption of the communication between Lower Canada and New Brunswick, especially between Quebec and Fredericton; and that one would vainly seek to discover what motive

could have determined the Court of London to consent to such an interruption:

"That if, in the second place, in contradistinction to the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, it had been possible, agreeably to the language ordinarily used in geography, to comprehend the rivers falling into the Bays of Fundy and des Chaleurs with those emptying themselves directly into the Atlantic Ocean, in the generic denomination of rivers falling into the Atlantic Ocean, yet it would be hazardous to include in that category the rivers St. John and Restigouche, which the line claimed at the north of the river St. John divides immediately from rivers emptying themselves into the river St. Lawrence, not with other rivers falling into the Atlantic Ocean, but alone; and thus to apply, in interpreting the delimitation established by a Treaty, where each word must have a meaning, to two strictly special cases, and where no mention is made of the genus, a generic expression which would ascribe to them a broader meaning, or which, if extended to the Schoodiac Lakes, the Penobscot and the Kennebec, which empty themselves directly into the Atlantic Ocean, would establish the principle that the Treaty of 1783 meant highlands which divide, as well mediately as immediately, the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean-a principle equally realized by both lines:

"Thirdly: That the line claimed at the north of the river St. John does not divide, immediately, the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from the rivers St. John and Restigouche, but only Rivers that empty themselves into the St. John and Restigouche, with the exception of the last part of said line, near the sources of the river St. John; and that hence in order to reach the Atlantic Ocean, the rivers divided by that line from those that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, each need two intermediate channels, to wit: some, the river St. John and the Bay of Fundy; and the others, the river Restigouche and the Bay des Chaleurs:

"And on the other hand,

"That it cannot be sufficiently explained how, if the high Contracting Parties intended in 1783 to establish the boundary at the south of the river St. John, that river, to which the territory in dispute is in a great measure indebted for its distinctive character, has been neutralized and set aside:

"That the verb 'divide' appears to require the contiguity of the objects to be divided:"

"That the said boundary forms at its western extremity, only, the immediate separation between the river Mettjarmette, and the Northwesternmost head of the Penobscot, and divides, mediately, only the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from the waters of the Kennebec, Penobscot, and Schoodiac Lakes; while the boundary claimed at the north of the river St. John divides, immediately, the waters of the