the River St. Lawrence from waters falling not into the Gulf of St. Lawrence or the Bay of Fundy, but into the Atlantic Ocean. That the Bay of Fundy was not intended to be comprehended in the Atlantic Ocean was, the British statement maintained, shown by the treaty itself, which in the article in question spe cifically distinguished them by describing the mouth of the St. Croix River as being in the Bay of Fundy. It was also the constant usage of geographers to apply specific names to branches or inlets of the sea for the purpose of presenting them as objects of distinct and separate consideration. In Mitchell's map and in many public documents the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence were distinguished from the sea or ocean.'

The original intent of the treaty, said the Design of the Treaty British statement, was not to include the St. of 1783. John in the class of rivers falling into the Atlantic Ocean. The River St. Croix, which was described as having its mouth in the Bay of Fundy, was assigned as the extreme eastern limit of the United States. From the northwest angle of Nova Scotia the whole line was to be traced westward. It was intended at this initial point of the boundary to divide from each other at their sources the several great rivers assigned to each power. The only rivers that could have been intended to be divided by the highlands were those which emptied themselves between the meridian of the St. Croix eastward and of the head of the Connecticut River westward, thus securing to each power the whole of each river emptying within its territory. The line contended for by the United States would divide the St. John in the middle of its course.

Moreover, there was, the British statement maintained, irrefragible proof that the negotiators of 1782, and especially the American, had no thought of including the St. John among

letter to Mr. Hammond of November 20, 1796. (Rives's Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, 68, 70.) Mr. Chipman, as we have seen, argued the question before the commissioners, Mr. Sullivan, the American agent, replying. (Supra, Chapter I.)

This same argument was used by Mr. Blaine, though with greater difficulty, in the Bering Sea correspondence. In the treaty between the United States and Russia of April 17, 1824, the language of which was then in question, it was provided that the citizens or subjects of the contracting parties should be neither disturbed nor restrained, either in navigating or in fishing, or in the power of resorting to the coasts, "in any part of the Great Ocean, commonly called the Pacific Ocean or South Sea." The British statement under the convention of 1827 did not, however, deny that the Bay of Fundy was a "part" of the Atlantic Ocean.

Madawaska.

the rivers which were designated as falling into the Atlantic Ocean. Referring to the instructions of Congress of August 14, 1779, the rejection by the British Government of the line of the St. John, and the subsequent reduction of the boundary, the British statement, tacitly assuming that the westerly branch of the St. John on Mitchell's map was the St. John intended in the instructions, declared that no claim was ever made by the United States from first to last to any territory north of it, and that, when the original plan was abandoned and a new and more contracted line adopted, the boundaries adopted must have lain within the line of that river. Limits of Massachu- The British statement also endeavored to setts Bay: Fief of show that the limits of the province of Massachusetts Bay never extended to the line claimed by the United States. The fief of Madawaska, which was within that line, was, said the statement, originally granted in 1683, eight years prior to the charter of Massachusetts Bay, to a British subject by the governor of Canada, which was then a French province. The province remained subject to France till 1763. During that entire period the fief of Madawaska had preserved its individuality under the original grant, and had always been within the jurisdiction of Canada. Moreover, the Madawaska settlement, though it was a totally different thing from the fief of Madawaska, being a modern colony planted subsequently to 1783, was also within the line, and was in the de facto possession of Great Britain. In the official census of the United States of 1810 no mention was made of it. In 1820 it was included, but it was stated in the census that the inhabitants "supposed they were in Canada.”

Madawaska Settle

ment.

Referring to the term "highlands," the BritTerm "Highlands." " ish statement contended that it signified not lands which merely divided rivers flowing in opposite directions, but high and elevated lands which, though they need not constitute an absolutely unbroken and continuous ridge, must display a generally mountainous character. Under this view Great Britain maintained that the point called Mars Hill was the point of departure of the highlands, both because of its elevated character and because it was the first real elevation met by the due-north line from the source of the St. Croix River. The surveys under Article V. of the Treaty of Ghent had, said the British statement, established the fact that a generally hilly country extended from that point toward the

eastern branch of the Penobscot, connecting itself with a mountainous tract of country which was well known in 1782 and long before by the distinctive appellation of "The Height of Land," and which had been described in many public documents as dividing the waters that fell into the Atlantic Ocean from those that fell into the River St. Lawrence to the west of the sources of the River St. John and the western head of the Penobscot. Not one-third, it was declared, of the line claimed by the United States could be shown to run along lands which could properly be called "highlands."

In fine, the British statement maintained:

ary.

1. That the Bay of Fundy, as mentioned in Summary of British Arguments as to the treaty of 1783, was intended to be separate the Maine Bound- and distinct from the Atlantic Ocean; and that that the River St. John, which falls into the Bay of Fundy, was intended, on that as well as on other grounds, to be excepted from the class of rivers described in the treaty as falling into the Atlantic Ocean; and consequently that the highlands described in the treaty must lie to the southward of that river.

2. That in 1782 the only ground on which the United States claimed the territory in question was that it formed a part of the province of Massachusetts Bay; that the utmost claim then made extended only to the line of the River St. John; and that in the course of the negotiations this line was materially contracted.

3. That, far within the line claimed by the United States as the boundary of the province of Massachusetts Bay, Great Britain held an extensive hereditary seigniory, the fief of Madawaska, indisputably Canadian in origin and always since 1683 under the jurisdiction of Canada.

4. That Great Britain had constantly exercised an actual and unquestioned jurisdiction in the disputed territory from the peace of 1783 to that of 1814, having held during that period uncontested de facto possession of other parts of the country than the hereditary seigniory above mentioned.

5. That the highlands claimed by Great Britain as those designated in the treaty of 1783 conformed in every particular to the conditions therein imposed, while those claimed by the United States conformed neither in position nor in character to those conditions.

On all these grounds Great Britain claimed that the point

designated in the treaty of 1783 as the northwest angle of Nova Scotia should be at or near Mars Hill; and that from this point the line should be traced south of the St. John to the northwesternmost head of the Connecticut River, along the heads of the rivers Penobscot, Kennebec, and Androscoggin, which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, substantially as the line was described on the official map, denominated A, which was annexed to the convention.

cut River.

As to the northwesternmost head of ConNorthwesternmost necticut River, Great Britain maintained that Head of Connecti- the treaty meant that head which, of all the heads above the highest point where the river assumes the distinguishing title of the Connecticut, should be found to lie in the most northwesterly direction relative to the main stream. Toward the upper part of the river several streams fall into it from various quarters. Of these streams, two-Halls Stream and Indian Stream, both coming from the northwest-join the main river a little above the true fortyfifth parallel of north latitude, which is the extreme southern point of the boundary of the British possessions assigned by the treaty on that river. The main River Connecticut, however, retains its name and comparative volume far above the junction of these two streams with it, up to a lake called Connecticut Lake, above which there are smaller lakes. The river which issues from Connecticut Lake had, said the British statement, always been known by the sole name of Connecticut River. Great Britain therefore claimed the spring-head of the most northwestern water which found its way into Connecticut Lake as the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River, from whence the line was to be traced down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude. Great Britain maintained that no stream which joined the Connecticut River below the point where it was known by that distinctive appellation could be assumed to be the Connecticut River, nor could the head of such a stream be taken as the head of the river itself. If such were the case, the heads of the Rhine would have to be searched for in different parts of Europe instead of in the range of the St. Gothard Mountains, where they had hitherto been taken to be situated. The American commissioner and the American agent under the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent were, said the British statement, actually at variance as to the northwesternmost head of the Connecticut

River, the latter having declared for Halls Stream, the former for Indian Stream. The Government of the United States had adopted the views of the agent by adhering to Halls Stream as the boundary now claimed. In this relation the British statement observed that the old forty-fifth parallel, which was erroneously laid down half a mile north of the true latitude on the Connecticut River, crossed Halls Stream above its junction with the Connecticut River. The United States had objected to the general rectification of the boundary along the fortyfifth parallel, but, though they adhered to that objection, they still maintained their claim to Halls Stream. This boundary could never strike the real Connecticut at all. The British claim was that the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River meant the northwesternmost head of waters tributary to Connecticut Lake.

Forty-fifth Parallel of North Latitude.

As to the boundary westward from Connecticut River, the treaty required that the line should be drawn due west on the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude till it struck the St. Lawrence. Of these plain and explicit stipulations, said the British statement, Great Britain desired the strict and faithful execution. In the year 1818, it being discovered that the old line was in many places more or less defective, and that at Rouses Point, near the outlet of Lake Champlain, it was so unusually inaccurate that its rectification would leave the American forts erected there on British territory, the effectual prosecution of the surveys was discontinued, and the American agent in his argument before the commissioners in 1821 maintained that no fresh survey was intended by the treaty of such parts of the boundary as were laid down between the provinces of Quebec and New York while yet both were British, but only of those parts where the line had not already been marked. The American agent at the same time declared that if this fact were not accepted by the commissioners he should be compelled to require the parallel to be laid down according to what he termed the principles of "geocentric latitude" as distinguished from "observed latitude," the practical effect of which would be to throw the forty-fifth parallel thirteen miles farther to the north than the true latitude. The treaty, said the British statement, required a single line, that of the true forty-fifth parallel of north latitude.