1827.] North-East Boundary of America. 143 



The British commissioner had the idle honour of naming the umpire but, 

 on the insidious condition of naming a citizen of the United States. This 

 citizen of the United States decided the river, generally called the Schoo- 

 die, to be the St. ( -roix of the treaty a river, that is, farther to the east 

 than the one which had been claimed by the English commissioner. This 

 might or might not have been an honest decision. 



But the river was not all. Of many rivers it is difficult to say exclu- 

 sively this is the source ; one seems to have no better pretension to the 

 distinction than another; and so here, when the St Croix was determined, 

 a second question arose, which was to be considered as the original or 

 main source ? The umpire American decided on the most easterly 

 branch. Here peeps forth the graspingness of America, with a rich 

 display of the dupery of our diplomacy. The river alone was the proper 

 question for this commission. The province of Nova Scotia already had 

 its definite boundaries in words ; for in the original charter, the boundary 

 is expressly described to be the u most westerly fountain or spring." To 

 Nova Scotia itself America laid no claim. The N. W. angle of Nova 

 Scotia was specifically the commencement of the boundary. Therefore, 

 when the commission had determined which river was the St. Croix, the 

 terms of the Nova Scotia charter should have been allowed to decide the 

 boundary, and that was the " most westerly fountain or spring." In point 

 of territory, the difference made by this concession was very considerable. 

 But it was conceded; we yielded to importunity or dexterity; and no 

 more was to be said about the matter. The commission had accomplished 

 the object for which it was appointed, and was dissolved. 



Does this settle the boundary ? No ; but it settles the source of the 

 St. Croix ; and from that point a line is to be drawn, due north, extending 

 till it reaches the highlands, which are supposed somewhere or other to 

 stretch from west to east between the rivers that fall into the St. Lawrence 

 on the one hand, and into the Atlantic on the other ; and then along these 

 highlands is the boundary to be continued till it comes to the N. W. 

 head of the Connecticut a point about which there is no dispute. 



Well, but all this seems definite enough. But, says the American, 

 there are no such highlands to meet our north line. Why, how is that ? 

 That part of the Atlantic called the Bay of Fundy ; and the river St. 

 Lawrence, are parallel ; and into the Bay of Fundy flow the Penobscot, 

 the Kennebec, &c., and into the St. Lawrence, the Chaudiere, the 

 Madawasca, &c. A ridge of highland therefore must run between, and 

 this highland it is, whatever be its elevation, less or more, which 

 constitutes the boundary contemplated in the treaty. Yes, yes, replies the 

 American, highland there will, of course, be ; but the fact is, there is no 

 such highland as the treaty supposes., stretching continuously from the 

 head of the Connecticut till it meets our north line, That highland 

 declines in its course from the head of the Connecticut towards the east, 

 subsiding all the way more or less, and before it reaches our north line, 

 is apparently lost in the broad and general level of the country. 



Well, what in this difficulty is to be done? The American, placing his 

 foot on the source of the St. Croix, says here is the point upon which we 

 are agreed to draw a north line. I go on with this line, and shall stop, 

 according to the terms of the treaty, at highlands, if 1 meet with any ; 

 and if not, as soon as I arrive at a stream flowing into the St. Lawrence. 

 At that point I shall make a bend to the west ; and keep advancing, 

 always leaving on my right the waters that fall into the St. Lawrence, till 



