294 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
her possession and settled by her citizens, while Grand Manan was in a 
military sense at least far more important to Great Britain than to the 
United States and was settled by her citizens (since 1783 by Loyalists 
and others). Moreover, the two conventions of 1803 and 1807, though 
both unratified, showed that the British government was willing that 
the United States should possess the three islands. A compromise was 
according made upon that basis. The American commissioner at first 
refused to give up Grand Manan unless in return for Campobello, but 
finally he agreed upon condition that the British Commissioner join 
him in a recommendation that the navigation of the passage between 
Campobello and Deer Island be made common to both nations. This 
was agreed to, and upon this basis the decision was rendered as above 
given. It is of course a compromise in which Great Britain gave up the 
three smaller islands to which her legal right was admitted, in return 
for the relinquishment of the rights of the United States to the much 
larger and more valuable island of Grand Manan, the right of Great 
Britain to which as a whole was extremely problematical if not 
wanting.1 
Reviewing now this subject of the ownership of the Passamaquoddy 
Islands as a whole, we must admit that the result was extremely favour- 
able to New Brunswick from every point of view. It is true her claim 
to Moose Dudley and Fredericks Islands was legally sound, and her par- 
tizans can claim that she ought to possess them to-day. But her right 
to the greater part of Grand Manan was so slight as to be nearly non- 
existent, depending upon a special interpretation to be given to certain 
words of the Charter of 1621, together with a supposition that the omis- 
sion of certain words from subsequent official documents was accidental. 
The exchange of the three smaller islands for Grand Manan, for such 
it amounted to, was a most excellent bargain for her. But when we 
view the subject from another point of view, her good fortune becomes 
yet more manifest. If we consider the boundary which would be drawn 
between New Brunswick and Maine in this region upon strictly natural 
grounds, and therefore that which would unquestionably have been 
adopted by the framers of charters and treaty had they had ample 
knowledge of the country, we cannot question that the line according to 
the usual custom in such cases would have followed the navigable chan- 
nels, and would have given not only the three smaller islands to the 

oe Before the Commission met, Barclay (quoted in Moore, 50) had expressed 
the opinion that while the right of His Majesty to all the Islands in Passa- 
maquoddy Bay was clear, it would be “difficult for his Majesty’s Agent to 
support with equal evidence His Majesty’s claim to the Island of Grand 
Manan, in the Bay of Fundy, an island of far more national importance than 
any of the others.” Chipman also once refers to the strength of the Ameri- 
can claim to Grand Manan, though I cannot now give a reference to the place. 
es 
