314 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
of the American territory in the best and perhaps the only practicable route 
for that purpose, appears to be an insuperable bar. 
(Winslow Papers, 454.) 
It is of interest to note that these opinions were expressed at a 
time when, in connection with the St. Croix Commission, the subject 
of the meaning of the treaty of 1783 was being exhaustively dis- 
cussed, and by men familiar with those discussions. 
The general opinion of a country upon any subject is generally 
well reflected in its legislature, and it is therefore important to our 
present subject to note the following in the journals of the House of 
Assembly of New Brunswick, under date Feb. 15, 1814:— 
Resolved that the Council be requested to appoint a committee to meet 
a committee of this House, for the purpose of preparing an humble petition 
to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, praying that when a negotiation 
for peace shall take place between Great Britain and the United States of 
America His Royal Highness will be graciously pleased to direct such mea- 
sures to be adopted as he may think proper to alter the boundaries between 
those States and this Province, so as that the important line of communica- 
tion between this and the neighbouring Province of Lower Canada, by the 
River Saint John, may not be interrupted. 
And the later records appear to show that this petition, accom- 
panied by a map, was sent to the Prince Regent. The above passage 
shows that it was at that time generally understood in New Bruns- 
wick that an alteration in the boundary would be necessary to pre- 
serve the communication with Canada, which implies the belief that 
the north line must cross the St. John. 
It was probably in consequence of this petition that in the pre- 
liminary negotiations leading up to the treaty of Ghent, the British 
negotiators Aug. 8, 1814, proposed 
such a variation of the line of frontier as may secure a direct communication 
between Quebec and Halifax. 
(Statement of 1829, 323.) 
To this the United States negotiators replied 
under the alleged purpose of opening a direct communication between two 
of the British Provinces of America, the British Government require a 
cession of territory forming a part of one of the States of the American 
Union . . . . They have no authority to cede any part of the territory 
of the United States ; and to no stipulation to that effect will they subscribe. 
(Statement of 1829, 323.) 
Further correspondence took place, the American commissioners 
maintaining that the boundaries were fixed by the treaty and not at 
all uncertain, and that the proposals of the British government im- 
plied a cession of territory of Massachusetts. The British negotiators 
responded that the boundaries were uncertain in that region and that, 
