[&ANoNG] BOUNDARIES OF NEW BRUNSWICK 377 
veyor General ; You are directed to proceed to the Great Falls of the River 
St. John in order to meet the Surveyor-General of Quebec at that Place on 
the 15th inst., for the purpose of settling the boundary line between the 
provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick. In the execution thereof you will 
be governed by the Act of Parliament for establishing the Province of Quebec 
which determines that boundary to be the Highlands which divide those 
waters that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which 
fall into the Atlantic ocean. Given under my hand at Fredericton the 7th 
day of July in the year of our Lord 1787. (signed). THOMAS CARLETON. 
(MS. in possession of Rev. W. O. Raymond). 
This document gives officially the basis of the New Brunswick claim, 
that which she constantly reiterated, but which ignores the fact that she 
had no legal claim whatever to any land west of the due north line from 
the source of the St. Croix, and under no construction could the high- 
lands north of Lake Temiscouata concern her. To Mr. Sproule’s con- 
tention that the boundary must lie between Lake Temiscouata and the 
St. Lawrence, the Quebec representatives could only reply that it was 
generally understood in Canada that the line between the provinces 
should run from the head of the Bay Chaleur along the highlands in a 
westerly direction to the Great Falls of the River St. John, and from 
thence west to the west or westernmost or main branch of the River St. 
Croix. No reason for the prevalence of this view in Canada is men- 
tioned nor any facts in its support. 
The commissioners separated without coming to any agreement, 
and on August 6 (1787) Lord Dorchester wrote to Governor Carleton 
the following important letter,— 
Sir,— The opinion of the surveyors sent to mark out part of the Boundary 
between the Provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick being so essentially 
different that business must now be abandoned till next year when I purpose 
that surveyors from both provinces should in the spring meet at the Bay 
of Chaleurs and proceed to make a survey or sufficient description of the 
whole country, through which the boundary is supposed to run, that in case 
of a difference the same may be submitted to his majesty for a decision. 
It is very immaterial in itself whether a Tract of Country be called part 
of this or the other of the King’s Provinces, but when it is considered that 
the United States will naturally look upon the termination of our boundary 
as the commencement of theirs, this subject becomes important, and the 
construction put by Captain Sproule upon the words of the Quebec act ought 
by no means to be admitted without the fullest evidence and investigation. 
The Act says, ‘ A line from the Bay of Chaleurs along the Highlands which 
divide the rivers that empty themselves into the River St. Lawrence from 
those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean” shall be the boundary of Quebec. 
It is therefore that ridge of hills which extends from Chaleurs Bay, or (if 
there are more than one) the highest of them, that forms the boundary. 
Rivers may run through the intervals of it in opposite directions, the springs 
of rivers falling into the Atlantic ocean may be in this province, as the 
Sec. II., 1901. 24. 
