OCEAN," as intended by the Treaty; and that therefore the line is to be sought for south of the St. John's.

To this, also, the answer is obvious and complete. Bays of the sea are the sea. If not, there is not a river of this continent flowing into the sea, for they all debouche into some indentation or curvature of the coast, called a gulf or bay. All the other rivers of Maine, especially-which it is not disputed are intended as Atlantic rivers-empty into the sea in like manner with the St. John's, through bays of greater or less dimensions.

The only show of argument adduced in support of this pretence, is, that in the Treaty the St. Croix is mentioned as emptying into the Bay of Fundy-not the Atlantic Ocean-whereas the river St. Mary, which was to form the southern boundary of the United States, is described in the same article as falling into the Atlantic Ocean; and those eastern and southern lines of boundary, thus terminating at these two points, are spoken of as "respectively touching the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean." From which it is

inferred, that a special distinction was intended between the two; and since the St. Croix was not an Atlantic river, much less were those falling into the Bay of Fundy to the eastward of its mouth, to be so regarded.

We give this as a fair specimen of the shallow and paltry sophisms which have marked the British negotiations on this question from the commencement. It scarcely deserves serious refutation. It is manifest that the specification of the St. Croix as falling into the Bay of Fundy-doubtless intended to distinguish it from the other streams of the same name along the coast-does not in the least affect the generic character which it, as well as the St. John's, shares with all the rest, as Atlantic rivers. The highlands referred to were not on this occasion for the first time thus described, but were already abundantly established by the comprehensive but distinct description of them as the ligne des versants, in numerous documents in which it cannot even be pretended that any idea was entertained of such a distinction between the Bay of Fundy and the "sea," of which it was one of the numerous arms or indentations. Which pretence, also, while contrary to the common sense and common language of the subject, is contradictory to the rest of the Treaty, which requires a line contiguous to the waters of the St. Lawrence,- -a line continuous from the Bay des Chaleurs along the highlands adjacent to the St. Lawrence, and a line coincident with the northern boundary of Nova Scotia, (now New Brunswick.) In fine, without dwelling further on this portion of the ground we have proposed to ourselves to cover in the present Article, the facts sustaining the American claim are so clear and certain, and the arguments so unanswerable, that the denial or evasion of them by petty quibbles of the above character, involves Great Britain in

a labyrinth of contradictions and absurdities. The northern line of Nova Scotia and southern line of Lower Canada, which she cannot find in the Treaty of Peace, pervades her own official acts. With respect to this very disputed district-if Mar's-Hill is the northern limit of Maine, then the Province of Lower Canada extends to that point, and covers, of course, the Madawaska settlement, which is on the St. John's ;--and yet, after all, it is the Province of New Brunswick which pretends to, and in point of fact does, exercise jurisdiction over Madawaska.

The special pleadings of the negotiations' since 1832 afford a curious chapter in the history of diplomacy, which might be amusing enough, were it not too provoking to the patience of the American reader. The award of the King of the Netherlands was rejected by the Senate, as being, avowedly, no decision of the case referred. Of the propriety of this course there cannot, we think, be the slightest question,-though it may well admit of doubt whether it would have been adopted but for the energetic remonstrances of Maine, and the determined attitude assumed by her on the constitutional question of the incompetency of the Federal Government to cede any portion of her rightful territory without her consent. The British Government, naturally enough, evinced much dissatisfaction at it, obtaining as it would have done, by the compromise suggested, all that it could desire, namely, the northern half of the disputed district, with the open communication between her two colonial capitals, Halifax and Quebec. The action of the Senate being, however, decisive, it next urged strongly, as a basis for future negotiation, our acquiescence in certain minor propositions connected with the main question, which appeared to be decided incidentally in the course of the reasoning of the arbitrator upon the general case. This was, of course, impossible; since, on the very face of the award, these premises and inferences conducted the arbitrator to the result that he could not decide the main question; and the Department of State, in its correspondence with the British negotiators, Sir Charles Vaughan and Mr. Bankhead, very properly insisted on disregarding the whole award, and restoring the case entirely to the status quo of before the reference. The correctness of this course was too clearly and strongly urged to be successfully impugned, and it was at length reluctantly yielded to,-the award being formally set aside, by the abandonment of the compromise suggested by it, by the British Government, accompanied with the reassertion of its claim to the whole territory, in a communication of December the twenty-eighth, 1835.

On the rejection of the award by the Senate, with a recommendation to the Executive to open a new negotiation to ascertain and settle the line of the Treaty, the course proposed by Mr. Livingston, then Secretary of State, was, to make a new and thorough survey

of the whole face of the country by a joint commission-either of impartial scientific foreigners, to be accompanied by agents on the part of the two governments, in the character of advocates of their respective views of the subject-or of surveyors to be appointed by the respective governments, with an umpire upon points of difference arising between them, to be named by some impartial sovereign. It is curious to observe the nice play of fence between the two parties arising out of this proposition, in which we have to confess that the other party managed their defensive parries with much more adroit skill than was evinced in our assaults,-in which latter a great deal of ingenuity was wasted and worse than wasted. Why a new survey? it is asked,-after playing off for some time from entering on a new negotiation at all, on the ground of the want of plenipotentiary authority in the premises, on the part of our Federal Government, to act independently of the assent of a third interested party, the State of Maine. One survey has already been made, and no highlands discovered on the meridian specified in the Treaty. Such is the decision of the arbitrator.

But, it is answered, we are confident that the treaty line can yet be run. A material principle in all practical surveying is, that when, in a description of boundaries, a mention of marked natural features of country is combined with a reference to compass directions, the former is to be regarded as of the primary, and the latter as of the secondary, importance and effect,—the former fixing clearly the intention of the parties, and an error in the latter shewing only an ignorance of the exact face of the country. That therefore it would be a sufficient fulfilment of the conditions of the Treaty, if highlands should be discovered to the westward of the due north line, and the line drawn between them and the fixed starting point at as acute an angle to the meridian as possible. Such highlands may be discovered, as no reference was had to this principle, vitally material as it is, either by the former surveyors or by the arbitrator.

But, says Sir Charles, after experiencing considerable difficulty in exactly understanding this new idea, Maine will raise the same constitutional objection to your yielding any of her territory (according to her claim) west of the meridian referred to, as well as south of the alleged line of highlands.

That is our affair, is the ready reply. According to this principle of practical surveying, which we urge for the guidance of the proposed new exploration, such a line, though it might run northwest instead of north, would satisfy the requisitions of the Treaty, and the Federal Government may and ought to accede to it, any dissatisfaction of Maine to the contrary notwithstanding. Only let us make the survey, and spread out the whole actual face of the country before us.

We see no prospect of practical benefit from a new survey—it is still urged on the other hand. Let us treat for a conventional line. Let it be such and such. Let it be a fair and equal division. Nothing can be more 'fair' and 'equitable' than our views and wishes on the subject.

We have no constitutional power, it is repeatedly replied and explained, to negotiate for any other than the Treaty line, which it is insisted is still plain and practicable; nor is there any probability of obtaining the assent of Maine to any such line as you are willing to admit. But at length says Mr. Forsyth, coolly-since you are so anxious for a conventional line, if you will adopt the St. John's as the boundary along its whole course, Maine will no doubt consent to exchange the territory north of that river for the slice of New Brunswick between its mouth and that of the St. Croix.

The British Cabinet took about a couple of years to recover from its astonishment at this piece of Yankee assurance—

Obstupuit, steteruntque comæ, et vox faucibus hæsit

and at length its only reply (in Mr. Fox's communication of 10th of January last) was an expression of civil wonder at the entrance of such an idea into the American head.

But eventually they are brought down to consent to a new joint survey. Throughout the course of the negotiation they had opposed to this proposition a demand of utterly inadmissible conditions; begging the whole question, in advance, by stipulating that the St. John's and the Ristigouche are not to be considered Atlantic rivers, that the highlands in question must therefore be sought only south of the former river. * The suggestion to refer the whole subject to the commission and umpirage, untrammelled with conditions-including this point of construction (or the 'river question,' as it is termed in the negotiation) as well as the survey of the ground-is rejected point-blank. What principle, then, shall guide the commission? You insist, says Great Britain, on the highlands a hundred miles north, we on those south, of the St. John's. Suppose, then, the commission search for highlands "upon the character of which no doubt could exist on either side."

* It was assumed and contended by the British negotiators, as at least a strong support to their position, if not admitted as of decisive binding force, that the arbitrator had decided this point in their favor. This was controverted on the other hand, at the same time that the idea was repudiated of its being material whether such were his opinion or not. The following is the passage in the award, referred to as thus deciding this all-important point:

"If, in contradistinction to the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, it had been proper, agreeably to the language ordinarily used in geography, to comprehend the rivers falling into the bays of Fundy and des Chaleurs with those emptying themselves directly into the Atlantic ocean, in the generical denomination of rivers falling into the Atlantic ocean, it would be hazardous to include into the species belonging to that class the rivers St. John's and Ristigouche, which the line claimed at the north of the river St. John's divides immediately from rivers emptying themselves into the river St. Lawrence, not with other rivers falling into the Atlantic ocean, but alone; and thus to apply, in interpreting the

Some stronger illumination than the daylight lamp of Diogenes would in all probability be required for the discovery of such highlands; but finally, after delays, on the part of the British Cabinet, apparently interminable, and mutual requests between the two parties to know what each other means and proposes, and mutual disclaimers of the responsibility of giving such explanation-the joint commission of exploration and survey is agreed upon, with the vague modification above referred to, and the understanding that both governments are to remain free to maintain still their respective interpretations of the "highlands" and "river question ;" and the present actual state of the case, as between the two governments, is, that the British legation is waiting for powers and instructions from home to―negotiate, upon the precise terms of a convention for the appointment of such a commission, to carry into effect this general agreement.

We have here given our readers a comprehensive bird's-eye view of the leading features of this pretty piece of diplomatic history, from 1832 to the present date. We have merely sifted out the main points from the mass of chaff which overloads every negotiation between great governments-such as, protestations of devoted national and personal regard, mutual desire to please, and unwavering confidence in each other's good faith and fairness-assertions of liberality and moderation of views-regrets for the long continuance of this perplexed controversy, and anxieties for its speedy, amicable, and happy termination, &c., &c. We have given them in a simple and detached form, though in point of fact they were so mingled and combined in the actual correspondence as vastly to increase the perplexity of the negotiation.' The reader desirous of tracing it through, in a more connected point of view, may find a succinct and lucid résumé of the whole correspondence, in its order of succession, in Mr. Forsyth's communication to the Governor of Maine, of March the 1st, 1838, published in the Senate Document, No. 319, of the late session of Congress.

Upon this long and tortuous negotiation, as a whole, we cannot

delimitation established by a treaty, where each word must have a meaning, to two exclusively special cases, and where no mention is made of the genus, (genre,) a generical expression which would ascribe to them a broader meaning," &c.

We do not give the respective commentaries upon this truly Delphic passage, in which each party attempts to grope his way, by the clue of his former fixed idea, through the obscure labyrinth in which the "respected” Dutch King has here so ingeniously shut up his meaning from all possible reach of the light of day. We can only say that, though Mr. Forsyth beats Mr. Fox all hollow in parsing, and in the construction of 'verbs, adverbs, pronouns and nouns substantive,' he yet does not convince us that the arbitrator himself knew what he meant,-the very light of critical explanation shed upon it serving only to make the darkness more visible. But certainly when Mr. Fox finds in it the idea that the St. John's is not an Atlantic river, we are constrained to say, that

"The wish was father, Harry, to that thought!