the River St. Croix, and a due north line from its source to the River St. Lawrence, are, accordingly, made the Boundary between Nova Scotia and New England; (k) embracing, under this last designation, the eastern part of Massachusetts, by the name of Sagadahock. Both Nova Scotia and New England are, in that map, published with the approbation of the Board of Trade, bounded to the north by the River St. Lawrence. (1) And that river continued accordingly, to be the northern Boundary of both, till the 7th of October, 1763; when Canada, and all the possessions claimed by France in that quarter, having, by virtue of the treaty of peace of February, 1763, been definitively ceded by her to Great Britain, (m) His Britannic Majesty issued a proclamation establishing new Governments, and, amongst others, that of Quebec.

The Boundaries of that Government were, by the said proclamation, fixed as follows: "Bounded on the Labrador Coast by the River (n) St. John; and from thence, by a line drawn from the head of that river, through the Lake St. John, to the south end of the Lake Nipissing, from whence the said line, crossing the River St. Lawrence and the Lake Champlain, in forty-five degrees of north latitude, passes along the Highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the said River St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Sea, and also along the north coast of the Bay des Chaleurs and the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to Cape Rosiers; and from thence, crossing the mouth of the River St. Lawrence, by the west end of the Island of Anticosti, terminates at the aforesaid River St. John." (0)

The highlands therein designated, being assigned as the southern Boundary of the Province of Quebec, became the northern Boundary of Nova Scotia; the north-west corner of which, instead of being, as heretofore, on the bank of the River St. Lawrence, was thereby placed on the said Highlands.

The Boundaries of the Province of Quebec were enlarged in another quarter by the act of Parliament of 14th Geo. III. Chap. 83. (1774) commonly called the Quebec Act. But those adjacent to Nova Scotia and Massachusetts were, by that act, defined in words nearly similar to those used in the proclamation of 1763, viz:

"That all the Territories, Islands, and Countries in North America, belonging to the Crown of Great Britain, bounded, on the south, by 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 sea, to a point in forty-five degrees of northern latitude, on the eastern bank of the river Connecticut, keeping the same latitude directly west through the lake Champlain, until, in the same latitude, it meets the River St. Lawrence, from thence, &c. be, and they are hereby, during his Majesty's pleasure, annexed to, and made part and parcel of the Province of Quebec, as created and established by the said Royal Proclamation, of the 7th of October, 1763."

"Provided always, that nothing herein contained, relative to the Boundary of the Province of Quebec, shall, in any wise, affect the Boundaries of any other Colony." (p)

According to the received doctrine, and which is sustained by the Law Officers of the Crown, in their opinion of August 11th, 1731, the King could not, without pro

(k) New England is the well known ancient generic name of the British Provinces lying east of New York, and west of Nova Scotia: The old Province of Maine, as well as the tract of land between it and Nova Scotia, are, by the Charter of Massachusetts' Bay, declared to be in New England.

(1) Jeffery's Map of Nova Scotia, published also in 1755, agrees, in that respect, with that of Mitchell, though they appear to differ as to the Boundary between New England and Nova Scotia. See Topographical Evidence, Printed Maps, No. 46.

(m) Written Evidence, No. 7.

(n) Not the River of the same name which falls into the Bay of Fundy, but the smaller stream already alluded to, which, from the north, falls into the mouth of the River St. Lawrence.

(0) Written Evidence, No. 17.
(p) Written Evidence, No. 18.

cess of Law, and by his mere proclamation of October 7th, 1763, curtai! the chartered Boundaries of the Province of Massachusetts' Bay. But, without discussing that point, it will, for the present, be sufficient to observe, that the proviso in the Quebec Act was not applicable to Nova Scotia, which was a Royal Province, and the Boundaries of which might, so far as it was alone affected, be altered at the King's pleasure, but that, as applied to that part of Massachusetts' Bay which lay east of Kennebec River, its effect was to leave or reinstate the river St. Lawrence, as the northern Boundary of that Province.

The Quebec Act and the Proclamation of 1763, have a direct bearing on the question now at issue between the two Governments. But before comparing those two instruments, one with the other, and both with the treaty of 1783, it will be more convenient to conclude what remains to be observed in relation to the eastern Boundary of Massachusetts.

Notwithstanding the confirmation, subsequent to the treaty of Breda, of the grant to the Duke of York; notwithstanding the opinion expressed in the letter from the Board of Trade to the Governor of Massachusetts, of 30th October, 1700, of the extent of the cession made by the treaty of Ryswick; and notwithstanding the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, of August 11th, 1731; the attempt to dispute the right of Massachusetts, at least to the country lying east of Penobscot, was again renewed immediately after the treaty of peace between Great Britain and France, of 1763.

The Province of Massachusetts having made a grant to Governor Bernard, of an Island lying east of the river Penobscot, and which required the confirmation of the Crown, the Board of Trade, in a letter of March 11th, 1763, to the Governor, say:

"It may be proper to observe to you, that the doubt conceived upon the claim of the Province of Massachusetts, is not founded upon the allegation that the lands to the east of Penobscot, were not in possession of the Crown at the time of granting the Charter, but upon the operation which the treaties of Ryswick and Breda, (by which treaties, this tract of country was ceded to France,) should be admitted to have had. upon the Charter itself.

"We cannot take upon us, at present, to say how far all future consideration of this question is precluded by the order of Council, grounded upon the opinion of the Attorney and Solicitor General in 1731; this is a delicate point, which should be reserved till the deed shall come regularly before us; and, in the mean time, we cannot think it expedient to advise any conditional grant whatever of this Island." (q)

On the same ground, saving clauses were annexed to the description of the Bounda ries of the Province of Nova Scotia, inserted in the Commission of Montague Wilmot as Governor of Nova Scotia, which bears date the 21st of November, 1763, in the following words, viz: our Province of Nova Scotia, "and which we have thought proper to restrain and comprise within the following limits, viz:"

and to the westward, "although our said Province has anciently extended, and doth of right extend, as far as the River Pentagoet or Penobscot," it shall be bounded, &c. (r)

The object of that attempt is explained in a letter from Jasper Mauduit, agent in England for Massachusetts' Bay, to the General Court of that Province, dated 9th June, 1764. In that letter the agent states from authority, confirmed by a subsequent

(4) Written Evidence, No. 19.

(r) The words here quoted, are, however, omitted in all the subsequent Commissions, including that of John Parr, (dated 29th July, 1782,) who was Governor at the date of the treaty of 1783. The Boun daries prescribed are the same in all the Commissions. See Written Evidence, No. 15. 6

interview with Lord Hillsborough, that if the Province will pass an act empowering. their agent to cede to the Crown all pretence of right or title, they may claim undertheir Charter, to the lands on the River St. Lawrence, destined by the Royal Proclamation to form part of the Government of Quebec, the Crown will then waive all further dispute concerning the land as far as St. Croix, and from the Sea Coast of the Bay of Fundy, to the Bounds of the Province of Quebec: reserving only to itself the right of approbation, as before." (s)

Mr. Mauduit urges an acquiescence with that proposal, principally on the ground that the narrow tract of land which lay beyond the sources of all the Rivers of Massachusetts, and was watered by those which run into the River St. Lawrence, could not be an object of any great consequence to Massachusetts; though it was absolutely necessary to the Crown, to preserve the continuity of the Government of Quebec.

It is not at all necessary, or intended to discuss, at this time, the respective rights or pretensions of the parties on a subject which has been definitively settled. But it must be observed, that as, according to the Charter of Massachusetts' Bay, her territory was acknowledged to extend from the River Sagadahock (or Kennebec) to the River and to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, only, northward and eastward, the narrow tract of land, watered by the rivers running into the River St. Lawrence, embraced by the Charter, and which was necessary to the Crown, could not lie westward, but lay due north of the territory between Kennebec and St. Croix. That narrow tract, which extends along the banks of the St. Lawrence, from the River Ouelle to the River Metis, or thereabout, was not wanted by the Crown, in order to establish a communication between Canada and Nova Scotia, but to preserve that of Quebec with the District of Gaspe, and thereby the continuity of the Government of Quebec. And as this object was to be effected by obtaining the assent of Massachusetts to the Boundary prescribed by the Proclamation of 1763, it necessarily follows, that the Highlands contemplated by the Proclamation as forming the southern Boundary of the new province of Quebec, lay, not only west of the Sagadahock, but north of the territory lying between that river and the St. Croix.

Although the public attention was, at that time, diverted from that subject by the events of much greater importance, which terminated in a dissolution of the connection between the two countries, the final adjustment was precisely that which had been suggested in Mr. Mauduit's communication. By the treaty of 1783, the British Government abandoned its pretensions to any territory lying west of the River St. Croix, and the United States ceded that tract of land, included within the Chartered Boundaries of Massachusetts which is watered by the rivers that fall into the River St. Lawrence.

The line agreed on by the treaty of 1783, so far as it is the common Boundary between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts, is a conclusive proof of the intentions of the Contracting Parties. It has already been shewn that the intention on the part of the United States, was to establish the chartered Boundaries of Massachusetts, and that their Ministers had ultimately agreed in the opinion that the river St. Croix was that

(s) Written Evidence, No. 20.

Boundary. On the part of Great Britain, the intention is still more completely estab lished, since the description of the treaty Boundary is there evidently borrowed, almost verbatim, from that which, for the twenty preceding years, had been assigned by the British Government to Nova Scotia. The limits thus prescribed for that province, are as follows, viz:

"Bounded on the westward by a line drawn from Cape Sable across the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, to the mouth of the River St. Croix, by the said river to its source, and by a line drawn due north from thence to the southern Boundary of our Colony of Quebec, to the northward by the said Boundary, as far as the western extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs, to the eastward by the said Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the Cape or Promontory called Cape Breton, in the island of that name, including, &c. . and to the southward by the Atlantic Ocean,

from the said Cape to Cape Sable aforesaid, including," &c. (t)

The River St. Croix, from its mouth to its source, is declared by the treaty to be the eastern Boundary of the United States; and it had, for twenty years, been the legal western Boundary of the British Province of Nova Scotia.

From the source of that river, the eastern Boundary of the United States is declared, by the treaty, to be a due north line to the Highlands which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean, from those which fall into the river St. Lawrence.

The western Boundary of Nova Scotia, had, since November, 1763, been a line drawn due north from that source, to the Southern Boundary of the Colony, (Government or Province,) of Quebec. And the southern Boundary of this Province, had, since October, 1763, been, by the King's proclamation, declared, and, at the date of the treaty of 1783, (u) continued to be "the Highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the said river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Sea."

The north-west angle of Nova Scotia, which is necessarily formed by the intersection of the western and northern Boundaries of that province, had, therefore, been declared by His Britannic Majesty, as early as the year 1763, and continued, at the date of the treaty of 1783, to be formed by the intersection of a line drawn due north from the source of the river St. Croix, with the Highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the said River St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Sea.

It could have been only in reference to that angle, thus precisely described, that the north-west angle of Nova Scotia was at all mentioned in the treaty of 1783. Unless this had been the object, the description would have been as complete without as with the mention of that angle. Whether the place of beginning was, or was not the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, was, unless for the sake of reference to a point previously designated, wholly foreign to the object of the treaty.

The western Boundary of Nova Scotia being, at the same time, the eastern Boundary of the United States, and one which had been a subject of contest, came within the scope of the treaty. It was, therefore, necessary to define it with precision; and, adopting the Boundary already assigned by the King to the province of Nova Scotia,

(1) John Parr's commission, dated 29th July, 1782, which compare with Montague Wilmot's of 21st November, 1763, and the intervening Commissions. It is worthy of notice that John Parr's Commission bears date only four months prior to the preliminary articles of November 30th, 1782, and of course was granted pending the negotiations for peace. Written Evidence, No. 15.

(u) See the commissions of the several Governors of Quebec, James Murray, in 1763; Guy Carleton, in 1768, and December, 1774; and Frederick Haldimand, in 1778. In the two first, the descriptive words of the Boundary are taken from the. Proclamation of 1763; and in the two last, from the Quebec Act. See Written Evidence, No. 21.

the eastern Boundary of the United States was declared in the treaty to be the river St. Croix, and in a line drawn due north from its source. But the northern Boundary of Nova Scotia, the other line which formed the north-west angle of that Province, was not one of the Boundaries of the United States. It was the Boundary between Nova Scotia and the other dominions of Great Britain in that quarter; a Boundary which depended on the acts of Great Britain alone, which it could not be the object of the treaty to determine, and to which no allusion could have been made, but for the express purpose of referring to a line previously determined, and the position of which was sufficiently understood, although the interior of the country had not been explored.

Had not that been the object-had not the north-west angle of Nova Scotia been a point already prescribed, and, as such, understood by both parties, no reference would have been made to it in the treaty, since the description of the Boundary would, without it, have been as complete and intelligible by defining it as follows, viz: "East by a line to be drawn along the middle of the River St. Croix, from its mouth, in the Bay of Fundy, to its source; and from its source, directly north, to the aforesaid Highlands, which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the River St. Lawrence; and thence, along the said Highlands which divide, &c. to the north-westernmost head of Connecticut River."

The only object, therefore, which could have been had in view, in mentioning the north-west angle of Nova Scotia, in the treaty, was, and the necessary effect of having thus inserted those words, is, to identify the Highlands described and contemplated by the proclamation of 1763, and the Quebec Act of 1774, as the southern Boundary of the Province of Quebec, with the Highlands contemplated and declared by the treaty of 1783, as forming, on the north, the said north-west angle of Nova Scotia, and being thence the Boundary of the United States, to the north-westernmost head of Connecticut River.

Further proofs, if such indeed are necessary, may be found in other parts of the proclamation of 1763, and in the Quebec Act of 1774, of the intentions of the framers of the treaty of 1783; and that they kept constantly those two instruments in view, whenever they were applicable or did not relate to an object which was strenuously contested.

This last exception applies only to that part of the Quebec Act, which annexed to the Province of that name, the whole country lying between Pennsylvania and the Mississippi, as far south as the River Ohio. This had been and was considered, on the part of the United States, as an encroachment on the Charters and territorial rights of Virginia and other Colonies. (v) It had been provided, in the act itself, that nothing therein contained should, in any wise, affect the Boundaries of any other Colony; and the great Lakes, from Lake Erie to that of the Woods, were ultimately agreed on by the treaty of 1783, as the Boundary between the dominions of the two Powers in that quarter. The Mississippi, which, by the treaty, was declared to be the western Boundary of the United States, was not a Boundary with Great Britain, but with the Dominions of Spain.

In every other respect the treaty Boundary accords with that of the Quebec Act, or of the Proclamation. From Connecticut River to Lake Erie, it is the same as the southern Boundary of the Province of Quebec in the Quebec Act, substituting the middle of the River St. Lawrence (or Iroquois,) to its eastern bank. From the River Mississippi, in the latitude of 31 degrees north of the equator, the southern Boundary of the United States is declared, by the treaty, to be a line to be drawn

(v) See Secret Journals of Congress, Vol. 3. Report of a Committee, made on the 16th August, 1782, page 161, and following. Written Evidence, No. 8.