A REPORT has just been laid before Parliament by Messrs Featherstonhaugh and Mudge, commissioners appointed by Lord Palmerston to survey the district through which the boundary line between the United States and our colonies is still to be drawn, which report, we believe, so far as reasoning and knowledge can advance us in these controversies, completely decides this long- agitated question, and decides it as completely in our own favour. It is not our fault, if we are compelled to say that the Americans have now no case whatever to offer in support of the line which they maintain as the one answering the treaty of 1783. We would willingly make fair division with them of the arguments to be adduced in favour of the two rival lines; but as the statement is now made, as the geography is now determined, they have, we repeat, no case whatever. It had been our own impression that the most equitable adjustment of this dispute would be found in an equal partition of the contested territory. Even while reading the present report we were somewhat reluctant to be persuaded of the full strength of our own title, lest this should interfere with our favourite project of mutual concession; but after an attentive perusal of this report we cannot escape from the conviction, that our own claim is now placed on such grounds as render it quite incontrovertible. Whatever we may yield to liberality or love of peace, justice requires from us not the least concession.

It is impossible, without the aid of the map which accompanies this report, to convey to the reader the strong impression that Messrs Featherstonhaugh and Mudge would leave upon his mind; but as all persons are not allured by Parliamentary papers-as some are quite scared by the blue folios in which they make their appearance-we shall be doing no unacceptable service to the generation of less laborious readers, if we present to them, as far as we are able without the help of maps, a rapid sketch of the controversy as it appears in this last and very able and valuable communication. It will be remembered that the boundary question was submitted

to the arbitration of the King of the Netherlands; who, not being able on some points to give a satisfactory judgment, was obliged to content him. self with offering, upon these, his advice and opinion. An award made in this manner was open to objection. America refused to be bound by it, and the award was finally set aside. Nor is this now to be regretted, for it is found that so erroneous were the geographical or topographical statements laid before the royal arbiter, that his award, if both parties had consented to it, could not have been executed; the range of hills which the Americans had insisted on, and which was adopted for part of the line, not running within forty or fifty miles of the spot to which the line was to be carried.

England had been willing to abide by the decision of the King of the Netherlands, although that decision was regarded as adverse to its own claims; and after the attempt at arbitration had entirely failed, it proposed to divide with America the disputed territory. This offer, however, was not received. Lord Palmerston next proposed a joint commission" of survey and exploration," in order at least that both parties should have distinct geographical data on which to proceed. This proposal was not rejected; but in framing the preliminary articles for appointing and regulating such a commission, so much time was likely to be wasted, that in order not to lose the whole summer (of 1839,) Lord Palmerston despatched Messrs Featherstonhaugh and Mudge to explore and survey the country through which the boundary line is to be drawn, and more especially the several tracks pointed out by the British commissioners, and the American, as answering the terms of the treaty of 1783.

"We report," say they, at the conclufound a line of highlands, agreeing with sion of their labours, "that we have the language of the 2d article of the treaty of 1783, extending from the north-westernmost head of the Connecticut river to the sources of the Chaudière, and passing from thence in a north-easterly direction, south of the Roostuc, to the Bay of Chaleurs. We further report, that there does not exist, in the disputed territory, any

other line of highlands which is in accordance with the 2d article of the treaty of 1783; and that the line which is claimed on the part of the United States, as the line of the highlands of the treaty of 1783, does not pass nearer than from 40 or 50 miles of the north-westernmost head of the

Connecticut river, and therefore has no pretension to be put forward as the line intended by the treaty of 1783."

Such is the satisfactory conclusion to which we are brought; we must now lead our readers up to it by some brief account of the controversy. Here are first the words themselves of the treaty of 1783, which have occasioned all the dispute, notwithstanding they are declared to have so very opposite an intention :

"Article 2. And that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and de clared that the following are, and shall be, their boundaries: viz. from the north-west

angle of Nova Scotia, viz. that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the St Croix river to the highlands, along the said highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the north-westernmost head of the Connecticut river; thence down along, "&c &c.

Here, then, we have a north-west angle laid down as one boundary of the United States; but this angle was at no fixed known point: it was to be determined by drawing two lines, one due north from the source of the St Croix, the other from the source of the Connecticut, along certain highlands. Where these two lines should meet, would be found the angle forming the extreme boundary of the United States. Disputes arose on both these lines. The St Croix, when traced upwards, is found to branch into two streams, the one diverging to the north, the other running on to the west. The Americans selected the northern stream from the source of which to draw their due north line. We adhered to the western; and as one proof out of others that we were right in so doing, we may here mention that the western stream which we followed as the true St Croix, bears,

and has always borne amongst the Indians, the same name (the Scoodeag) as that part of the river nearer the mouth; while the northern branch, regarded by the aborigines as the tributary stream, is called, amongst them, by a quite different name, the Chiputnaticook. But the main dispute concerned the other line, namely, the range of highlands which were to be traced from the head of the Connecticut to meet this due north line. The Americans found, or invented, one running north of the whole river St John. The English insist that the highlands of the treaty take their course south of the source of the St John, and south of the Roostuc. Not only do all arguments drawn from old charters, or ancient boundaries, contradict the claim of the Americans, but it is now discovered that the face of the country is irreconcilably against them; their range of highlands comes not within forty or fifty miles of the place it should start from; it exhibits no continuity of elevations; and their calculations of the height of places proves to be singularly erroneous.

The better to understand the language of the treaty, and the strength of our own position, we must resort to the circumstances which made this mode of description necessary, and the manner in which this language came to be employed. Previous to the war of independence, the boundaries of Massachusetts had been the subject of discussion, and were still unsettled. At this time it will be remembered that Maine was a province of Massachusetts-it has been since erected into an independent state-and that what is now called New Brunswick bore the name of Nova Scotia. Massachusetts was well understood to be bounded on the east by the waters of the St Croix, but its territory to the north was undefined. It had endea voured to extend its claim to the river St Lawrence, but without success; and the boundary between it and Nova Scotia, if it had ever been drawn, had been lost again, because the land in these parts had so often changed masters and changed names, being sometimes the Nova Scotia of England, and sometimes the Acadie* of France. In this

state of things, and when speaking of so unsettled a country, it was natural to have recourse to some great features of the soil.

"From the earliest periods," we are told, "it had been known to the French and English settlers in that part of North America, that a great axis of elevation, or height of land, which had its origin in the English colonies, passed to the north-east, throwing down from the one flank, at about 45° north latitude, the head waters of the Connecticut river, which empties itself to the south into that channel of the Atlantic Ocean which separates Long Island from the continent; and from the other flank the head waters of the St Francis river, which empties itself in a north-westerly direction into the river St Lawrence. Further to the north-east, the head waters of the Kenebec and the most western sources of the Penobscot take their rise in the same height of land. These two rivers discharge themselves into the Atlantic Ocean, whilst the Chaudière river, the sources of which almost interlock with those of the two last-named rivers, empties itself into the St Lawrence, nearly opposite to Quebec. Equally close to the sources of the Chaudière and the Penobscot, and in about 46 degrees of north latitude, the south-west branches of the St John are derived from the same height of the land. This river, after running for about 160 miles in a north-eastwardly course, nearly parallel to the same axis of elevation at which it takes its rise, turns to the southeast; and at the great falls of the St John, in north latitude 47° 2′ 39′′, passes through the same axis, and proceeds to discharge itself into the Bay of Fundy. It is further of importance to observe, that the trail or path of the Indian nations between the Atlantic ocean and the river St Lawrence, lay across that height of land from the earliest times; and that Quebec, which is situated on that part of the St Lawrence where the river suddenly contracts in breadth, and which receives its name from the Indian word kebec, signifying narrow, appears to have been a place of resort for the Indians long before the white men visited the country."

"From Quebec the Indians were wont to pass up the Chaudière in their bark canoes, carrying them across the Portages, and over the height of land to the waters of the Penobscot, and continuing down which, to near the 45th degree of north latitude, they then turned up one of its eastern branches, called Passadumkeag; whence, making a small portage of about two miles, they got into the westernmost waters of the St Croix, and so reached the Bay of Fundy, performing the whole distance of about two hundred and seventy five miles by water, with the exception, perhaps, of about twelve miles of portage, over which, according to the custom still in use by the North American Indians, they carried their light birch-bark

canoes.

*

"This height of land was described in books, and most prominently set forth in maps, long before the revolt of the British colonies, and the independence of the United States. In the map published by Lewis Evans of Philadelphia, in 1755, and which Governor Pownall annexed to his work in 1776, it is laid down with the supposed situation of the portages over it. Upon that map the high lands which divide the St Francis and the Chaudière from the Connecticut, the Kennebec, and the Penobscot, are laid down and called Height of Land.""

Pownall in his work makes familiar reference to this height of land, as thus:

"Connecticut river. This stream rises in north latitude 45° 10' at the height of the land.

"A range, running hence across the east boundary line of New Hampshire, in latitude 44° 30′, and tending north-east, forms the height of the land between Kennebaeg and Chaudière rivers.

"All the heads of Kennebaeg, Penob scaeg, and Passamaquadda rivers (by which last he means the heads of St Croix,) are in the height of land running east-north-east."

Although Governor Pownall's work was not published till 1776, his infor mation was collected while he was

governor of Massachusetts, previously to and in preparation for the French war in 1756. It was acquired in survey made with a view to military operations against Quebec. We find, therefore, in the royal proclamation issued at the close of the French war in 1763, that this height of land described by Governor Pownall was taken advantage of as a great land. mark. These are the words of the proclamation, defining the government of Quebec :

"The government of Quebec, bounded on the Labrador coast by the river St John, (a river of that name on the north side of the gulf of St Lawrence,) and from thence by a line drawn from the head of that river through the lake St John to the south side of the lake Nepissen, from whence the said line crossing the river St Lawrence and the lake Champlain, in 45 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, &c.

"Can there be a doubt amongst intelligent men," continues the report, "that the highlands mentioned in the royal proclamation are the identical highlands or height of land described in the extracts from Pownall's book; or that the two classes of rivers spoken of as being divided by these highlands, (one class falling into the St Lawrence, the other into the sea,) are, on the one hand, the St Francis and Chaudière of Pownall, the only rivers which there empty themselves into the St Lawrence; and, on the other hand, the Connecticut, the Kennebec, and the Penobscot, the only rivers which from thence fall into the Atlantic ocean?"

And can there be a doubt that the highlands in the treaty of 1783, are this identical height of land; and that the rivers there meant as flowing, on the one hand, into the St Lawrence, are the St Francis and the Chaudière; and those flowing, on the other, into the Atlantic, the Connecticut, the Kennebec, and Penobscot?* What other rivers can possibly be meant

by those which fall into the Atlan tic?" What can be more evident than that the language which, in the treaty of 1763, describes the northern boundary of the United States, and that which, in the royal proclamation of 1763, describes the southern boun dary of the government of Quebec, intend one and the same track of country.

Where do the Americans find other rivers "falling into the Atlantic ?" They find them up at the north in Restigouche, which flows into the bay of Chaleurs, and in the St Francis, a tributary stream which feeds the St John, and through that channel may be said to fall into the bay of Fundy. "The rivers that empty themselves into the St Lawrence, they find in the Metis, in the Ouelle, and the Loup, which two last petty streams take their course from no highland whatever, but from a flat marshy district. The manner in which they have contrived to depart thus widely from the plain sense of the treaty, is this: Taking a false starting-place from a northern tributary stream of the St Croix, they ran their due north line, (avoiding our highlands by passing through or near the valley of the St John,) in search of the source of a river flowing into the St Lawrence. This point they found at the source of the Metis. By some strange miscalculation, they aggravated the height of this point to between two and three thousand feet, while it is not four hundred; they boldly declared that the St Francis and the Restigouche were the Atlantic rivers of the treaty; and they proceeded to fill up this map with a range of highlands running parallel with, and at no great distance from the St Law. rence, and dropping down upon the head of the Connecticut: the said range of highlands having, in fact, no such elevation, or continuity, as they ascribe to it, being interrupted by extensive tracks of open marshy soil, and finally not approaching the