ion of
this document can have no effect in setting aside the simple and
positive terms of the treaty of 1783. That treaty and its confirmation
in the treaty of Ghent must be admitted to be null and void before that
line can be drawn in any other direction than "due north."

[Footnote 45: See Note V, pp. 143-147.]

III.--NORTH WEST ANGLE OF NOVA SCOTIA.

The term northwest angle of Nova Scotia was used in the secret
instructions of Congress and is adopted in the treaty of 1783. In the
instructions it is named without any explanation, as if it were a point
perfectly well known. In one sense it was so, for although it never had
been marked by a monument, nor perhaps visited by the foot of man, its
position could be laid down upon a map; nay, was so on many existing
maps, and the directions for finding it on the ground were clear and
explicit. These directions are to be found in the royal proclamation of
October, 1763, and in the commission to Montague Wilmot, governor of
Nova Scotia, of cotemporaneous date. Any uncertainty in regard to the
position of this angle which may have existed in relation to the meaning
of the first of these instruments is removed by the act of Parliament of
1774, commonly called the Quebec act.

Before citing these instruments it will be proper to refer to the
circumstances under which the two first were issued.

Great Britain, after a successful war, found herself in possession of
the whole eastern side of the continent of North America. So much of
this as lay to the south of the St. Lawrence and the forty-fifth
parallel of north latitude had been previously made the subject of
charters from the British Crown under a claim of right from priority of
discovery.[46] The possession of this wide tract was not uncontested,
and various other European nations had attempted to found settlements
within the limits of the British charters. In such cases it was held as
a matter of law that where the occupation or defense of the territory
granted had been neglected the right had ceased, and the country, when
recovered by conquest or restored by treaty, was again vested in the
Crown, to be made the subject of new grants or governed as a royal
colony. Thus, when the settlements made by the Dutch and Swedes, which
by the fortune of war had become wholly vested in Holland, were reduced,
the Crown exercised its rights by conveying them to the Duke of York,
although covered in a great part, if not wholly, by