have
traced the line of highlands dividing their Provinces of Nova Scotia
and Canada. Had this been done in conformity with the proclamation of
1763 and the commission to Governor Wilmot, the northwest angle of Nova
Scotia would be given by the trace of the meridian of the St. Croix.
So far from doing this, the question has been complicated by the denial
that the boundaries defined in that proclamation and in the treaty of
1783 were intended to be identical. The argument on this point was so
ingenious that the arbiter under the fifth article of the treaty of
Ghent did not consider the American case as made out,[53] and this doubt
was the principal ground on which his decision rested. It is therefore
an earnest of a more favorable state of feeling that the sophistry with
which this fact had been veiled, at least in part, is now withdrawn, and
that the commission whose report is under consideration frankly admit
this identity.[54] This admission being made, it is obvious that the
origin of the highlands of the treaty must be sought on the north shore
of the Bay des Chaleurs and at its western extremity, and it follows
that the point where this line of highlands is cut by the meridian of
the monument at the source of the St. Croix is the northwest angle of
Nova Scotia of the treaty of 1783, and must lie to the north of the
Restigouche, or in the very spot claimed by the United States.

[Footnote 52: Hon. John Holmes, of Maine.]

[Footnote 53: See Note VIII, p. 148.]

[Footnote 54: Report of Messrs. Featherstonhaugh and Mudge, pp. 6, 23.]

The British Government has not only failed in marking out the corner of
their territory at which the boundary of the United States begins, but
has in practice adopted a very different point as the northwest angle of
the Province of New Brunswick, which now occupies the place of ancient
Nova Scotia in its contiguity to the American lines. Up to the time of
the discussion before the King of the Netherlands the commissions of the
governors of New Brunswick had been, so far as the western and northern
boundaries are concerned, copies of that to Governor Wilmot. The
undersigned have no means of ascertaining when or how the form of these
commissions was changed, but it was found during the exploration of the
country that the jurisdiction of New Brunswick, limited at least to the
north of the St. John by the exploring meridian line, did not leave the
Bay of Chaleurs at its western extremity