and is the
only line to the west of the meridian of the St. Croix which can
possibly do so.

The choice of a line different from that presented to the choice of the
King of the Netherlands is no new instance of the uncertainty which has
affected all the forms in which Great Britain has urged her claim.

In fact, nothing shows more conclusively the weakness of the ground on
which the British claim rests than the continual changes which it has
been necessary to make in order to found any feasible argument upon
it.[60] In the discussion of 1798 it was maintained on the part of Great
Britain that the meridian line must cross the St. John River; in the
argument before the commissioners under the fifth article of the treaty
of Ghent it was denied that it ever could have been the intention of the
framers of the treaty of 1783 that it should. Yet the mouthpiece by
which both arguments were delivered was one and the same person. The
same agent chose as the termination of what he attempted to represent
as a continuous range of hills an isolated mountain, Mars Hill; and
the commissioners whose report is under consideration place a range of
abraded highlands, "the maximum axis of elevation," in a region over
which British engineers have proposed to carry a railroad as the most
level and lowest line which exists between St. Andrews and Quebec.[61]

[Footnote 60: See Note XII, p. 149.]

[Footnote 61: Prospectus of St. Andrews and Quebec Railroad, 1836; and
Survey of Captain Yule, 1835.]

On the other hand, the American claim, based on the only practicable
interpretation of the treaty of 1783, has been consistent throughout:
"Let the meridian line be extended until it meets the southern boundary
of the Province of Quebec, as defined by the proclamation of 1763 and
the act of Parliament of 1774."

No argument can be drawn against the American claim from the secret
instructions of Congress dated August, 1779. All that is shown by
these instructions is the willingness to accept a more convenient
boundary--one defined by a great natural feature, and which would have
rendered the difficult operation of tracing the line of highlands and
that of determining the meridian of the St. Croix by astronomic methods
unnecessary. The words of the instructions are:

"And east by a line to be drawn along the middle of the St. John from
its source to its mouth in the Bay of Fundy, _or_ by a line to be
settled and adjusted between that part of th