rsory inspection of any of the
maps of the territory in question, that the line claimed for Great
Britain in the argument before the King of the Netherlands fulfills
no more than one of the two conditions, while that of Messrs.
Featherstonhaugh and Mudge fulfills neither; and as the line claimed on
the part of the United States is denied to be capable of meeting the
terms of the treaty of 1783 by Great Britain, there is no line that,
in conformity with the British argument, can be drawn within the
disputed territory or its vicinity that will comply with either of
the conditions. This is as well and as distinctly shown in the map of
Mitchell as in the map of the British commission. It would therefore
appear, if, these views be correct, that the framers of the treaty
of 1783 went through the solemn farce of binding their respective
Governments to a boundary which they well knew did not and could not
exist.

V.--NORTHWEST HEAD OF CONNECTICUT RIVER.

The true mode of determining the most northwesterly of any two given
points need no longer be a matter of discussion. It has already been
a matter adjudicated and assented to by both Governments, in the case
of the Lake of the Woods. The point to be considered as most to the
northwest is that which a ruler laid on a map drawn according to
Mercator's projection in a direction northeast and southwest and moved
parallel to itself toward the northwest would last touch. In this view
of the subject the Eastern Branch of the Connecticut, which forms the
lake of that name, is excluded, for its source, so far from lying to the
northwest of those of the other two branches which have been explored,
actually lies to the south of the source of the Indian Stream. The
question must therefore lie between the two others, and it is as yet
impossible to decide which of them is best entitled to the epithet, as
their sources lie very nearly in the same northeast and southwest rhomb
line. Another circumstance would, however, render the decision between
them easy. The forty-fifth parallel of latitude, as laid out by the
surveyors of the Provinces of Quebec and New York in conformity with
the proclamation of 1763, crosses Halls Stream above its junction with
the united current of the other two. In this case the latter is the
Connecticut River of the treaty of 1783, and Halls Stream, which has
not yet joined it, must be excluded. The parallel, as corrected by the
united operations of the British