and American astronomers under the
fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, does not touch Halls Stream, and
the Connecticut River, to which it is produced, is the united current of
the three streams. If, then, the corrected parallel should become the
boundary between the United States and the British Provinces, Halls
Stream must become one of those the claim of whose source to the title
of the north-westernmost head of Connecticut River is to be examined.
And here it may be suggested, although with the hesitation that is
natural in impeaching such high authority, that the commissioners under
the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent in all probability misconstrued
that instrument when they reopened the question of the forty-fifth
parallel. It can not be said that the forty-fifth degree of latitude had
"_not been surveyed_" when it is notorious that it had been traced and
marked throughout the whole extent from St. Regis to the bank of the
Connecticut River.

In studying, for the purpose of illustration, the history of this part
of the boundary line it will be found that a change was made in it by
the Quebec act of 1774. The proclamation of 1763 directs the forty-fifth
parallel to be continued only until it meets highlands, while in that
bill the Connecticut River is made the boundary of the Province of
Quebec. Now the earlier of these instruments was evidently founded upon
the French claim to extend their possession of Canada 10 leagues from
the St. Lawrence River, and from the citadel of Quebec, looking to the
south, are seen mountains whence rivers flow to the St. Lawrence. On
their opposite slope there was a probability that streams might flow to
the Atlantic. These mountains, however, are visibly separated from those
over which the line claimed by the United States runs by a wide gap.
This is the valley of the Chaudiere; and the St. Francis also rises on
the southeastern side of these mountains and makes its way through them.
It is not, therefore, in any sense a dividing ridge. Yet under the
proclamation of 1763 the Provinces of New York and New Hampshire claimed
and were entitled to the territory lying behind it, which is covered by
their royal charters. The Quebec act, it would appear, was intended to
divest them of it, and according to the construction of the treaty of
1783 now contended for the United States acquiesced in this diminution
of the territory of those members of the Union. If, however, it be true,
as ma