tical surveying offered as the basis of
the American proposition, he said if it should become material to do
so--which was not to be anticipated--he would find no difficulty either
in fortifying the ground occupied by this Government in this regard or
in satisfying Sir Charles that the instance brought into notice by His
Britannic Majesty's Government of a supposed departure from the rule
was not at variance with the assertion of Mr. Livingston repeated by
Mr. McLane. The Secretary therefore limited himself to the remark that
the line of demarcation referred to by Sir Charles was not established
as the true boundary prescribed by the treaty of 1783, but was a
conventional substitute for it, the result of a new negotiation
controlled by other considerations than those to be drawn from that
instrument only.

The Secretary expressed the President's unfeigned regret upon learning
the decision of His Majesty's Government not to agree to the proposition
made on the part of the United States without a precedent compliance
by them with inadmissible conditions. He said that the views of this
Government in regard to this proposal of His Majesty's Government had
been already communicated to Sir Charles R. Vaughan, and the President
perceived with pain that the reasons upon which these opinions were
founded had not been found to possess sufficient force and justice to
induce the entire withdrawal of the objectionable conditions, but that,
on the contrary, while His Majesty's Government had been pleased to
waive for the present six of the seven opinions referred to, the
remaining one, amongst the most important of them all, was still
insisted upon, viz, that the St. John and Restigouche should be treated
by the supposed commission as not being Atlantic rivers according to the
meaning of those terms in the treaty. With reference to that part of Sir
Charles's communication which seeks to strengthen the ground heretofore
taken on this point by the British Government by calling to its aid the
supposed confirmation of the arbiter, the Secretary felt himself
warranted in questioning whether the arbiter had ever given his opinion
that the rivers St. John and Restigouche can not be considered according
to the meaning of the treaty as rivers falling into the Atlantic, and he
insisted that it was not the intention of the arbiter to express the
opinion imputed to him.

The Secretary also informed Sir Charles that the President could not
cons