oposed such a commission
and Her Majesty's Government consented to it, and it was believed by
Her Majesty's Government that the general principles upon which the
commission was to be guided in its local operations had been settled by
mutual agreement, arrived at by means of a correspondence which took
place between the two Governments in 1837 and 1838. Her Majesty's
Government accordingly transmitted in April of last year, for the
consideration of the President, the draft of a convention to regulate
the proceedings of the proposed commission. The preamble of that draft
recited textually the agreement that had been come to by means of notes
which had been exchanged between the two Governments, and the articles
of the draft were framed, as Her Majesty's Government considered, in
strict conformity with that agreement.

But the Government of the United States did not think proper to assent
to the convention so proposed.

The United States Government did not, indeed, allege that the
proposed convention was at variance with the result of the previous
correspondence between the two Governments, but it thought that the
convention would establish a commission of "mere exploration and
survey," and the President was of opinion that the step next to be taken
by the two Governments should be to contract stipulations bearing upon
the face of them the promise of a final settlement under some form or
other and within a reasonable time.

The United States Government accordingly transmitted to the undersigned,
for communication to Her Majesty's Government, in the month of July last
a counter draft of convention varying considerably in some parts (as the
Secretary of State of the United States admitted in his letter to the
undersigned of the 29th of July last) from the draft proposed by Great
Britain, but the Secretary of State added that the United States
Government did not deem it necessary to comment upon the alterations
so made, as the text itself of the counter draft would be found
sufficiently perspicuous.

Her Majesty's Government might certainly well have expected that
some reasons would have been given to explain why the United States
Government declined to confirm an arrangement which was founded upon
propositions made by that Government itself and upon modifications to
which that Government had agreed, or that if the American Government
thought the draft of convention thus proposed was not in conformity with
the previous a