angle of

Nova

Scotia.

North-west the north-west angle of Nova Scotia', and this angle was arrived at by drawing a line due north of the source of the St. Croix river to the highlands. The boundary ran along these highlands, which divided the rivers that emptied themselves into the St. Lawrence from those which fell into the Atlantic Ocean, as far as the north-westernmost head of the Connecticut river. The eastern boundary was a line to be drawn along the middle of the St. Croix river from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and from its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands. In the absence of accurate geographical knowledge, it was most dangerous to attempt such elaborate description. The maps of the time were extremely incorrect, so that, when it became necessary to mark out on the spot, the lines traced by treaty-makers on maps, hopeless confusion resulted. In the old days when France had been in possession of Acadia, it had proved impossible to agree upon the boundary between the French and British possessions, and when the country became wholly British, the exact limits of the different provinces were a matter of no great urgency. The problem of more than a hundred years had now to be solved in a hurry and in a foreign city. Is it wonderful that the result was confusion? In the first place, what was meant by the St. Croix river? It was common ground that the St. Croix had been recognized as the boundary as early as the grant to Sir William Alexander in 1621, and in 1763 the commission of the Governor of Nova Scotia placed the boundary at that river. But, this being granted, three rivers at least which fell into Passamaquoddy Bay claimed to be the St. Croix of history. Under Jay's treaty of 1794 the decision of the question was left to a joint British and American Commission, the members of which arrived in 1798 at the unanimous conclusion that the river intended must be that which was at the time known as the Scoodic, but which they identified with the St. Croix of Champlain. The Scoodic, however, had two branches, the

Question of river St. Croix.

western, known as the Scoodic, and the eastern, known as Eastern branch of the Chiputneticook. At first the majority of the Com- Scoodic. missioners were in favour of choosing the western branch, but differed as to what constituted its source. In this state of things a compromise was arrived at, under which the eastern branch was chosen to its extreme source. It has been contended by a writer who has devoted great learning and ability to the subject that the conclusion arrived at was right. Both on historical grounds, from the wording of the ancient grants, and on grounds of convenience the Chiputneticook appears best to answer the requirements. The object appeared to be to obtain a river boundary running as far inland and northward towards the St. Lawrence or its watershed as possible. So much was settled, but difficult questions still remained for solution. The source of the St. Croix being found, the boundary ran due north and then along the highlands to the north-westernmost head of the Connecticut river. Great confusion arose with Geographi cal confuIn regard to the north-west angle' as defined above. sion. fact, a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix does not reach any highlands dividing rivers which flow into the St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic, unless by Atlantic be meant the Bay of Chaleurs. A reference to Mitchell's map of 1755 will show that it was faulty geography which caused the confusion. In this geographical chaos we cannot reject the clues which the old history affords. The intention, however mistaken and lamentable in its results, would seem to have been to define the already existing boundary between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. It must have been by design that the description of the highlands followed the exact wording of both the Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774. The treaty of 1783 deliberately used the previous definitions of the western boundary of Nova Scotia and the southern boundary of Quebec. None the less were the consequences disastrous to British interests.

According to this view a portion of New England protruded, by which means Quebec and New Brunswick were cut asunder. So long as all the colonies were British, the Boundaries question of boundaries, from an imperial point of view, of old mattered little; but, with the separation of the United States, colonies. it was a grave danger that the only practicable road from Nova Scotia to Quebec during the winter months (viz. that by the rivers St. John and Madawaska and Lake Temiscouata) should pass through foreign territory. We find Colonel Mann, an Engineer officer, writing in 1802 that, unless some arrangement could be made, the line to be run from the St. Croix to the highlands would cut off the direct communication between Canada and New Brunswick. Amongst a mass of evidence tending to show that the inconvenience of the boundary as defined in 1783 was long recognized by the British authorities, may be cited the resolution of the New Brunswick Assembly in 1814, urging that the boundary should be readjusted, 'so that the important line of communication between this and the neighbouring province of Lower Canada by the river St. John may not be interrupted.'

Highlands The first advocate of the view that the highlands meant identified were the hills to the south known as Mars Hill was Carleton, Hill. who had now become Lord Dorchester. 'I understand,' he

with Mars

wrote on January 3, 1787, 'that the high land which runs to the great rapids (i.e. the Grand Falls) on the river St. John is the boundary, and separates Canada from New Brunswick and the New England provinces.' It is true that the immediate subject was the boundary between Canada and New Brunswick, but, as Dorchester recognized, 'the United States will naturally look upon the termination of our boundary as the commencement of theirs.' Under the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 it was provided that a Commission should be appointed to determine what was meant by 'the north-west angle' of Nova Scotia. It was before this Commission that

The

settlement

the British contention with regard to the Mars Hill high land was first seriously put forward. No place literally fulfilled the conditions of the treaty. Hence the latter must be interpreted British by its intention. But the intention could not have been to argument. cut in twain two British colonies. Relying on this argument, the British Commissioner held that the point should be fixed at or near Mars Hill, at some 40 miles' distance from the source of the river St. Croix, and about 37 miles south of the river St. John. The American Commissioner, on the other hand, fixed the point at a place about 144 miles due north of the source of the St. Croix, and about 66 miles due north of the St. John; so that agreement was further off than ever. Meanwhile the necessity for some settlement was Necessity of becoming increasingly urgent. Maine had taken a separate place as one of the United States in 1820, and henceforth put forward extreme pretensions with great vigour. inhabitants of the Madawaska settlement, part of the territory in dispute, were included in the American official census. New Brunswick retaliated by vindicating its claims to the territory, including the Aroostook Valley. Much friction and collisions. were the inevitable consequence. In 1827 the arrest of a Madawaska inhabitant by the New Brunswick authorities at one moment threatened war between the two nations. The question at issue was referred to the arbitration of the King of the Netherlands; but his decision, published in January, Decision of 1831, was held by the Americans to be outside the scope of the King of the reference, and therefore invalid. He held that it was lands. impossible to give literal meaning to the language of the 1783 treaty, but that an equitable boundary would be a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix to a point where it intersected the middle of the channel of the St. John. From this point the boundary should follow the channel of the St. John till the point where the St. Francis fell into it. It should then follow the St. Francis till it reached the source of its south-westernmost branch. From this point the line

the Nether

should be drawn due west, till it united with the line claimed by the United States. Following this the point would be reached where the British and American lines coincided. The British Government was willing to accept the decision of the King of the Netherlands, but the Americans would have none of it. In 1833 a proposal made by the American Government that a new commission of survey should be set on foot freed from the restriction of following the line due north mentioned in the treaty, was rejected by Lord Palmerston on the ground that there was no evidence that the American Government was possessed of the necessary powers to carry the arrangement into effect. At length, in 1841, the American Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, proposed the settlement of the question by direct negotiation. Lord Ashburton Ashburton accordingly was sent out, and on August 9, 1842, Treaty, the signing of the Ashburton Treaty at last concluded the 1842. matter. Under this the line beginning at the source of the St. Croix river ran due north to its intersection with the St. John. Thence it ran up the main channel of that river to the mouth of the St. Francis. Following the middle of the channel of the St. Francis and of the lakes through which that river flows, it reached the outlet of the Lake Pohenagamook, whence it ran south-west to the dividing highlands and the head of the Connecticut river to the 45° of north latitude. The Ashburton Treaty has been, and still is, severely criticized by Canadian writers, nor need we share the strong optimism of the writer of the article on Maine in the Encyclopaedia Britannica of that day that the result was a British triumph. It was truly a lamentable conclusion that the Madawaska settlement should have to be cut asunder, so that a homogeneous population was divided between two rival Governments. At the same time, setting aside the gossip with regard to maps, it seems impossible to study carefully the evidence without arriving at the conclusion that the cause of trouble lay much further back than in any