there with his expedition in 1604, as described by Lescarbot and Champlain. Some of the Americans sought to identify it with the St John, though they made a stronger claim for a small stream flowing into the Bay of Fundy near what is now the village of St George. The British claimed the present St Croix, at the mouth of which the beautiful summer resort of St Andrews is situated. Their claim was upheld, and it was verified by the discovery of the remains of the fort and the winter encampment of De Monts on Dochet Island in the St Croix river. But the source of the St Croix was still to be determined, and as it had at least two branches, there was room for difference of opinion. The commmissioners, by a compromise, decided upon the large eastern branch, and thereby Britain gained on the whole in regard to territory.

(b) The Islands in Passamaquoddy Bay. The St Croix river empties into this bay, and in its mouth and off shore there lie a number of small islands, and two-Grand Manan, nine miles from the main coast, and Campobello-which are of great importance strategically. The former, visited and named by Champlain in 1604, is some twenty miles by five, richly timbered, with safe harbours and good fishing. Geographically these islands belong to Maine as being far within "twenty leagues of the United States," the limit given in the treaty, but the repre

sentatives of Great Britain before the Commission of 1817 set forth that they had always been a part of Nova Scotia and that the State of Massachusetts had never claimed them until after 1783. The Commission accepted this view, and determined that all the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay, except three small ones which gave the United States protected access to the river St Croix, belonged to His Britannic Majesty. It was by reason of the skill with which her case was presented that New Brunswick fared so well at this tribunal.

(c) The third question was: What was meant by "The North West angle of Nova Scotia"? This was by far the most difficult, and was not answered until after several fruitless negotiations and dangerous collisions had taken place.

As the War of 1812-4 was drawing to a close, the legislature of New Brunswick petitioned Great Britain "to alter the boundaries between these states (the U.S.A.) and this province, so as that the important line of communication between this and the neighbouring province of Lower Canada by the river St John may not be interrupted." This was from the beginning a vital principle in all negotiations. If the provinces of British North America were to have any unity they must have means of intercommunication. This holds to-day as much as ever. Unfortunately, however, the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 left matters as

they were, except for the provision that a commission should be created to determine "the North-West angle of Nova Scotia." Two new features, however, had entered into the situation: in 1820 the province of Maine was erected into a separate state, and with its new dignity it grew more insistent that its claims should be upheld at Washington; it was also discovered that the British were in possession of a part of the disputed territory, the survey of the country made by order of the Joint Commission in 1817-18 having brought out to the surprise of the Americans the fact that certain Acadians forming the Madawaska settlement had their homes beyond the contested boundary. These people had received grants as early as 1783 on the upper St John, and had never been challenged by the United States.

When the Commission issued its decisions in 1821 the opinions of the two parties were found to be irreconcilable. The representatives differed absolutely as to the meaning and locality of the "highlands' reached by a line drawn due north from the source of the St Croix and separating the rivers flowing into the St Lawrence from those flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. Barclay, the British commissioner, claimed that the "highlands" were to be identified with Mars Hill, distant forty miles north of the source of the St Croix and about thirty-seven miles south of the St John river. This would have given New Bruns

wick some of the best parts of the present state of Maine. On the other hand the Americans decided upon a point sixty-six miles north of the St John, the result of which would have been almost to cut off communication between New Brunswick and Quebec, plainly against the spirit of the preamble of the treaty which was "upon the ground of reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience ............ (to) promote and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony."

The surveyors could find no such "highlands" as they were looking for, and Mitchell's map was of no use to the negotiators. Both at this time and until the conclusion of the whole matter the same two questions constantly recurred: What was meant by "highlands" and by "the Atlantic Ocean"? If the former term implied a mountainous region the British case was strengthened and the "North-West angle of Nova Scotia" would then come in central Maine; if it meant the higher ground or watershed separating the two river systems the American view was reinforced. How doubtful the question was is shown by the admission of the American commissioner Sullivan in a letter to President Madison that the British were right in interpreting "highlands" as a range of mountains. But this concession was afterwards abandoned.

In regard to the term "Atlantic Ocean" the commissioners were equally irreconcilable. The Ameri

cans held that it included not merely the Bay of Fundy, and that therefore the St John emptied into the Atlantic Ocean, but also the Gulf of St Lawrence, and that therefore the Restigouche river, which empties into Chaleur Bay, an inlet of the Gulf, in accordance with the treaty flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. The British were just as insistent that neither the Bay of Fundy nor much less Chaleur Bay could be called "the Atlantic Ocean." The Americans on their interpretation carried the line far north to the watershed where the Restigouche has its source; the British found the highlands in central Maine in which the rivers west of the St Croix which flow into the Atlantic take their rise. The British claimed that their interpretation had never changed since the determination of the boundaries of Quebec in 1763. So there was a deadlock, but settlers kept moving into the disputed areas and frequently causes of trouble arose which at any time might have become

acute.

After further fruitless negotiations, in 1827 the two sides agreed to refer the case for judgment to the King of the Netherlands, who based the decision. which he made in 1831 on a most thorough investigation. He could not arrive at a conclusion on the words of the treaty or the maps, and therefore gave a compromise judgment. A line was to be drawn due north from the source of the St Croix to