and offered me a copy which was taken and attested as a true one by the commanding officer and delivered it to me. The officer then informed me that instead of taking me to the Point as before observed, he was willing to take my parole for the term of twelve days with directions not to officiate till then in my office, which was accordingly done, and I was permitted to return to my own house; he then told me he had positive orders to warn me and Samuel Mott, Esq., to leave that place in the course of two months. The day following, having occasion to go up the Lake, I called on the commanding officer at Point au Fair (which I considered myself under obligation to do in consequence of my parole) notified him of my wish which he consented to, and then showed me his orders directing him to oppose and take into custody any officer acting under any other power than that of Great Britain within those limits which are now known and distinguished by the name of Alburgh."

Captain Timothy of South Hero, then a town in the County of Chittenden, on the 12th day of June, 1792, while on his way down the Lake in a boat in company with several others, was hailed by the Maria, a British armed vessel, and was taken, examined and permitted to pass on.

The British authorities were conscious that they were infringing upon the jurisdiction of Vermont, for, when the Canadian authorities issued their writs for the election of a member to their Legislature in the County of Bedford, they did not summons any person south of the Province line of 45°; and they knew the laws of Vermont were then

being enforced in Alburgh to said line. The affidavit of Benjamin Marvin taken before Ebenezer Marvin, Councillor at Rutland on the 18th day of October, 1792, puts the matter in a clear light. It is as follows:

'In the month of June, 1787, I went to live at Alburgh otherwise then called Caldwell's Manor, about five miles from the garrison at Point au Fair and south of the line commonly called the Province line or latitude 45° about three miles; at which place I have ever since lived, and at which time there was no kind of civil or military government exercised among the people of the place, except what was derived from ourselves by rules adopted by us in meetings of our own vicinity by which we banished thieves and other criminal offenders, and enforced by other rules in compliance to awards of arbitrators in civil disputes and when persons were banished from the Province of Canada and were brought to the line and suffered to come into our vicinity, we drove them from us. Some years had elapsed from the settlement of the place when Mr. Caldwell came amongst us and gave militia commissions to Captains Conroy and Savage, and Subaltern's for two militia companies in that place now called Alburgh, with a promise that the British civil government should be put in force among us, and we protected as British subjects; and Patrick Conroy who then lived north of the line of latitude 45° and was in commission of a Justice of the Peace in Canada, not long after, moved south of the line amongst us and issued some few precepts and took some affidavits, if a

trial was had before him he went north of the aforesaid line to hold his courts, but the inhabitants still kept up their old mode of government as derived from our own resolves as above-said without regard to Mr. Conroy till we voluntarily organized and chose our officers by order of the Governor under the laws of the State of Vermont: and the militia officers above named never did act under the authority of their commissions except in one instance, viz: in February or March in the year 1791, Captain Conroy ordered his company to meet together south of the line, and in consequence of his orders issued for that purpose, they in part convened, and I think about one-third part of them embodied by his order, when some matters took place which occasioned Captain Conroy to step into a sleigh and ride off north of the line without dismissing his company or giving them any orders, at which time some of our people advertised him as a runaway from his company and offered as a reward for his return, one peck of potatoes; no other orders or after orders of the British government has been heard of amongst us except the taking of our persons and property by the British forces at Point au Fair in June last past—and I the deponent further say in my opinion the nearest part of land in Alburgh is about two miles and one-half from the garrison at Point au Fair, and the deponent saith that civil government under Vermont is now executed without any resistance, and also that the late writs for warning the people in the County of Bedford north of the line and adjoining Alburgh were not served in Alburgh;

nor were any of the people in Alburgh ever warned to attend their elections that I ever heard of."

On June 10, 1792, Governor Chittenden by letter bearing date at Williston, requested Joshua Stanton to go to Alburgh and procure authentic information as to troubles there, just narrated, the affidavits referred to were taken by his direction, and he charged Stanton to call on Benjamin Marvin and Samuel Mott of Alburgh and request them to furnish information in writing whether the inhabitants of that town had organized agreeable to the orders he had given, and what the appearance and dispositon of the people were with respect to the government. The Governor, also, on June 16, 1792, addressed a letter to Governor Clarke of the Province of Quebec, stating to him that a British Captain with an armed force left his post and penetrated eight or nine miles within the acknowledged jurisdiction of Vermont and informed him of their lawless, and injustifiable conduct, and said to him, "these are transactions that have taken place by the Command of DeChambault, Captain at Point au Fair within a few days past. -I feel myself therefore obliged immediately to request from your Excellency an explanation of this unprecedented conduct and unprovoked insult upon the government of Vermont, or at least, to know whether it has been done with your Excellency's knowledge, direction, order or approbation." Governor Chittenden sent Levi Allen to Quebec with the letter together with affidavits substantiating his charges. And on the same day he also wrote President Washington, giving him

full information of what had taken place within the jurisdiction of the United States, and that he had written to Governor Clarke concerning the flagrant breach of the laws.

Alured Clarke, Governor of the Province of Canada, on July 5, 1792, from Quebec, replied to Governor Chittenden's letter delivered to him by Levi Allen, stating that Chittenden's representation led to questions beyond the sphere of his trust, and that he could only give command for investigation on subjects of such importance to the peace of the border, and if information showed that it affected points that belonged to national discussion the matter would be for the consideration of the sovereignty he served. And he presumed that Chittenden would refer the matter to the power “to which the State he governed was reputed to be subordinate, and trusted in the wisdom of the negotiations and counsels of the sovereignties concerned for the maintenance of the faith of treaties, and preservation of the common tranquility."

On July 9, 1792, Thomas Jefferson wrote Gov. Chittenden from Philadelphia that, "I have the honor to enclose you sundry papers communicated to me by the British Minister residing here, which have been duly laid before the President of the United States, and further to solicit from your Excellency information as to the facts therein stated, and while I am authorized to assure you that the government is proceeding sincerely and steadily to obtain by the way of negotiation a relinquishment of our territory held by the British,