of the St. Croix, is 500 feet lower than the lands at the Restigouche.  And yet the pretense is that there are no highlands but this detached spur, Mars Hill!  Still further, the highest position surveyed is nearly 50 miles short of the Melis, which falls into the St. Lawrence, and we do not perceive that the elevations have been taken there at all, but we do find it is here that the waters separate, and consequently the land must be still higher.

In failure of highlands (assumed not to exist), the British negotiators claim a line which, instead of dividing the St. Lawrence and Atlantic waters, would actually extend between two rivers, both of which fall into the Atlantic.

To say nothing of the absurdity, not to say ignorance, of such a claim, it is enough that it is in the teeth of the treaty itself.  It is painful to repeat the argument that no other highlands were intended, for all others were expressly excluded but those which divide the waters that flow in those different directions.  The effect of their construction, as we all know, is to give them the whole of the St. John, with all its tributaries, and a tract of territory south of that river equal at least to 75 miles square.

Whether from the peaceful spirit of our Government, the Christian patience of Maine, or the “modest assurance” of the British negotiators—­any or all—­certain it is that His Britannic Majesty’s pretensions are growing every day.  It is not only an afterthought, but one very recently conceived, that we were to be driven south of the St. John.

His Britannic Majesty’s agent, Mr. Chipman, who has been lately urging us south of that river, was also agent to the commission, under the treaty of 1795, to ascertain the true St. Croix, and in insisting on a more western branch of this river gives as a reason that a line due north will cross the St, John farther up, whereas if you take an eastern branch such line will cross near Frederickton, the seat of government of New Brunswick, and materially infringe upon His Majesty’s Province.  He not only admits, but contends, that this north line must cross the river.  Here are his words:  “This north line must of necessity cross the river St. John.”  Mr. Liston, the British minister, in a private letter to Mr. Chipman of 23d October, 1798, recommends a modification of the powers of the commissioners for the reason that it might give Great Britain a greater extent of navigation on the St. John River.  The same agent, Mr. Chipman, was also agent under the fourth article of the treaty of Ghent, and we find him contending there “that the northwest angle of Nova Scotia is the same designated in the grant to Sir William Alexander in 1621, subject only to such alterations as were occasioned by the erection of the Province of Quebec in 1763.”  Now we have already seen that this south line of the Province of Quebec, so far from altering this northwest angle, in fact confirms it.