that the boundary should pass from the head of Lake Superior through Long Lake to the north-west angle of the Lake of the Woods, and thence to the Mississippi, when, as a matter of fact there was no Long Lake, and the source of the Mississippi was actually a hundred miles or so to the south of the Lake of the Woods.  This curious blunder in the north-west was only rectified in 1842, when Lord Ashburton settled the difficulty by conceding to the United States an invaluable corner of British territory in the east (see below, p 299).

[Illustration:  INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY.  AS FINALLY ESTABLISHED IN 1842 AT LAKE OF THE WOODS]

The only practical advantage that the people of the provinces gained from the Treaty of Ghent, which closed the war of 1812—­15, was an acknowledgment of the undoubted fishery rights of Great Britain and her dependencies in the territorial waters of British North America.  In the treaty of 1783 the people of the United States obtained the “right” to fish on the Grand and other banks of Newfoundland, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and at “all other places in the sea, where the inhabitants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish”, but they were to have only “the liberty” of taking fish on the coasts of Newfoundland and also of “all other of his Britannic Majesty’s dominions in America; and also of drying and curing fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of Nova Scotia (then including New Brunswick), Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled.”  In the one case, it will be seen, there was a recognised right, but in the other only a mere “liberty” or privilege extended to the fishermen of the United States.  At the close of the war of 1812 the British government would not consent to renew the merely temporary liberties of 1783, and the United States authorities acknowledged the soundness of the principle that any privileges extended to the republic in British territorial waters could only rest on “conventional stipulation.”  The convention of 1818 forms the legal basis of the rights, which Canadians have always maintained in the case of disputes between themselves and the United States as to the fisheries on their own coasts, bays, and harbours of Canada.  It provides that the inhabitants of the United States shall have for ever the liberty to take, dry, and cure fish on certain parts of the coast of Newfoundland, on the Magdalen Islands and on the southern shores of Labrador, but they “renounce for ever any liberty, heretofore enjoyed” by them to take, dry, and cure fish, “on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays or creeks or harbours of his Britannic Majesty’s other dominions in America”; provided, however, that the American fishermen shall be admitted to enter such bays and harbours, for the purpose of shelter, and of repairing damages therein, of purchasing wood, and of obtaining water, and “for no other purpose whatever.”