NEW ENGLAND GAZETTEER.

river to the highlands ; along the said highlands which divide those riv-
ers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which
fall into the Atlantic ocean, to the north westernmost head of the Connec-
ticut river.”    -    •

“Our commissioners at Ghent, having successfully resisted every attempt
for the dismemberment of Maine, agreedjupon an article with the British
commissioners, not to revise or to change the ancient treaty boundary,
but to run and establish upon the ground that very boundary, without
any alteration, and to'ascertain “ the northwest angle .of Nova Scotia; ”
its place of beginning. This article is the fifth in the treaty. Under it,
each party appointed a commissioner. These commissioners disagreed.
According to the treaty, the -question was then referred to the King of the
Netherlands, as umpire, whose award was rejected by the United States,
because it did not even profess to decide the controversy according to the
terms of the submission, but proposed a compromise, by a division of the
disputed territory between the parties. Great Britian has also since an-
nounced her abandonment of this award; and now, at the end of more
than half a century after the conclusion of the treaty of 1783, the ques-
tion not only remains unsettled, but threatens to involve the two nations in
a dangerous dispute.

“ The northwest angle of Nova Scotia was a well known point, capa-
ble of being easily ascertained, ever since the proclamation of 1763, by
simply running a due north line from the source of the St. Croix, to in-
tersect the southern line of the Province of Quebec, which consists of
the highlands running from the western extremity of the bay of Chaleiir,
to the head of Connecticut river, and dividing those rivers that empty
themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the
Atlantic ocean. It is certain as the laws of nature, that these highlands,
from which we know that streams do flow in opposite directions, can be.
found on the face of the country.

“ The whole argument of the British government rests upon the assump-
tion that the St. John’s is not a river falling into the Atlantic ocean, be-
cause it has its mouth in the Bay of Fundy. What is the Bay of Fundy,
if it be not a part of the Atlantic ocean ? A bay is -a mere opening of
the main ocean into the land—a mere interruption of the uniformity of
the 6ea coast by an indentation of water. These portions of the ocean
have received the name of bays, solely to distinguish them from the
remainder of the vast deep to which they belong. Would it not be the
merest special pleading to contend that the bay of Naples was not a por-
tion of the Mediterranean, or that the Bay of Biscay was not a part of
the Atlantic ocean ?

“ Again, the description of the treaty is. “ rivers which fall into the
20