such islands as now are, or heretofore have been, within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia." Treaty of Paris, 1783. Art. 2.

It is obvious that after this treaty, the circuit described by the foregoing lines, whether conforming or not to the previous limits of the several states, was to be taken for the whole extent of the new nation. But it is certain also that these lines were drawn with a general regard to the charter limits of the provinces ; and were intended to secure to each of them what might fairly be presumed to have been within their original territory.

On an occasion presently to be mentioned, this fact was rendered certain by the deposition of the American plenipotentiaries, who negotiated the preliminary articles of peace in 1782, and the definitive treaty in 1783– The honourable John Adams and honourable John Jay, on the occasion above referred to, gave testimony under oath that various propositions were made as to the eastern limits of the United States, and that it was proposed by one of the American negotiators to extend them to the St. Johns; and by the English ministers to confine them first to the Piscatuqua and afterwards to the Penobscot; but that it was finally agreed to establish as a principle, that the charter limits of Massachusetts should govern in the location of boundary,' and consequently, the St. Croix was fixed upon as the dividing stream. This testimony was fully corroborated by a letter from Dr. Franklin, the other negotiator on the part of the United States. The English plenipotentiaries had deceased before the above testimony was required, but the high character of the deponents establishes the point beyond all question.

The treaty of 1783, although thus governed in its general principles by former charters, did nevertheless in one respect adopt certain provisions altogether its own. The two parallel eastern lines were for the first time drawn by this treaty, and the jurisdiction over islands within twenty leagues of the coast, is a provision originating with that instrument. In the colony charter of Massachusetts A. D. 1628, the jurisdiction from the shore is confined to six leagues, and when the five several provinces of New Plymouth, Massachusetts, the District of Maine, Acadia or Nova Scotia, and the territory between Nova Scotia and the District of Maine, were by charter of William and Mary in 1691 united into one real province by the name of Massachusetts, the jurisdiction over islands extended only to such as were within ten leagues of the main land. The treaty of 1783 enlarged it to twenty leagues, yet that provision did not in fact give any actual accession of territory.

While this treaty made the above nominal addition on the seaboard, it contracted the interiour limits of several of the provinces ;-but inasmuch as the territory thus included had never been actually occupied or disposed of under the charter, the reduction, like the enlargement, might be considered as merely nominal; and the United States, for every valuable purpose, covered the same extent of country that had been comprehended within the provinces, of which the new nation was composed.

It has often heen suggested that at the treaty of peace, as on some subsequent occasions, the superiour intelligence of the American ministers is seen in the result of the negotiations; and that a better acquaintance with the geography of their own country, than was possessed by their opponents, enabled them to secure to the United States a jurisdiction and territory beyond the limits originally intended to have been confirmed to them.

The truth of this suggestion may well be doubted. The general principles on which the territory should be assigned were known to both parties. The application of these principles was regulated by a recurrence to the ancient charters of the frontier states, and to the best maps which then had been published; all of which, on the authority of the testimony above referred to, we now know to have been exhibited at the conferences of the ministers, by whom that treaty was negotiated.

But the lines, which by the treaty of peace of 1783 marked out the limits of the American Republick, are, it is easily seen, in many respects arbitrary; and even where natural monuments and boundaries are recognized, it was from description in existing books or maps, and not from actual delineation, that they became known to the plenipotentiaries. It is not wonderful if the lines, thus set down, were more or less inacurate or doubtful; because the best maps then extant are known from more recent surveys to have been in many respects erroneous. Nor is it strange, that the boundaries, which were then described, but not actually traced out or measured, should require, in after times, further elucidation. Vol. VI. No. 1.

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To determine the place intended by the description, required the concurrence of both the parties; thus, though it had been agreed on both sides, that the intersection of the 45th degree of north latitude with the river St. Lawrence, should be one point in the boundaries; yet, as it is probable that two successive observers would not fix on precisely the same point, it was necessary that the parties should also agree in regard to the results of the astronomical observations by which it should be determined. So the other points and lines of division between the United States and the neighbouring British provinces, required the concurrent determination of the two countries, before the places and lines of the treaty could be conclusively established.

It is, in some respects, an evidence of good neighbourhood that collisions on this point did not occur, and that there was not sooner a necessity of settling it. Such collision was however, in part, prevented by the sparse population of the frontiers, and probably also by a certain prescriptive authority in the ancient charters of the country.

A serious misunderstanding did however arise soon after the treaty of peace, relative to the eastern boundary therein mentioned.

By the provisions of the treaty the river St. Croix from its source to its mouth in the Bay of Fundy, is made the line of division between Nova Scotia and the United States. But there were three rivers in that part of the country, which had, in a greater or less degree, received that appellation. These rivers were known also by Indian names; the most westerly being called the Copscook-the middle the Scoodick-and the eastern, the Magaquadavie.

A difference of opinion had long before existed between Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, which of these rivers was the boundary of their respective colonies; for while on all sides it seemed to be admitted that the St. Croix was the real boundary, the question, even previous to the treaty of peace, was very much agitated, which of these three rivers was intended by that name.

So early as 1771 the government of Massachusetts sent commissioners to examine and report; and they returned an opinion that the eastern river was the charter limit of their province. The authorities at Nova Scotia, on the other hand, persisted in maintaining that the Copscook was the place intended, and on that principle had granted the main land and many of the intervening Islands.

The dispute assumed a serious aspect soon after the treaty of peace. The territory between the Scoodick and the Magaquadavie had been occupied during the revolutionary war by refugees from the United States, and principally from Massachusetts, under the authority of Nova Scotia, while many of the former inhabitants who had previously settled themselves under the presumption of being within the limits of Massachusetts, were driven off and their property confiscated during the period of hostility.

From 1783 until 1794 the troubles of contested jurisdiction were constantly increasing; application was made by the inhabitants to the legislature of Massachusetts-complaints were forwarded by Massachusetts to the government of the United States, and resolutions proposed in congress for taking actual and forcible possession of the disputed country.

These, with the other controversies existing at that period, were settled by the provisions of the treaty of 1794. commonly commonly called Jay's treaty. By the fifth article of that treaty it is provided, that

Whereas doubts have arisen what river was truly intended under the name of the river St. Croix, mentioned in the said treaty of peace (of 1783) and forming part of the boundary therein described, that question shall be referred to the final decision of commissioners to be appointed in the following manner, viz. One commissioner shall be named by his Majesty, and one by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the senate thereof, and the said two commissioners shall agree on the choice of a third; or if they cannot so agree, they shall each propose one person, and of the two names so proposed, one shall be drawn by lot in the presence of the two original commissioners, and the three commissioners so appointed shall be sworn, impartially to examine and decide the said question, according to such evidence as shall respectively be laid before them on the part of the British government, and of the United States. The said commissioners shall meet at Halifax, and shall have power to adjourn to such other place or places as they shall think fit.They shall have power to appoint a secretary, and to employ such surveyors or other persons as they shall judge necessary. The said commissioners shall, by a declaration under their hands and seals, decide what river is the river St. Croix, intended by the treaty. The said declaration shall contain a description of said

river, and shall particularize the latitude and longitude of its mouth and of its source. Duplicates of this declaration and of the statements of their accounts, and of the journal of their proceedings, shall be delivered by them to the agents of his Majesty, and to the agent of the United States, who may be respectively appointed and authorized to inanage the business on behalf of the respective governments. And both parties agree to consider such decision as final and conclusive, so as that the same shall never thereafter be called into question, or made the subject of dispute or difference between them."

The commission was opened at Halifax on the 30th day of August, 1796. The honourable Thomas Barclay appeared as commissioner on the part of his Britannick Majesty, and the honourable David Howell on the part of the United States. After some delay Egbert Benson, Esq. of New York was chosen by the joint vote of the two original commissioners as the third, according to the provision of the treaty.The business before the board thus organized, was confided, on the part of the United States, to the management of the late learned and indefatigable governour Sullivan. then Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ; and on the part of his Britannick Majesty, to the honourable Ward Chipman of St. Johns, New Brunswick, since one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of that province. On the part of the British government their Agent waived the claim to the Copscook, and asserted that the Scoodick was the river truly intended in the treaty by the name of the St. Croix; the American Agent preferred his claim to the Magaquadavie. as the intended boundary between the two countries. The territory between these two rivers depended on the decision of this novel international tribunal, and the zeal and ability with which the controversy was managed, were worthy the character of men, who had nations for their clients, and were conducting a peaceful suit for the possession of provinces.

In discharging the duties assigned them under this appointment, the commissioners resorted to the ancient description of the country by the first French voyagers from whom the name St. Croix might be supposed to have originated, and endeavoured to trace the identity of the stream, which first received that name, through the various historical or geographical descriptions of the country, in which the name was to be found.