appears to be the avowed design of the state of Maine sooner or later to attempt.

For the undersigned has' to observe, that not only is the extensive system of encroachment, which was denounced and remonstrated against by the undersigned in his official note of the 2d of last November, carried on and persisted in by armed bands, employed by the authorities of Maine in the districts above the Aroostook and Fish rivers, but that acts, as above stated, of a character yet more violent and obnoxious to the rights of Great Britain, and more dangerous to the preservation of the general peace, are with certainty meditated by the inhabitants of that state. The existence of such designs has for months past been a matter of notoriety by public report; those designs were plainly indicated in the recent message of the governor of Maine to the legislature of the state; and they are avowed in more explicit terms in the letter addressed to the president of the United States by the governor of Maine on the 21st of November, which letter has, within the last few days, been communicated to congress, and published.

The undersigned, it is true, has been assured by the secretary of state, in his note of the 16th instant, that the general government see no reason to doubt the disposition of the governor of Maine to adhere to the existing arrangements, and to avoid all acts tending to render more difficult and distant the final adjustment of the boundary question. But in face of the above clear indications of the intentions of Maine, as given out by the parties themselves, the secretary of state has not given to the undersigned any adequate assur

ance that Maine will be constrained to desist from carrying those intentions into effect, if, contrary to the expectation of the general government, the legislature or the executive of the state should think fit to make the attempt.

The undersigned not only preserves the hope, but he entertains the firm belief, that if the duty of negotiating the boundary question be left in the hands of the two national governments, to whom alone of right it belongs, the difficulty of conducting the negotiation to an amicable issue will not be found so great as has been by many persons apprehended. But the case will become wholly altered if the people of the state of Maine, who, though interested in the result, are not charged with the negotiation, shall attempt to interrupt it by violence.

Her majesty's authorities in North America have on their part no desire or intention to interfere with the course of the pending negotiation by an exertion of military force; but they will, as at present advised, consult their own discretion in adopting measures of defence that may be rendered necessary by the threats of a violent interruption to the negotiation which have been used by all parties in Maine, and which the undersigned regrets to find confirmed by the language (as above referred to) employed by the highest official authority in that state.

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the secretary of state of the United States the assurance of his distinguished consideration.

H. S. Fox.
The hon. J. Forsyth, &c.

The undersigned, secretary of state of the United States, has the honour to reply, by direction of the president, to the note addressed to him on the 26th inst. by Mr. Fox, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain.

"The president derives great satisfaction from the information conveyed by Mr. Fox's note, that with reference to the reported movements of British troops within the territory in dispute, no actual change has taken place in the attitude of her majesty's authorities in the territory since the arrangements entered into by the two governments at the commencement of last year for the preservation of tranquillity within its limits, and from his assurances that there exists no intention on the part of her majesty's authorities to infringe the terms of those arrangements, so long as they are faithfully observed on the side of the United States. The president, however, cannot repress a feeling of regret that the British colonial authorities, without graver motives than the possibility of a departure from the arrangements by the state of Maine, should take upon themselves the discretion, and along with it the fearful responsibility of probable consequences, of being guided by circumstances, liable as these are to be misapprehended and misjudged in the adoption within the disputed territory of measures of defence and precaution, in manifest violation of the understanding between the two countries, whenever they may imagine that acts of hostile aggression over the disputed territory are meditated or threatened on the

part of the state of Maine. The president cannot but hope that, when her majesty's government at home shall be apprised of the position assumed in this regard by its colonial agents, proper steps will be taken to place the performance of express and solemn agreements upon a more secure basis than colonial discretion, to be exercised on apprehended disregard of such agreements on the part of the state of Maine.

It is gratifying to the president to perceive that Mr. Fox entertains the firm belief that the difficulty of conducting to an amicable issue the pending negotiation for the adjustment of the question of boundary is not so great as has by many persons been apprehended. As, under a corresponding convic tion, the United States have, with a view to the final settlement of that exciting question, submitted a proposition for the consideration of her majesty's government, the president hopes that sentiments expressed by Mr. Fox have their foundation in an expectation of his having it in his power at an early day to communicate to this government a result of the deliberations had by that of her Britannic majesty upon the proposition alluded to, which will present the prospect of a prompt and satisfactory settlement, and which, when known to the state of Maine, will put an end to all grounds of apprehensions of intentions or disposition on her part to adopt any measures calculated to embarrass the negotiation, or to involve a departure from the provisional arrangements. In the existence of those arrangements the United States behold an earnest of the mutual desire of the two governments to divest a question abound

ing in causes of deep and growing excitement of as much as possible of the asperity and hostile feeling it is calculated to engender; but, unless attended with the most scrupulous observance of the spirit and letter of their provisions, it would prove but one more cause, added to the many already prevailing, of enmity and discord.

Mr. Fox has already been made the channel of conveyance to his government of the desire and determination of the president that the obligations of the country shall

be faithfully discharged; that desire is prompted by a sense of expediency as well as of justice, and by an anxions wish to preserve the amicable relations now, so manifestly for the advantage of both, subsisting between the the United States and Great Britain.

The undersigned avails himself of the occasion to renew to Mr. Fox assurances of his distinguished consideration. JOHN FORSYTH.

Henry S. Fox, Esq. &c.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON TO

MR. FOX.

Foreign-office, June 3, 1840. I send you herewith three copies of the report and map presented to her majesty's government by colonel Mudge and Mr. Featherstonhaugh, the commissioners who were employed last year to survey the disputed territory.

You will immediately transmit to Mr. Forsyth two copies of the report and of the map, saying, that it is only within the last few days that these documents have been in the hands of her majesty's government; that it will of course be the duty of her majesty's government to lay this report before parliament, but that her majesty's government wish, as a mark of courtesy and respect towards the government of the United States, that a document bearing upon a

question of much interest and importance to the two countries should, in the first place, be communicated to the president. You will further state, that the British government continues to feel an unabated desire to bring the longpending questions about the boundary between the United States and the British possessions in North America to a final and satisfactory settlement.

It is obvious that these questions must be beset with various and considerable inherent difficulties, or they would not have remained open ever since the year 1783, notwithstanding the many and earnest endeavours made by both governments to bring them to an adjustment.

But her majesty's government do not abandon the hope that the sincere desire felt by both parties

to arrive at an amicable arrangement will at length be crowned with success.

The best clue to guide the two governments in their future proceedings may perhaps be derived from an examination of the causes of past failure; and the most prominent among these causes has certainly been a want of correct information as to the topographical features and physical character of the district in dispute. This want of adequate information may be traced as one of the difficulties which embarrassed the Netherlands government in its endeavours to decide the points submitted to

it in 1830.

It has been felt by the British government, by the United States government, and even by the government of the contiguous state of Maine.

The British government and the government of the United States agreed, therefore, two years ago, that a survey of the disputed territory, by a joint commission, would be the measure best calculated to elucidate and solve the question at issue.

The president accordingly proposed such a commission, and the British government consented to it; and it was believed by the British government that the general principles upon which the commission was to be guided in its local operations had been settled by mutual agreement, arrived at by means of a correspondence which took place between the two governments in 1837 and 1838.

The British government accordingly transmitted in April of last year, for the consideration of the president, the draught of a convention to regulate the proceedings of the proposed commission,

The preamble of that draught recited textually the agreement which had been come to, by means of notes which had been exchanged between the two governments; and the articles of the draught were framed, as her majesty's government considered, in strict conformity with that agreement.

But the government of the United States did not think proper to assent to the convention so proposed.

That government did not, indeed, allege that the proposed convention was at variance with the result of the previous corresponddence between the two governments; but it thought that convention would establish a joint commission "of mere exploration and survey," and the president was of opinion that the step next to be taken by the two governments ought to bear upon its face stipulations which must necessarily lead to a final settlement under some form or other, and within a reasonable time. The United States government accordingly sent to you, for transmission to her majesty's government, a counter draught of convention varying considerably, as Mr. Forsyth admitted, in some parts from the draught as proposed by her majesty's government. But Mr. Forsyth added, that the United States government did not deem it necessary to comment upon the alterations so made, as the text of the counter-draught will be found sufficiently perspicuous.

Her majesty's government certainly might have expected that some reasons would have been given, to explain why the United States government declined to confirm an arrangement which was founded on propositions made by

that government itself, and upon modifications to which that government had agreed; or that, if the American government thought that the draught of convention thus proposed to it was not in conformity with the previous agreement, it would have pointed out in what respect the two differed.

Her majesty's government, however, in the present state of this question, concur with the government of the United States in thinking that it is on every account expedient that the next measure to be taken by the two governments should contain, in its details, arrangements which should necessarily lead to some final settlement; but they think that the convention which they proposed last year to the president, instead of being framed so as to constitute a mere commission of exploration and survey, did, on the contrary, contain stipulations calculated to lead to the final ascertainment of the boundary which is to be determined.

There was, however, undoubtedly an essential difference between the British draught and the American counter-draught. The British draught contained no provision embodying the principle of arbitration. The American counter-draught did contain such a provision.

The British draught contained no provision for arbitration, because the principle of arbitration had not been proposed on either side during the negotiations upon which that draught was founded, and because, moreover, it was understood at that time that the principle of arbitration would be decidedly objected to by the United States.

But, as the United States' go-
VOL. LXXXII.

vernment have expressed a wish to embody that principle in the proposed convention, the British government is perfectly willing to accede to that wish. You are, therefore, instructed to state to Mr. Forsyth that her majesty's government consent to the two principles which form the main foundation of the American counter-draught:-namely, first, that the commission to be appointed should be so constituted as necessarily to lead to a final settlement of the questions at issue between the two countries: and, secondly, that in order to secure such a result, the convention by which the commission is to be created should contain a provision for arbitration upon points as to which the British and American commissioners may not be able to agree.

You will, at the same time, say, that there are some matters of detail in the American counterdraught which her majesty's government could not adopt, but that you will, by a very early opportunity, receive an amended draught to be submitted to the consideration of the president; and that you will, at the same time, be instructed to propose to the president a local and temporary arrangement, for the purpose of preventing collisions within the limits of the disputed territory.

The following are some extracts: