ge proportion of them were accustomed to the
sea and could send swarms of privateers to prey on British commerce.
Independent citizens would be even more formidable than were the
rebellious colonists in the earlier struggle with the mother country,
and, acting in conjunction with France, could effectively maintain
a contest. Considerations of this nature doubtless induced the
Addington ministry to acquiesce quietly in a treaty whose origin
and whose assured results were in every way distasteful, and even
offensive, to the British Government.

The extent and boundaries of the territory thus ceded by France
were ill-defined, and, in fact, unknown. The French negotiator
who conferred with Monroe and Livingston, declared a large portion
of the country transferred to be no better known at the time "than
when Columbus landed at the Bahamas." There was no way by which
accurate metes and bounds could be described. This fact disturbed
the upright and conscientious Marbois, who thought that "treaties
of territorial cession should contain a guaranty from the grantor."
He was especially anxious, moreover, that no ambiguous clauses
should be introduced in the treaty. He communicated his troubles
on this point to the First Consul, advising him that it seemed
impossible to construct the treaty so as to free it from obscurity
on the important matter of boundaries. Far from exhibiting any
sympathy with his faithful minister's solicitude on this point,
Bonaparte quietly informed him that, "if an obscurity did not
already exist, it would perhaps be good policy to put one in the
treaty." In the possibilities of the First Consul's future, the
acquisition of Spanish America may have been expected, or at least
dreamed of, by him; and an ill-defined, uncertain boundary for
Louisiana might possibly, in a few years, be turned greatly to his
advantage.

EXPANSION OF OUR BOUNDARIES.

There was certainly obscurity enough in the transfer to satisfy
the fullest desire of Bonaparte. France ceded Louisiana to the
United States "with all its rights and appurtenances," as acquired
by the retrocession from Spain under the treaty of San Ildefonso,
Oct. 1, 1800; and by that treaty Spain had "transferred it to France
with the same extent it then had in the hands of Spain, and that
it had when France previously possessed it, and such as it should
be with the treaties subsequently entered into between