which flows neither into the St.
Lawrence nor the Atlantic, but into the Bay of Fundy, far east of the
St. Croix. In later years the historian Sparks found in Paris a map on
which Franklin himself had marked in December, 1782, with a heavy red
line, what was then considered the true natural boundary between the two
countries. Mr. Sparks admitted in sending the map that it conceded more
than Great Britain actually claimed, and that "the line from the St.
Croix to the Canadian highlands is intended to exclude [from the
territory of the United States] all the waters running into the St.
John." Canadians have always believed with reason that that portion of
the present state of Maine, through which the Aroostook and other
tributaries of the St. John flow, is actually British territory. If we
look at the map of Canada we see that the state of Maine now presses
like a huge wedge into the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec as a
sequence of the unfortunate mistakes of 1796, 1835, and 1842, on the
part of England and her agents. In these later times a "Canadian short
line" railway has been forced to go through Maine in order to connect
Montreal with St. John, and other places in the maritime provinces. Had
the true St. Croix been chosen in 1796, or President Jackson's offer
accepted in 1835, this line could go continuously through Canadian
territory, and be entirely controlled by Canadian legislation.

Another boundary question was the subject of much heated controversy
between England and the United States for more than a quarter of a
century, and in 1845 brought the two countries very close to war. In
1819 the United States obtained from Spain a cession of all her rights
and claims north of latitude forty-two, or the southern boundary of the
present state of Oregon. By that time the ambition of the United States
was not content with the Mississippi valley, of which she had obtained
full control by the cession of the Spanish claims and by the Louisiana
purchase of 1803, but looked to the Pacific coast, where she made
pretensions to a territory stretching from 42 deg. to 54 deg. 40' north
latitude, or a territory four times the area of Great Britain and
Ireland, or of the present province of Ontario. The claims of the two
nations to this vast region rested on very contradictory statements with
respect to priority of discovery, and that occupation and settlement
which should, within reasonable limits, follow discovery; and as