not impossible,
for any power to perform that office without great delay and much
inconvenience to itself, a proposal has been made by this Government,
and acceded to by that of Great Britain, to endeavor to establish that
boundary by amicable negotiation. It appearing from long experience
that no satisfactory arrangement could be formed of the commercial
intercourse between the United States and the British colonies in this
hemisphere by legislative acts while each party pursued its own course
without agreement or concert with the other, a proposal has been made
to the British Government to regulate this commerce by treaty, as it has
been to arrange in like manner the just claim of the citizens of the
United States inhabiting the States and Territories bordering on the
lakes and rivers which empty into the St. Lawrence to the navigation of
that river to the ocean. For these and other objects of high importance
to the interests of both parties a negotiation has been opened with the
British Government which it is hoped will have a satisfactory result.

The commissioners under the sixth and seventh articles of the treaty of
Ghent having successfully closed their labors in relation to the sixth,
have proceeded to the discharge of those relating to the seventh. Their
progress in the extensive survey required for the performance of their
duties justifies the presumption that it will be completed in the
ensuing year.

The negotiation which had been long depending with the French Government
on several important subjects, and particularly for a just indemnity for
losses sustained in the late wars by the citizens of the United States
under unjustifiable seizures and confiscations of their property, has
not as yet had the desired effect. As this claim rests on the same
principle with others which have been admitted by the French Government,
it is not perceived on what just ground it can be rejected. A minister
will be immediately appointed to proceed to France and resume the
negotiation on this and other subjects which may arise between the two
nations.

At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through the
minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power and instructions
have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St.
Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and
interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent.
A similar proposal had been made