cticut River"; "east by a line to be drawn along the middle
of the river St. Croix from its mouth, in the Bay of Fundy, to its
source, and from its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands
which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those
which fall into the St. Lawrence."

The first object, starting place, or _terminus a quo_, is this
_northwest angle of Nova Scotia_. It is the corner of the British
Province _designated by themselves_. It was presumed, and it is still
believed, that they knew the identical spot; we have a right to demand
of them to define it. In the treaty of 1783 they were disposed to define
it, and hence they say it is _that angle which is formed by a line drawn
due north from the source of the St. Croix to those highlands which
divide the rivers that flow into the St. Lawrence from those which flow
into the Atlantic Ocean_.

Nothing can be more clear than that the British negotiators of the
treaty of 1783 had reference to their east and west line between Canada
and Nova Scotia. This in 1755-56 was matter of controversy between
France and England, the French claiming that it was far south and the
British strenuously contending that these very highlands were even more
north than we have endeavored to fix them.

The controversy resulted in a war, which, after the capture of Quebec,
was terminated by the peace of 1763, whereby Great Britain obtained both
sides of the line, and she then established the north line of Nova
Scotia about where we contend it should be. So far from admitting that
a due north line from the monument will not intersect the highlands
intended by the treaty of 1783, the State of Maine has always insisted,
and still insists, that no known obstacle exists to the ascertaining and
accurately defining them, and thus establishing the _terminus a quo, to
wit, the northwest angle of Nova Scotia_. It would seem strange, indeed,
that this line, so fully discussed and controverted between the English
and French in 1755-56, should have been left unsettled still when both
Provinces became British. It is impossible to imagine such ignorance of
so important a point as this northwest angle, so often referred to and
spoken of as a notorious monument.

The peace of 1783 was considered by Great Britain as _a grant by metes
and bounds_. The boundaries were prescribed, and this northwest angle
was _the commencement_. Twenty years only before this (1763) Nova Scotia
had be