his
understanding, have proceeded to do acts which if followed out would
change the political state of part of the disputed land. But it has
not been so followed out; it is disavowed by the power whose assent
is necessary to carry it into execution. It is therefore of no avail,
and can have no more effect than if the same number of men had met at
Madawaska and declared themselves duly elected members of the British
Parliament. The act interferes with no right; it comes in actual
collision with no established power. Not so the punishment of the
individuals concerned. This is at once a practical decision of the
question, and may lead to retaliating legal measures; for if the
lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick feels himself obliged, as he says
he does, to impose the authority of the law within which he thinks
the boundaries of his Province, will not the same feeling incite the
governor of Maine, under the same sense of duty, to pursue the like
measures? And thus the fruits of moderation and mutual forbearance
during so long a period will be lost for the want of perseverance in
them for the short time that is now wanting to bring the controversy
to an amicable close. It is therefore, sir, that I invite your
interposition with his excellency the lieutenant-governor of New
Brunswick to induce him to set at liberty the persons arrested, on their
engagement to make no change in the state of things until the business
shall be finally decided between the two Governments.

On our part, the desire of the General Government to avoid any measures
tending to a change in the existing state of things on our northeast
boundary has been fully and, it is believed, efficaciously expressed to
the executive of the State of Maine, so that the actual relation of the
State with the neighboring Province will not in future suffer any
change.

I have great pleasure, sir, in renewing on this occasion the assurance
of my high consideration.

EDWD. LIVINGSTON.

[Footnote 16: Omitted.]

_Mr. Bankhead to Mr. Livingston_.

WASHINGTON, _October 20, 1831_.

Hon. EDWARD LIVINGSTON, Esq., etc.:

The undersigned, His Britannic Majesty's charge d'affaires, has the
honor to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Livingston's note of the 17th
instant, in answer to a representation which the undersigned thought
it his duty to make to the Government of the United States upon a
violation committed upon the territory at present in dispute between
the two c