Great Britain is surely still more entitled to insist upon a similar
pretension, and to assert that until the line of the treaty shall be
established to the satisfaction of both parties the whole of the
disputed territory ought to be considered as belonging to the British
Crown, because Great Britain is the original possessor, and all the
territory which has not been proved to have been by treaty ceded by her
must be looked upon as belonging to her still. But the very existence
of such conflicting pretensions seems to point out the expediency of a
compromise, and what compromise can be more fair than that which would
give to each party one-half of the subject-matter of dispute?

A conventional line different from that described in the treaty was
agreed to, as stated by Mr. Forsyth in his note of the 28th of April,
1835, with respect to the boundary westward from the Lake of the Woods.
Why should such a line not be agreed to likewise for the boundary
eastward from the river Connecticut?

Her Majesty's Government can not refrain from again pressing this
proposition upon the serious consideration of the Government of the
United States as the arrangement which would be best calculated to
effect a prompt and satisfactory settlement between the two powers.

The Government of the United States, indeed, while it expressed a doubt
of its being able to obtain the assent of Maine to the above-mentioned
proposal, did, nevertheless, express its readiness to apply to the State
of Maine for the assent of that State to the adoption of another
conventional line, which should make the river St. John from its source
to its mouth the boundary between the two countries. But it is difficult
to understand upon what grounds any expectation could have been formed
that such a proposal could be entertained by the British Government,
for such an arrangement would give to the United States even greater
advantages than they would obtain by an unconditional acquiescence in
their claim to the whole of the disputed territory, because such an
arrangement would, in the first place, give to Maine all that part of
the disputed territory which lies to the south of the St. John, and
would, in the next place, in exchange for the remaining part of the
disputed territory which lies to the north of the St. John, add to
the State of Maine a large district of New Brunswick lying between
the United States boundary and the southern part of the course of
the St. J