party that
would follow its adoption as a boundary. Another recommendation of the
river line, it was supposed, would be found by Her Majesty's Government
in the fact that whilst by its adoption the right of jurisdiction alone
would have been yielded to the United States over that portion of New
Brunswick south of the St. John, Great Britain would have acquired the
right of soil as well as of jurisdiction of the whole portion of the
disputed territory north of the river. It is to be lamented that the
imposing considerations alluded to have failed in their desired
effect--that the hopes of the President in regard to them have not been
realized, and consequently that Her Britannic Majesty's Government is
not prepared at present to enter into an arrangement of the existing
difference between the two nations upon the basis proposed.

It would seem to the undersigned, from an expression used in Mr. Fox's
late communication, that some misapprehension exists on his part either
as to the object of this Government in asking for information relative
to the manner in which the report of a commission of exploration and
survey might tend to a practical result in the settlement of the
boundary question or as to the distinctive difference between the
American proposal for the appointment of such a commission and the
same proposition when modified to meet the wishes of Her Majesty's
Government. Of the two modes suggested, by direction of the President,
for constituting such a commission, the first is that which is regarded
by Her Majesty's Government with most favor, viz, the commissioners to
be chosen in equal numbers by each of the two parties, with an umpire
selected by some friendly European sovereign to decide on all points on
which they might disagree, with instructions to explore the disputed
territory in order to find within its limits dividing highlands
answering to the description of the treaty of 1783, in a due north or
northwesterly direction from the monument at the head of the St. Croix,
and that a right line drawn between such highlands and said monument
should form so far as it extends a part of the boundary between the two
countries, etc. It is now intimated that Her Majesty's Government will
not withhold its consent to such a commission "if the principle upon
which it is to be formed and the manner in which it is to proceed can be
satisfactorily settled." This condition is partially explained by the
suggestion afterwar