ds made that instead of leaving the umpire to be
chosen by some friendly European power it might be better that he
should be elected by the members of the commission themselves, and a
modification is then proposed that "the commission shall be instructed
to look for highlands which both parties might acknowledge as fulfilling
the conditions of the treaty." The American proposition is intended--and
it agreed to would doubtless be successful--to decide the question of
boundary definitively by the adoption of the highlands reported by the
commissioners of survey, and would thus secure the treaty line. The
British modification looks to no such object. It merely contemplates
a commission of boundary analogous to that appointed under the fifth
article of the treaty of Ghent, and would in all probability prove
equally unsatisfactory in practice. Whether highlands such as are
described in the treaty do or do not exist, it can scarcely be hoped
that those called for by the modified instructions could be found.
The fact that this question is still pending, although more than half
a century has elapsed since the conclusion of the treaty in which it
originated, renders it in the highest degree improbable that the two
Governments can unite in believing that either the one or the other of
the ranges of highlands claimed by the respective parties fulfills the
required conditions of that instrument. The opinions of the parties have
been over and over again expressed on this point and are well known to
differ widely. The commission can neither reconcile nor change these
variant opinions resting on conviction, nor will it be authorized to
decide the difference. Under these impressions of the inefficiency of
such a commission was the inquiry made in the letter of the undersigned
of 5th March, 1836, as to the manner in which the report of the
commission, as proposed to be constituted and instructed by Her
Majesty's Government, was expected to lead to an ultimate settlement of
the question of boundary. The results which the American proposition
promised to secure were fully and frankly explained in previous notes
from the Department of State, and had its advantages not been clearly
understood this Government would not have devolved upon that of Her
Majesty the task of illustrating them. Mr. Fox will therefore see that
although the proposal to appoint a commission had its origin with
this Government the modification of the American proposition