commission as proposed to be
constituted and instructed by the British Government might tend to a
practical result was unfounded. Mr. Fox was also given to understand
that any decision made by a commission constituted in the manner
proposed by the United States and instructed to seek for the highlands
of the treaty of 1783 would be binding upon this Government and could
be carried into effect without unnecessary delay; but if the substitute
presented by Her Majesty's Government should be insisted on and its
principles be adopted, it would then be necessary to resort to the State
of Maine for her assent in all proceedings relative to the matter, since
any arrangement under it can only be for a conventional line to which
she must be a party.

In conclusion, it was intimated to Mr. Fox that if a negotiation be
entertained by this Government at all upon the unsatisfactory basis
afforded by the British counter proposition or substitute, the President
will not invite it unless the authorities of the State of Maine shall
think it more likely to lead to an adjustment of the question of
boundary than the General Government deemed it to be, although
predisposed to see it in the most favorable light.

Your excellency will perceive that in the course of these proceedings,
but without abandoning the attempt to adjust the treaty line, steps
necessary, from the want of power in the Federal Government, of an
informal character, have been taken to test the dispositions of the
respective Governments upon the subject of substituting a conventional
for the treaty line. It will also be seen from the correspondence that
the British Government, despairing of a satisfactory adjustment of
the line of the treaty, avows its willingness to enter upon a direct
negotiation for the settlement of a conventional line if the assent
of the State of Maine to that course can be obtained.

Whilst the obligations of the Federal Government to do all in its power
to effect a settlement of this boundary are fully recognized on its
part, it has in the event of its being unable to do so specifically by
mutual consent no other means to accomplish the object amicably than by
another arbitration, or a commission, with an umpire, in the nature of
an arbitration. In the contingency of all other measures failing the
President will feel it to be his duty to submit another proposition to
the Government of Great Britain to refer the decision of the question to
a third