onvey through Mr. Fox to Her Majesty's
Government more correct impressions respecting them calls for a
recurrence to the subject, and a brief review of the correspondence
which has grown out of it may tend to remove the erroneous views which
prevail as to the manner in which the terms of the arrangements referred
to have been observed.

As Mr. Fox had no authority to make any agreement respecting the
exercise of jurisdiction over the disputed territory, that between him
and the undersigned of the 27th of February, 1839. had for its object
some provisional arrangement for the restoration and preservation of
peace in the territory. To accomplish this object it provided that Her
Majesty's officers should not seek to expel by military force the armed
party which had been sent by Maine into the district bordering on the
Restook River, and that, on the other hand, the government of Maine
would voluntarily and without needless delay withdraw beyond the bounds
of the disputed territory any armed force then within them. Besides
this, the arrangement had other objects--the dispersion of notorious
trespassers and the protection of public property from depredation.
In case future necessity should arise for this, the operation was to
be conducted by concert, jointly or separately, according to agreement
between the governments of Maine and New Brunswick.

In this last-mentioned respect the agreement looked to some further
arrangement between Maine and New Brunswick. Through the agency of
General Scott one was agreed to on the 23d and 25th of March following,
by which Sir John Harvey bound himself not to seek, without renewed
instructions to that effect from his Government, to take military
possession of the territory or to expel from it by military force
the armed civil posse or the troops of Maine. On the part of Maine
it was agreed by her governor that no attempt should be made, without
renewed instructions from the legislature, to disturb by arms the
Province of New Brunswick in the possession of the Madawaska settlements
or interrupt the usual communications between that and the upper
Provinces. As to possession and jurisdiction, they were to remain
unchanged--each party holding, in fact, possession of part of the
disputed territory, but each denying the right of the other to do so.
With that understanding Maine was without unnecessary delay to withdraw
her military force, leaving only, under a land agent, a small civil
posse,