No. 2.-The Earl of Aberdeen to Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt. SIR, Foreign Office, March 31, 1843. As you are about to proceed to The United States in order to undertake the important duties confided to you as Her Majesty's Commissioner for tracing, in conjunction with the Commissioner of The United States, the line of boundary between Her Majesty's dominions in North America and The United States, as provided by the Treaty of Washington of the 9th August, 1842, the time is arrived at which it is right that I should give you such instructions as may be necessary for your guidance in the proper discharge of those duties. You will, in the first place, proceed to Boston, accompanied by Mr. James Featherstonhaugh, one of the surveyors, and Mr. Scott, the secretary and draughtsman attached to your Commission, leaving Captains Broughton and Robinson, and Lieutenant Pipon to follow you by the mail-packet of the 18th April, those officers, accompanied by as many of the Sappers who are attached to the Commission as may be thought necessary, should be directed, after their arrival at Halifax or at Boston, as may be deemed expedient, to wait the receipt of instructions from you for their guidance in their ulterior proceedings. You will probably find it convenient again to make use of the building at the Great Falls of the River St. John, which was employed by the late Commission of Survey as a depôt for storing their instruments, &c. In case you should decide on applying that building once more to this use, you will give the requisite orders for preparing it accordingly. After your arrival at Boston, you will repair without unnecessary delay to Bangor, in the State of Maine, the place of meeting appointed by the Treaty, where you will put yourself into communication with The United States' Commissioner as soon as he arrives there. The 1st of May is the day of meeting appointed by the Treaty, but, if both the Commissioners reach Bangor before that time, there is no reason why they should not enter at once into a preliminary discussion of the objects to be undertaken by them. At your first interview with The United States' Commissioner, after having mutually produced and verified the powers under which you respectively act, you will at once declare to him that it is the carnest desire of Her Majesty's Government that the Commissioners of the 2 Governments should on all occasions act together with the utmost harmony and cordiality, and that you have accordingly been instructed to meet The United States' Commissioner in a spirit of perfect fairness and openness, and to seek by every proper means in your power to remove difficulties and facilitate the progress of the operations committed to your care. The great object which Her Majesty's Government have at heart is to accelerate as much as possible the completion of the line of boundary as laid down in the Ist Article of the Treaty of Washington. They are satisfied that by good will and activity on both sides the greater part, if not the whole, of that line may be so far scientifically completed in one season, as to enable Her Majesty's Government to dispense with the further survices of several of the gentlemen of science employed on the task, especially on the astronomical portions of it, leaving the remainder of the work to be finished in the succeeding season. With this object, and under this confident expectation alone, Her Majesty's Government have been induced to incur the great expense of sending out so strong and well appointed a Commission as that of which you are the head. You will urge this point earnestly upon your American colleague and omit no efforts to induce him to unite his endeavours with yours in pushing on the joint work with the greatest practicable celerity. With the view of attaining greater rapidity of action by narrowing the sphere of preliminary discussion and arrangement between the Commissioners, Her Majesty's Government thought it advisable recently to instruct Her Majesty's Minister at Washington to state to the Government of The United States that the British Commissioner would be instructed to suggest to the Commissioner of The United States the expediency of entering on and prosecuting their joint operations precisely in the successive order laid down in the Treaty of Washington, reserving, however, to themselves the power of ordering the execution of those operations to be carried on at several points of the line at once. This scheme, although not imperative on the 2 Governments, or their Commissioners, still appears to Her Majesty's Government to offer the fairest chance of a steady and rapid prosecution of the work, and you will accordingly, at your first conference with The United States' Commissioner, propose it as a general plan of proceeding. If, however, on further consideration on the spot, and after having discussed the matter with The United States' Commissioner, you should see good reason to prefer some other scheme of proceeding, you will not consider yourself bound to insist upon, or adhere to the above plan. In case your suggestion is acquiesced in by The United States' Commissioner, you will propose that, after agreeing upon the general line and mode of operations to be undertaken, both the Commissioners should proceed at once to the first point mentioned in the Treaty, namely, the monument at the source of the River St. Croix ; that they should there give all necessary directions for tracing the boundary line between that point and the point of intersection of the north line, as laid down in 1817-18, with the River St. John, and that, having set a sufficiency of hands on that part of the boundary to complete it, the Commissioners themselves should then repair to the said point of intersection at the River St. John, and proceed without delay to trace the line of boundary along that river and the River St. Francis. While this part of the work is in progress, parties of British and American surveyors, attended by their assistants, might, either jointly or separately, be detached, 1st, to the point at the outlet of the lake called in the Treaty Pohenagamook, in order to fix its position astronomically. 2ndly, to the point on the north-west branch of the St. John, described in the Treaty as 10 miles distant from the main River St. John. 3rdly, surveyors might be directed also to examine the country between the point on the north-west branch of the St. John and the main river, with a view to acquire a certain knowledge of the direction in which the 10-mile straight line would be carried from one river to the other. 4thly, a party might, at the same time, be sent to explore with accuracy the district lying between the point on the north-west branch of the St. John and the highlands designated in the Treaty, in order to ascertain in an authentic manner the distance between that point and the crest of those highlands, so as to enable the Commissioners, on their arrival at that part of the boundary, to order at once, on the knowledge thus acquired, that the various points described in the Treaty should be authoritatively established, and the line of boundary drawn from the one to the other. The same process might be adopted with equal utility with respect to the parallel of 46° 25′ north latitude on the south-west branch of the St. John, and the straight line to that point from the point on the north-west branch; as also to the remainder of the line of boundary as far as the Metjarmette Portage. By such a scheme of separate and simultaneous action, executed to as great an extent as our surveying force would admit, much time would be gained; and all the scientific and essential parts of the work might very possibly, as I have above hinted, be completed in one season, You cannot, therefore, too strongly and earnestly press the expediency and advantage of such a plan on the consideration of The United States' Commissioner. Having thus sketched out a general outline of the mode of proceeding which Her Majesty's Government consider best calculated to insure the rapid completion of the whole work, I proceed to give you instructions on the details of that work. In order the more clearly to present to your view the manner in which Her Majesty's Government conceive and desire that your operations should be conducted, I shall divide into 5 sections the various portions of the line of boundary to be traced, in the successive order in which they are described in the Treaty of Washington. 1. The first section will include the north line from the monument at the source of the St. Croix to its point of intersection with the River St. John. 2. The second section will include the line along the Rivers St. John and St. Francis to the outlet of the Lake Pohenagamook. 3. The third section will include the line from the outlet of the Lake Pohenagamook to the north-west branch of the River St. John. 4. The fourth section will include the line from the north-west branch of the St. John to the south-west branch of the same river; and thence to the intersection of the 45th parallel of north latitude with the River Connecticut. 5. The fifth section will include the line along the last-mentioned parallel of latitude, as hitherto received and understood, to the St. Lawrence. 1. With regard to the first section, or north line from the monument at the source of the River St. Croix to the intersection of that line with the River St. John, the Treaty provides that that part of the line of boundary shall be traced as follows: 66 Beginning at the monument at the source of the River St. Croix, as designated and agreed to by the Commissioners under the Vth Article of the Treaty of 1794* between the Governments of Great Britain and The United States; thence north, following the exploring line run and marked by the surveyors of the 2 Governments in the years 1817 and 1818, under the Vth Article of the Treaty of Ghent,† to its intersection with the River St. John, and to the middle of the channel thereof." Her Majesty's Government do not apprehend that this part of the line of boundary will meet with much difficulty in the execution. Many parts of the line, as marked in 1817, 1818, are, it is believed, perfectly well known, and traceable without trouble; and although in some parts the posts, or other marks which were placed by the Commissioners at that time along the exploring line surveyed by them, may have been partially removed, or effaced, or overgrown, yet it is believed that a sufficient knowledge of the line which they designated may be readily attained. The grants of lands made of late years by the Government of Maine to its citizens along that assumed frontier, and which were based on the received line in question, will much tend to elucidate its general direction. And the settlements made also on the British side of the same line by the inhabitants of New Brunswick will equally facilitate the acquirement of the desired knowledge. You will make every effort to ascertain with as much accuracy Vol. I. Page 784. as may be attainable, the exact direction of the old line explored and marked out by the joint Commissioners in 1817, 1818; and having satisfied yourself of the general correctness of the information which you may have collected, it will be requisite that, in conjunction with The United States' Commissioner, you should give orders for running and marking out the same line afresh in such manner as you shall jointly deem expedient. The monument at the source of the St. Croix being a point already established, it will not be necessary, in the first instance, to determine afresh its precise astronomical position. That operation, if required at all, may at all events be reserved until the return of the surveyors from tracing the western parts of the boundary line. The point of intersection of the north line, as assumed by the Treaty, with the River St. John, should be at once accurately ascertained and laid down. But, as it is obvious that no mark denoting the point of intersection can be conveniently placed in the middle of the river, it will be necessary that 2 corresponding marks should be placed to designate that point, the one on the right and the other on the left bank of the river. 2. I now proceed to the second section above enumerated, namely, that part of the line of boundary from the above named point of intersection to the outlet of the lake called in the Treaty Pohenagamook. The Treaty provides that this part of the boundary shall be laid down as follows: “Thence" (i. e., from the point of intersection of the north line with the St. John's)" up the middle of the main channel of the River St. John to the mouth of the River St. Francis; thence, up the middle of the channel of the River St. Francis, and of the lakes through which it flows, to the outlet of the Lake Pohenagamook." The main channel of a river is, necessarily, that channel through which the main body of its waters flows. This channel will, it is presumed, be generally ascertainable without much difficulty in most parts of the River St. John. Where, however, it is not clearly discernible, or where there are 2 or more channels, divided by islands, of nearly equal volume, the selection must be made, and the point determined, between the Commissioners by mutual agreement, and on the grounds of fair compromise. Along the whole of the channel so determined the line of bourdary must be traced and laid down in the maps which will be prepared according to the provision of Article VI of the Treaty of Washington. It is of less consequence that this line should be run with punetilious nicety, since, wherever it is required, the Treaty provides (Article II) that the navigation of the river shall be free and open to |