from southeast to northeast, and if, as they maintain, so deep and wide a valley as that of the St. John is no disruption of the continuity of highlands, it would be possible to show that the highlands of the treaty of 1783 are made up of these two ridges of mountains and that the United States is entitled to the whole of the eastern townships.  This range of highlands would coincide with the terms of the proclamation of 1763 by terminating on the north shore of the Bay of Chaleurs, while the abraded highlands of Messrs. Featherstonhaugh and Mudge terminate on its south shore.  In fact, there is no step in their argument which might not be adduced to support this claim, nor any apparent absurdity in preferring it which would not find its parallel in one or other of the positions they assume.

In this view of the history of this part of the line it becomes evident, however, that in divesting the Provinces of New York and New Hampshire by the Quebec act of territory admitted to belong to them in the proclamation of 1763 the British Parliament must have intended to make the encroachment as small as possible, and the first important branch of the Connecticut met with in tracing the forty-fifth parallel must have been intended.  This intention is fully borne out by the words of the treaty of 1783, which chose from among the branches of the Connecticut that whose source is farthest to the northwest.

It has therefore been shown in the foregoing statement—­

1.  That the river to be considered as the St. Croix and its true source have been designated by a solemn act, to which the good faith of the majesty of Great Britain and of the people of the United States is pledged, and can not now be disturbed.

2.  That the boundary line must, in compliance with the provisions of the treaty of 1783, be drawn due north from the source of that river, and in no other direction whatever.

3.  That the northwest angle of Nova Scotia was a point sufficiently known at the date of the treaty of 1783 to be made the starting point of the boundary of the United States; that it was both described in the treaty and defined, without being named in previous official acts of the British Government, in so forcible a manner that no difficulty need have existed in finding it.

4.  That the line of highlands claimed by the United States is, as the argument on the part of Great Britain has maintained it ought to be, in a mountainous region, while that proposed by Messrs. Featherstonhaugh and Mudge does not possess this character; that it is also, in the sense uniformly maintained by the United States, the height of land, which that of Messrs. Featherstonhaugh and Mudge is not; that it fulfills in every sense the conditions of the proclamation of 1763, the Quebec act of 1774, and the treaty of 1783, which no other line that can possibly be drawn in the territory in question can perform.

5.  That as far as the Indian Stream and that flowing through Lake Connecticut are concerned, the source of the former must in the sense established by the assent of both parties be considered as the northwestern source of the Connecticut River, but that if the old demarcation of the forty-fifth parallel be disturbed the question must lie between the sources of Halls and of Indian streams.