The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-18 00:00:00

THE MAINE BOUNDARY

QUESTION.

The following excellent article on the correspon-
dence between Mr. Fox, the British Minister, at
Washington, and the United States Government,
relative to the Maine Boundary line, which ap-
peared in The Sun of Friday, is copied from the
New York Courier and Enquirer of the 30th of
March. It is precisely in the spirit of the obser-
vations which accompanied the publication of the
correspondence in our columns, though it had not
then fallen under our notice. If public writers on
both sides of the Atlantic were to follow the good
example of the Editor of the Courier and En-
quirer in this instance, we feel assured that the
Boundary Line would be soon settled without dis-
turbance on either side :

" It is always with extreme reluctance we advert even
to the possibility of serious differences arising between
this country and Great Britain, for though " the last
resort," the ultinta ratio regent, may never come, still
the mere agitation of a question so vitally important to
the most material interests, is calculated to do great
ir'jury. It is calculated to diminish our public and pri-
vate credit, both at home and abroad, already, heaven
knows, sufficiently assailed. It is calculated to depress
the spirit of commercial enterprise, now at so low an
ebb among us, that the price paid for the use of capi-
tal is less than it has been known to be for a long series
of years.
Some consolation is it, with these evils before us, to
believe that their extent will be diminished, if the evils
themselves are not avoided, by the firm belief all reflect-
ing men must entertain, in both countries, that a war
can never grow out of the question of our disputed
North Eastetn Boundary, and that, because the object
in dispute sinks into utter insignificance, when com-
pared with the loss and ruin which would ensue to
either party, for contending for it by force of arms.
The first three months of a war would cost both Eng-
land and the United States more than the fee-simple of
what the whole territory is worth ; and though we may be
told that instances are not wanting in history, of fierce
contests arising between nations on questions which
were trifling in comparison with the dangers and sacri-

[lees these contests involved, we answer, those times are
passed ; that since the commencement of the present
century a wiser system of public policy has prevailed.
That system has taught that the balance of power
deduced from extent of territory or the posses-
sion of certain prominent points, is as great an
absurdity, as the balance of trade deduced from
custom-house returns. Are we asked for instances ?
1,,,0k at the general peace of Europe, now preserved
for thirty-seven years—a circumstance without a parallel
in modern history—and than, in the face of events which
before would have called into play the most sinister de-
'signs on the part of neighbouring powers, and eventually
have led to open warfare. Revolutions have taken place
in three different kingdoms, thrze contests between the
governing power and the people, and rival nations have
sought under these circumstances, not to wound, but to
heal. A new kingdom has sprung up on the very spot
which was formerly the great hotbed of European di-
plomacy, the battle-ground of Europe, and not a shot
has been fired for it, except between its former sove-
reign and its inhabitants—and here again foreign nations
interposed and hushed the conflict. Family compacts,
the navigation of the Scheldt, the possession of Ant-
werp, all are entirely out of date, and even the guns on
the rock of Gibraltar, which formerly threatened des-
truction to every intruder into the Mediterranean, seem
now to look with indifference on the acquisition of the
opposite shore, by a people once called natural enemies.
This manifest aversion of ail civilized nations in the
present age, to engage in the doubtful chances of war,
to encounter its certain lasses and sacrifices, for which
modern philosophy teaches them they can, under the
most successful results, obtain no equivalent, produces
on our minds the firm conviction, that the differences
between this country and England will be amicably
settled, because the fair inference from it is, she will
demand nothing of us that is wrong, nothing that we
cannot with justice and honour accord. _

If we look at her diplomacy in connection with the
questior, we shall find we can charge it with little else
than dilatoriness--a dilatoriness growing out of the
slight attention her statesmen thought it necessary to
bestow on the subject in dispute, absorbed as they were
in matters of nearer and deeper import to them. When
forced to take it up, their course has been that of men
who had not the knowledge on which to'found an action
of their own, and they took the convenient method of
referring it to the decision of a third power, which prov-
ing unsatisfactory, some time was again spent in making
endeavouring to master the subject, till
finding it could no longer be dallied with, an agent is
despatched, to pass over the ground, with instructions
evidently to make the greatest haste, and now we
arc told by the British Minister, " that her Majesty's
Government arc only waiting for the detailed Report
of the British Commissioners recently employed to sur-
vey the disputed territory, which Report, it was be-
lieved, would be completed and delivered to her Ma-
jesty's Government by the end of the present month,
in order to transmit to the Government of the United
States a reply to their last proposal upon the subject
of the boundary negotiation."
In the general policy, then, of civilized nations at the
present day, amongst which Great Britain is so con-
spicuous—in her particular policy as regards this ques-
tion; we can discover no ground for apprehension that
she will force us into a war. We can even see in one
of her late acts, an evident and praiseworthy desire to
remove all cause of irritation between the two countries.
We alltide to her payment of the value of the slaves
wrecked on the Bahamas. Not that it was not just,
but because if she had refused it, she would have been
supported in her refusal by the united ignorance and
fanaticism of all Europe.
We are aware that by some apprehensions are enter-
tained that collisions will arise between the authorities
of the State of Maine and the British Colonial autho-
rities. To us it seems these parties are playing at the
game of brag—:ire trying to set off against one unjusti-
fiable pretence the assertion of another. The Governor
of Maine finds two companies of British troops where
there was but one before, he finds she has improved her
means of communication between the Canadas and the
sea—not unnaturally considering the large military force
she now keeps up in the Canadian provinces—and
straightway the Governor of Maine calls upon the Pre-
sident to fulfil his constitutional obligations, and protect
the State of Maine against invasion r Then the Senate
of Maine, with the positive assurance of the President
that he will accede to no arrangement with Great. Bri-
tain which does not meet the assent of Maine, passes
such resolutions as the following :
Resolved, That unless the British Government during
the present Session of Congress, shall make or accent a
distinct and satisfactory proposition for the immediate
adjustment of the Boundary Question, it will be the
duty of the General Government to take military pos-
session of the disputed territory.
Not to be behindhand, the Colonial authorities—for
it is no doubt at their prompting Mr. Fox writes—
start a new ground, and that is, not whether there are
actual aggressions on the disputed territory, but what
the extent and limits of the disputed territory really
are. In all this we see no ground for serious alarm.
• The course of Maine will be arrested, when the party
ends it is intended to subserve are attained, or, it
neccessary, a hint fiom Washington will have a tran-
quillising effect ; and, as to the Colonial officers, we
believe that extreme indeed must be the case which
would lead them to assume the dread responsibility of
plunging the two countries into a war. We are the
more impressed with this belief from the conduct of
Sir John Harvey during the last winter. He had
positive instructions to resist with all his forces any en-
croachment on the disputed territory. He deplored
the only alternative which his duty as a soldier left
him, and yet these positive instructions, and his duty,
were made to yield to the prudent arrangement of Mr.
Forsyth and Mr. Fox, and the able management of
General Scott.

But once, and but once, has a shrinking of the heart
come over us when thinking of the probability of a war
between the United States and England, and that was
when hints reached us that the President, finding his
popularity and power leaving him, mivit, to retain
place, involve us in a war. But short reflection sufficed
to dispel the idea—it would be too inconsistent, too
monstrous.

DROWNING IN THE SERPENTINE. —On
Thurs,lay evening the investigation which had been adjourned
from Monday last, on the body of Johanna Murray, aged fifty-
seven, the female who was found dead in the Serpentine, at-
most in a state of nudity, on the morning of Sunday last, was
resumed. Cornelius Murray said the deceased was his wife.
She had been much dejected for the last six weeks in conse-
quence of the severe illness of her daughter at Bristol. The
parish surgeon of St. George's said he had made a post mot tern
examination of the deceased's body, and there were no symptoms
of poison in the stomach. nor any marks of violence. His im-
pression was that the deceased bad been addicted to drinking
ardent spirits, and that she had died of suffocation consequent
on drowning —Verdict, " Found drowned."
DEATH OF LORD HEADLEY.—It is with
great regret we have to record the death of this excellent land-
lord. He had been for some time in a declining state of health,
and has at last paid the debt of nature, amidst the regrets of a
wide circle of friends and a numerous tenantry. He was one of
Nobility
having peculiar exceptions to the great mass of the
having prcperty in this country. He was not only a resident
proprietor, sr/ending his Irish income in this
country, but he
also cxpendea the produce of his large English estates in Ire-
land. His Lordship had the true characteristic of real nobility ;
he was affable, accessible, benevolent and munificent; and he
now carries with him to the grave the esteem and respect of
all classes and parties in the county of Ketry. His Lordship
His Lordship left
a
studiously avoided all interference with politics, and though his
opinions wen. Conservative, he preserved, by the mildness and
urbanity of his demeanour, and by his excellent conduct as a
lno andlord, theard
hirespectssta
to 4 thea d
teLiberalw e party.tlnd e r s
tam
devolve on
his n phew.— Cork I?6porter.
STABBING.—At the 'Essex Quarter Sessions
fellow, named Neville, was sentenced to be transported for fif-
teen years. He challenged a man to fight, but instead of
standing fairly up to his opponent he stabbed him with a knife.
This, as the Judge remarked, was an offence formerly unknown
in England, but recently there have been several instaneesof it.