The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-18 00:00:00

V EVENING EDITION

" REPORT,New 3cc.
York,
Jan.
6,
1841.
gi SlR,—The Commissioners having assembled in
this city, in conformity with your orders under date of
29th July, beg leave respectfully to report :
" That the extent of country, and the great length
of the boundary line included in the objects of their
Commission, would have rendered it impossible to have
completed the task assigned them within the limits of a
single season. In addition to this physical impossibility,
the work of the present year was entered upon under
circumstances very unfavourable for making :any great
progress. The law under which they have acted was
passed at the last period of a protracted session, when
ncely half of the season, during which working putics
can to kept in the field, had elapsed ; and, although no
delay took place in the appointment of Commissioners to
carry it into effect, the organization of the Board was net
effected,
fa consequence of the refusal of ore of tho Corn-
missioners end the Agent to.accept of their nominafon.
The Commissioners, acting under these disadvantaevs,
have done all diet lay in their rower to accomplish the
greatest practicable extent of work, and have obtained
many results which cannot but be important in the
vexed and important question which has been corn-
witted to them ; but, after having fully and maturely
considered the subject, artO interchanged the results of
their respective operations, trey have come to the con-
clusion that it would be premature to embody the par-
tial results which they have attained, in a general Re-
port, for the purpose of being laid before the political
and scientific world. The meridian line of the St.
Croix has not been carried to a distance of more than
50 miles from the monument of the source of that river;
and the operations of the other Cemmissiocers, al-
though they have covered a wide extent of ceuntry,
have fulfilled but one part of the duty assigeed them--
namely, that of exploration ; while, even in the parts
explored, actual surveys will be necessary for the pur-
pose of presenting the question in such forms as cin
admit of no cavil. In particular, the results of the exa-
mination of the most northern part of the line appear
to differ, in some points, from the conclusions of tau
late British Commission. Satisfied that the tatter have
be

en reached in too hasty a manner, and without a suffi-
cient time having been expended upon comparative ob-
servations, they are cautioned by this example against
committing a like error. In respect to the argumenta-
tive part of the Report of the British Commissioners,.
the duty of furnishing a prompt and imnietliat.e.
reply to such parts of it as rest upon the Con-
struction of treaties, and the acts of diplomacy, has
been rendered far less important than it might
at one time have appeared, by the publication of
the more important parts of the argument laid be-
fore the King of the Netherlands, as umpire. This ar-
gument, the deliberate and studied work of men who
well understood the subject, is a full exposition of the
grounds on which the claim of the United States to the
whole of the disputed territory rests. It has received
the sanction of successive Administrations of opposite
politics ; and may therefore be considered, in addition
to its original official charactcs, as approved by the
whole nation. To this publication your Commission bee-
leave to refer, as embodying an argument which may be
styled unanswerable.
" The operations of the parties under the command
of the several Commissioners were as follow :
" The party under the direction of P:ofessor Ren-
wick left Portland in detachments on the 26th an&l,27th
of August. The place of general rendezvous was xed
at Woodstock, or, failing that, at the Grand Falls of the
St. John's. The commissary of the party proceeded as
speedily as possible to Oldtown, in order to procure
boats and engage men. Professor Renwick passed by
land through Brunswick, Gardiner, and Augusts. At
the former place, barometer No. 1 was compared with
that of Professor Cleveland ; at Gardiner, with that of
Hallowell Gardiner, Esq.; and arrangers ants were
made with them to keep registers, to be used as cor-
responding observations with those of the expedition.
At Auguste, some additional articles of equipment %acre
oLttined from the authorities of the State ; but the ba-
rometer which it had been hoped might have bean pro-
cured, was found to be unfit for service. At Houlton,
two tents and a number of knapsacks, with some gun-
powder, were furnished, by the politeness of General
Eust;s, from the Government stores.
" The boats and all the stores reached Woodstock on
the 3.1 September, and al the party were collected,
except one engineer who had been left behind ut Ban-
gor, in the hopes of obtaining another barometer. A
bateau was therefore left to bring him on. The re-
mainder of the boats were loaded, and the party ern-
barked on the St. John's on the morning of the 4th of
September. This, the main body, reached the Grand
Fells at noon on the Sth of September. The remain-
ing battcau, with the engineer, arrived the next even-
ing, having ascended the rapids of St. John's in a time
short beyond precedent. Oa its arrival, it was found
that the barometer, on whose receipt reliance had been
pl teed, had not been completed in time ; and although,
as was It arced afterward, it had been commit'e 1, 8.4
soon as finished by the maker, to the care of Major
Graham, the other Commissioners felt compelled to set
out before he had joined them. The want of this barome-
ter, in which defects observed in others had been reme-
died, was of no little detriment.
" A delay of 18 days had occurred in Portland in
consequence of the refusal of Messrs. Cleesdard and •
Jarvis to adcept their appointments ; and it was known,
from the experience of the Commissioners tent out in
1838 by the State of Maine, that it would require at
least three weeks to reach the line claimed by. the
United States, from Bangor. It was, therefore, Mope-
rative to push forward, unless the risk of having Go
whole of the operations of this party paralysed by
the setting in of the winter was to be encoun-
tered. It was also ascertained at the Grand
Falls
that the streams which were to be ascended wcro
always shallow and rapid, and that at the moment
they were extremely low, so that the boats would not
carry more stores than would he consumed within the
time required to reach the region assnigdne return to ProfesSor
Renwick as his share of the duty,
a
came therefore necessary, as it had been feared before
. It be-
it mutt, to be content with an exploration, iestead of
close and accurate survey. Severe! of
,the men cm- .
ploved had been at the northern extremity of the meri-
dian line ; but their knowledge was limited to that
was carefully made
through
rtliigebhtjechet. Inquiry for guides
country,b
etween the sources of the Grande
Fourche of Restigouche and of Tuladi, but none were
to be found. One Indian only had passed from the
head of Green River to the Grande Fourche, but his
knowledge was limited to a single path, in a direction
not likely to shed any light on the object of the com-
mission ;he was, however, engaged. The French hum-
tors of Madawaska had never penetrated beyond the
sources of Green River ; and the Indians, who for-
merly resided on the upper waters of the St. John's,
were said to have abandoned the eoontry for more than
twelve years.
" The party was now divided into four illetachmenti ;
the first to proceed down the Restigouchc, to the tido
of the bay of Chaleur ; the second to ascetud the
0
Grande Fourche of Restigouche to its source ; 6
third to be stationed on Green River mountain ; tile
fourth to convey the surplus stores and heavy
eh ilugiaatc.:
to Lake Temiscouata, and thence to ascend
and Abagusquash, to the highest aecessibl
latter. It was resolved that the second
de-
tachments should endeavour to cross
meet each other, following, as far a p
of land. A general rendezvous WAS
fourth ptoint of the
thge country and •
ssible, the height
again fixed at Lake
Temiscouata.
Grande River together,.
detachments plan, the first and second
" In compliance with
detachments ascended
theßortage, and reached the con-
crossingFourche and south-west branch
brnent then descended the united
ti ucnc eotfhothNeVaagrfdis.
„„d by the same course to St. John'
at Temiscouta on the 7th s, and
of the
kesfitiilto udcchtaec.
objects ofthe detachment
of °e"
~ li the intended
sober. .a.. 1 accomplished.
riounnecrh,esreaccihetdhethGe
' were haPP,,Y ,
junctionran de F ofu Fourche
The second detachment under the personal d'
reached trcan rt
he Le° pr "o; t a g etree-
on the 22d of September. Two
north and of the
southCoinmi Commissioner,
engineers, with rtwo°
men to carry provisions, were then dispatched to cross
the country to. the meridian lineand
s thence oceed
westward to join the detachment at Ked wtiokprLake.
This duty was performed, and many valuagbleeobserva-
tions obtained ; but an accident bywhich the baro-
meter was broken, prevented all the p antiei ated objects
of the mission from being accomplished.
" All the stores which could possibly be spared were
now placed in a depot at the junction of the south-
branch, and the Commissioner proceeded with the
boats thus lightened towards Kedgwielt Lake. The
lightening of the boate was rendered necessary in con-
sequence of the diminution of the volume of the river,
and the occurrence of fall., over which it would have
been impossible to convey them when fully loaded.
For want of a guide, a branch more western than that
which issues from the lake was entered. One of the boats
was therefore sent round into the lake, to await the re-
turn of the engineers despatched into the meridian line.
The stores, which were all that could be brought up,
in the state of the waters, were now found to be
wholly insufficient to allow of committing the party to
the uneNplored country between this stream and Tuladi.
Even the four days which must intervene before the
return of the engineers could be expected would.do
much to exhaust them. The Commissioner, therefore,
resolved to proceed across the country, with no other
companion than two men, carrying ten days' provisions.
It was hoped that four or five days might suffice for

GREAT BRITAIN ANP 4 pr
UNITED STATES -1.*7,.4s
6'7 'r :74% 111=V:tit
NORTH-EASTERN BO X!,4timCA-54;411 -I>
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN
The annexed Report of the Comen,..,v4tP
by the President of the United State • ..tiOes"-Z;
of 20th July last, for the purpose of eiltcpava.. sur
veying the boundary line between the States° Maki
and New Hampshire and the British provinces, was
submitted to Congress on the 9th instant, referred to
the Committee of Foreign Relations, and ordered to be
printed.