The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-09-13 00:00:00

THE BOUNDARY QUESTION.

(From a Halifax Paper, of the 6111 August.)
The following resolutions were lately passed at a conven-
tion holden at Augusta, state of Maine, on the subject of the
northeastern boundary :
" Resolved,—That our northeast boundary question is one
of primary and all absorbing interest to our people ; and while
we highly approve the energetic measures resorted to by cur
state last winter to capture or drive off the ruthless band of
nglish marauders, who were plundering our property, laying
waste our public lands, and setting our laws at defiance, we
cannot consent to stop where we now are. No ! the line must
be run—the metes and bounds mast be established—and the
British told, thus far shalt thou come, but no further.'
" Resolved,—That the recent attempt which is understood
to have been made by Great Britain to involve the question
in new difficulty by proposing a survey under such circum-
stances and conditions as are to render it morally impossible
to settle the question, is in perfect keeping with the procrasti-
nating policy hitherto pursued by that government, and an
insult to the United States, and to Blaine.

" Resolved,—That unless this vexedquestion be speedily
settled by the governments of the United States and Great
Britain, it will become the imperative duty of the United
States to extend their jurisdiction ever the whole territory ;
and if they fail to do, Maine would be recreant to her inter-
ests, her rights, and her honour, if she did not take the bus-
iness into her own hand, and establish there her undivided
sovereignty, 'peaceably if she can—forcibly if she must.' "

REASONS WHY MR. GREG'S RETURN MUST BE

VOID.

The act 1 and 2 Victoria, ch. 48, requires that every can-
didate shall, upon a reasonable request made to him at the
time of the election, by two or more registered electors,
make and subscribe a'aeciaratioii*Of the nature of his qualifi-
cation. And the return of any person who, upon such re-
quest as aforesaid, shall wilfully refuse or neglect to make
and subscribe the said declaration within 24 hours after such
request shall have been so made, is void. _

Seven electors made request on the hustlngs to be informed
of the nature of Mr. Greg's ,qualification, and no answer is
had thereto within 24 hours, for the reason that Mr. Greg is
at Geneva or elsewhere out of the realm, and has neglected
to subscribe and forward any declarationwhereby compliance
can be had with the direction of the statute.

If it be argued that ;•;;;t has not been made to Mr.
Greg, it is because Mr. Greg is at Geneva, and the electors
are not bound to go to Geneva to make request to him. The
intent of the statute is clearly that no man shall be elected
without the electors having the power of knowing the na-
ture of his qualification, by subscription under his hand,
within 24 hours of demand made. The electors did not
know that Mr. Greg was to be a candidate, till he was pro-
posed upon the hustings : for there are innumerable candidates
talked of at elections, who are never proposed at all. The
electors were not bound to go to Geneva, upon a mere ru-
mour that Mr. Greg was to be a candidate.
If Mr. Greg knew of the intention of proposing him as a
candidate, the absence of a declaration of his qualification is
his own neglect. If Mr. Greg's friends have had time to
write to him for a declaration and have not, it is the neglect
of his friends and agents, and the electors are not to suffer
for it. If Mr. Greg's friends have not had time to write to
Mr. Greg for declaration, it is plainly the intent of the sta-
tute that no man should be elected without the electors ha-
ving the opportunity of knowing what his qualification is,
within 24 hours of demand made. The electors are not to
lose their right, for any man's neglect or any man's conve-
nience.

It is evident that the statute was intended jealously to
guard the right of the electors upon this point. And not only
must a statute be construed strictly, but in the case of a can=
didate absent in a foreign country, instead of any reason for
less caution, there is reason for more. Before or after going
to a foreign country he may have transferred his property in
this. The electors, therefore, have a right to, at all events,
such security as can be given by a declaration subscribed by
the candidate, which makes him guilty of a misdemeanour if
such declaration is untrue in any material particular.
The absence of a written declaration, then, which Mr.
Greg ought to have sent, and has not, makes his election and
return void, in the case of being returned.—Manchester
Chronicle.

The Gazette de Picardie states that a woman of Barwhein,
in Belgium, who had contracted habits of intoxication,
perished last week by spontaneous combustion. Persons
who were present, says this journal, declare that the fire
commenced in the mouth, and then extended tos . the breast
and arms.