Lincoln telegraph. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1836-1846, 1838-05-03

of the United States, fully and entirely re-
leased from the conditional offer which il
had made; and that he was instructed, dis
tinctly to announced to the President, that
the British Government withdrew its con-
sent to accept the territorial compromise
recommended by the King of the Neither
lands.
With regard to the American proposition
for the appointment of a new commission
of exploration and survey, Mr.. Bankhead
could not see, since the President found
himself unable to admit the distinction be-
tween the Bay ofFundy and the Atlantic
ocean, how any useful result could arise
out of the proposed survey; he thought, on
the contrary, that if it did not furnish fresh
subjects of difference between the two
Governments, it could, at least, only bring
the subject back to the same point at which
it now stood.
To the suggestion of the President, that
the commission Of survey should be en-
powered to decide the river question, Mr..
Bankhead said it was not in the power of
his Majesty's Government to assent; that
this point could not properly be referred 10
such a commission, because it turned up
on the Interpretation to be put upon the
words of the treaty of 1888, and upon the
application of that Interpretation to geogra-
phicaI facts already well known and ascer-
tanned; and that, therefore, commission
of survey had no peculiar competency to
decide such question; that to refer it to
any authority, would be to submit it to
fresh arbitration; and that if his Majes,y's
Government were prepared to agree to a
fresh arbitration, which was not the case,
such arbitration ought, necessarily, instead
Of being confined to one particular point
alone, to include all the points, in dispute
between the two Governments; that his
Malesty's Government could, therefore,
only agree to such commission, provided
there were a previous understanding be-
tween the two Governments; that, although
neither should be required to give up its
own Interpretation of the river question,
yet, "the commissioners should be instruct
ed to search for highlands, upon the char
acter Of which no doubt could exist on Ell
Their side.'
If this modification of the Presidents
proposal should not prove acceptable, Mr..
Bankhead observed, the only remaining
way of adjusting the difference would he
to abandon altogethe r the attempt to draw
line in conformity with the words of the
treaty, and to fix upon conventional line,
to be drawn according to equitable princi-
pies, and with view to the respective in
terests, and the convenience of the two
parties. lie stated that his Majesty's Gov
eminent were perfectly ready to treat for
such line, and conceived that the natural
features of the disputed territory would af-
ford peculiar facilities for drawing it,; that
his Majesty's Government would, therefore,
an equal division of the territory in
dispute between Great Britain and the
United States; and that the general outline
of such division would be, that the bound
airy between the two States should be drawn
due north from the head of the ST. Croix
river till it intersected the ST. Johns, thence
up the bed of the ST. Johns to the south
ernmost source of that river, and from that
point it should be drawn to the head of the
Connecticut river, in such manner as to
make the northern and southern allotments
of the divided territory, as nearly as posi-
Bile, equal to each other in extent.
In reply to the preceding note, the Sec
rotary, under date of February goth, 1886,
expressed the Presidents regret to find
that his Britannia Majesty's Government
adhered to its objection to the appointment
of commission, to be chosen in either of
the modes heretofore proposed by the Uni
ted States, and his conviction that the pro-
position on which il was founded, "that
the river question was a question of treaty
construction only" although repeated on
various occasions by Great Britain was de-
monstrably untenable, and, indeed, only
plausible, when material and most impor-
tant words of description in the treaty
are omitted in quoting from that instrument.
He said that while his Majesty's Govern
ment maintained their position, agreement
between the United States and Great
Britain on this point, was impossible;
that the President was, therefore, con-
strained 10 look to the new and convention
al line offered in MIR. Rankliead's note; but
that in such line the wishes and interests
of Maine were to be consulted; and that
the President could not, in justice to him
selfor that State, make any proposition ut
terly irreconcilable with her previously well
known opinions on the subject; that the
principle of compromise and equitable d.
vision was adopted by the King of the Meth
erlands, in the line recommended by him.;
a line rejected by the United States because
unjust to Maine; and yet that line gave to
Great Britain little more than 1900, 900,
while the proposition now made by his Ma
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