Russia The Empress of Russia was also to be included in the mediatory com- Appendix. mission, but she had, from the beginning of the war, deluded Great Britain Adolphus' with false hopes, and her constant efforts to extend the sphere of the neutral Hist.Geo.3 league, and her eager pursuit of personal aggrandisement, leading her to an R 1782. intimate connexion with Austria, and giving her a bias toward France, made joins. it impossible to expect from her partiality any beneficial results. The cause of Great Britain seemed degraded to the lowest state; ill success, and the prevalent opinion of mismanagement, rendered the espousal of it among the selfish Powers of the Continent almost disreputable, and, probably, the hope of wringing from the distressed situation of the country, concessions favourable to a system of neutral duplicity, occasioned the eagerness of the Imperial Courts to assume the task of mediation. Mr. Gren Under these difficult and critical circumstances, the ministry acted with 7th May magnanimity and judgment. In conformity with the answers returned by the ville sent Bourbon Courts, they empowered Sir Robert Murray Keith, the Ambassador at to Paris. Vienna, to commence a Treaty under the auspices of their Imperial Majesties. But as Mr. Thomas Grenville was already dispatched, though without any public character, to open a direct negotiation with M. de Vergennes, and Paris was intended to be the principal scene of business, Sir Robert was instructed not to make, or even much encourage, an overture for negotiation at Vienna; though he was not, by receding from the proposition, to disgust the mediating Powers, or create suspicions of the sincerity of Great Britain. posed by The basis of Treaty communicated to Mr. Grenville, consisted in two pro- Terms propositions. The independence of the thirteen American colonies; and, in return, pose a complete restoration of all other matters to the State in which they were placed at the last peace. If these terms seemed too advantageous, after Great Britain had offered to concede to America so much of dominion, that hardly a claim to sovereignty was left, and at a period when the enemy was in possession of almost all the islands in the West Indies, it should be recollected, that the Spanish and French treasuries were in the most abject state of distress. Spain State of was reduced to a dependence on the subscription of individuals, not in aid, but Spain; as the chief support of government; her South American colonies were torn by rebellion; and if England had afforded only slight succours to the insurgents, the whole Spanish marine, and a great land force, would have been required for their reduction. France too was beginning to awake from the dream of financial delusion, and to discover that Necker had proceeded in the war France ; without the imposition of taxes, by borrowing every year, in addition to the current supplies, the interest of previous loans; a system which would in time call for severe impositions, or general bankruptcy. The force and exertions of the enemy were exaggerated by boasts, and the preparations of the late ministry for regaining a preponderance of power in the Charibbean seas, might have inspired hopes and confidence sufficient to await the events of a campaign, the expenses of which were already incurred. The general impatience for peace in England was founded on a despair of England. success in the principal object of the war, the reduction of America, and a conviction that the whole force of the nation was insufficient to resist the career of the enemy in other quarters. Success would have given a new impulse to popular energy, and frustrated the long labours of an almost successful opposition; but fortune declared against Lorth North, and the hasty combination of heterogeneous parties, and their vigorous and persevering assaults on the Cabinet, impeded every measure for preventing, and sanctioned the proposition for conceding, the independence of America. America, After the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, the attainment of this object by force State of appeared no more certain than at any previous period. The resources of America were exhausted, the long interruption of commerce produced a lamentable want of all necessaries, a want felt from the highest to the lowest classes throughout the Colonies. No art or coercion could give circulation to the paper currency; Adolphus' 1782. Appendix. and not only the friends of Great Britain, but the warmest adherents of America, considered the maintenance of the army for another year, and still more Hist. Geo.3 the establishment of independency, as utterly impossible, and hardly desirable.* Sir Henry Clinton himself, after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, forwarded an assurance to Administration, that with a reinforcement of ten thousand men only, he would be responsible for the conquest of America ;† but before this offer could be made, the Ministers, who alone could be expected to give it effect, were shaken; a new system was adopted, active hostilities were no more to be pursued, and Sir Henry Clinton being allowed to retire, was replaced by Sir Guy Carleton. to inde Objections The latest struggle of the defeated Administration was to avert from the pendence. Country the disgrace of a hasty and compulsory concession of American independence, to this tended their desire to maintain a war of posts, and their overtures for a coalition. The Rockingham party had long declared, and consistently supported the justice and inevitable necessity of granting independence; but Lord Shelburne had been no less strenuous in asserting that disgrace and calamity must ensue to Great Britain from such a concession. He had even made an explicit declaration in the House of Lords, "that he would never enter into an official situation with any man, however great his abilities, who would either maintain that it was right or consistent to allow the independence of America ;" and even in the present Session of Parliament, Mr. Dunning, his confidential friend and adviser, had treated the proposition as almost amounting to high treason. But Lord Shelburne had either receded from his former opinions, or would not venture to encounter such an opposition as he had witnessed and supported against Lord North. Views of Indies. If Ministers were induced to concede, even before a Treaty, the independthe West ence of America, by the probability that the superior naval power of France and Spain in the American Seas would insure it, an event which had been judiciously prepared by the late Ministry, and which occurred soon after they were driven from the helm, shewed the futility of such an expectation. Efforts of When the conquest of all the Leeward Islands, except Barbadoes and Antigua, left the French no further objects of attack in that quarter, they, with the Spaniards, projected a joint expedition against Jamaica. For this the reinforcement was dispatched under de Guichen, which Kempenfelt had failed in his endeavour to intercept, and anticipating the success of the enemy in their ultimate object, opposition lavished censures on administration for permitting Sir George Rodney to sail directly for the West Indies, with a reinforcement of twelve sail of the line, when he should have been employed conjointly with Kempenfelt, in preventing the arrival of supplies to the enemy. Ministers, however, wisely judged that the important object of gaining a decided preponderance in the West Indies by the junction of Rodney and Hood, was not to be Rodney's endangered by the precarious pursuit of inferior advantage. Rodney hoped by his early arrival at Barbadoes to have prevented the fall of St. Christopher's; but while sailing for the relief of that island, met Sir Samuel Hood, who imparted the tidings of its surrender, and the retreat of De Grasse to Martinique. 19th Feb. arrival. Hispursuit After long watching the motions of the French fleet, in order to prevent 9th April. their junction with the Spaniards, the British Admirals succeeded in bringing on a partial action off Guadaloupe; but such was the state of the wind, that only the van of the British fleet was engaged, and the enemy was enabled to withdraw his ships, and baffle all endeavours for renewing the conflict. Two of the French ships, in consequence of this transient encounter, were obliged to seek shelter in Guadaloupe, and after a vigorous, though for some time hopeless pursuit, the British Commanders had the good fortune to perceive another * See intercepted Letters of Silas Deane, Remembrancer, vol. xiii. p. 71. + From private information, See Debates in the House of Lords, 7th December, 1778; the conclusion of Lord Shelburne's Speech. In reference to this point Great Britain maintains, that the north-western- Northwesternmost head, intended by the Treaty, must be that head of the River Connecticut, Connecticut most Head of which, of all the heads of all its waters above the highest point, where it assumes River, the distinguishing title of Connecticut, or main Connecticut, shall be found to lie in the most north-westerly direction relative to the main river. Towards the upper part of the River Connecticut several waters flow into it from various quarters. Of these, two, namely, Hall's Stream and Indian Stream, both coming from the north-west, join the main river a little above the true parallel of 45° N. lat., which is the extreme southern point of the Boundary of the British possessions assigned by the Treaties on that River. The main River Connecticut, however, retains its name and comparative volume far above the junction of these two streams with it; as far indeed as a lake of some magnitude, denominated Connecticut Lake, which is succeeded, still higher up, by other lakes of smaller dimensions. The river which issues from Connecticut Lake, now bears, and always has been known by, the sole appellation of Connecticut River. Great Britain therefore claims the spring head of the most north-western water, which finds its way into Connecticut Lake, as the "north-westernmost "head of Connecticut River," intended by the Treaty of 1783, from whence the Boundary is to be traced down along the middle of that river to the 45th degree of N. latitude. Great Britain maintains, that no stream which joins the Connecticut River below any point where the river is known by that distinctive appellation, can, with any propriety, or consistently with geographical practice, be assumed to be the River Connecticut; nor, consequently, can the head of such stream be taken as a head of the river itself, being merely the head of a subordinate branch of the river, which branch is known under a separate denomination. If "Hall's Stream" or "Indian Stream" are, either of them, to be assumed as containing the true north-westernmost head of the River Connecticut, according to the definition employed in the Treaties, then, by a parity of reasoning, might the Moselle be considered as containing the south-westernmost head of the Rhine, and the Maine its most south-easterly head, and so on; for those rivers join the Rhine in the same relative manner, and are as completely the true Rhine, as the tributary waters "Hall's Stream" and "Indian Stream" join and are the true Connecticut. We adduce the example of the Rhine alone for simplicity's sake. But it is obvious that the same rule which applies to one river must apply to all; and if the American doctrine be admitted, instead of seeking for the northern, southern, eastern, or western head of any given river, at the point where the highest sources of the river so denominated are placed by geographers, and universally admitted to be, we must look all round the compass for the particular head of such river according to the specific magnetical bearing of it, which we may be in want of. Thus the heads of the Rhine, if designated by such magnetical bearing, must be searched for in different parts of Europe, instead of in the range of the St. Gothard mountains, where they have hitherto been taken to be situated. Yet we believe that no person will deny that in those mountains both the south-western, south-eastern, and all other heads of that river are to be found. So likewise are the various heads of Connecticut River to be found in the same relative position to each other, and to the river of which they are the sources. This point, however it may be involved in plausible argumentation, is deemed by Great Britain too evident to require further elucidation or argument. For a confirmation of the several facts above alleged, however, with reference to the position and specific denomination of the River Connecticut and its tributaries, as well as with a view to illustrate the Line of Boundary in Northwestern- that quarter respectively claimed by Great Britain and the United States, we Connecticut refer to the following documents hereto annexed. most Head of River. 1st. The Report and Survey of the British Astronomer, who was appointed Appendix, by the Commissioners under the 5th Article of the Treaty of Ghent to survey and Survey D. the district at the extreme head of the River Connecticut. No.10,r,p.130, 12. Map Aa, annexed. Appendix, The accuracy of that Report and Survey has been acknowledged by the Americans themselves. 2ndly. The British transcript of the map A, already adduced in evidence. In that transcript, the whole tract in dispute will be found laid down exactly according to the survey above mentioned, together with the adjoining parts of the Line of Boundary. 3rdly. A grant of land made in the year 1789 by the State of New HampNo. 40, p. 289. shire to Dartmouth College, in which the land granted is expressly described as being wholly "bounded by Connecticut River" on one side. The said land extends, however, along the river, above the mouth of Indian Stream. Therefore this document proves, by American authority, that this river is distinguished by the name of Connecticut in that part of its course, and considerably above the mouth of Hall's Stream, which, as we have seen, is claimed by the United States, as containing the true north-westernmost head of Connecticut River. Map C. annexed. To elucidate the precise position of this grant, we offer in evidence a map of New England, published in 1826, by Nathan Hale, an American 'citizen, in which the limits of the grant are laid down. We must observe, however, that we adduce this map, simply in illustration of that individual point, and by no means in support of the general claim of Great Britain in that quarter, however powerfully it might, in various particulars, be found to corroborate that claim; for we hold map evidence, on either side, to be altogether incompetent to enter into the decision of any question of contested Boundary, such maps alone excepted, as have been admitted as fit to be annexed to the Convention of the 29th September 1827, for the purposes therein specially declared. Before we quit this branch of difference, we think it not inexpedient to mention, that the American Commissioner and Agent under the 5th Article of the Treaty of Ghent, were actually at variance, as to the precise point at which the north-westernmost head of Connecticut River ought to be established; the latter having declared for " Hall's Stream," the former for "Indian Stream." In proof of that variance, an Extract from the Report of No. 41. p. 292. the Commissioner of the United States is hereto annexed. Appendix, It will be seen, by inspecting the Map A, that the American Government have adopted the views of their Agent, in preference to those of their Commissioner, by adhering to "Hall's Stream" as their Boundary now claimed. It may also be expedient to invite particular attention to the circumstance of the old parallel of 45° north latitude having been discovered to be erroneously laid down half a mile to the north of the true latitude on the River Connecticut. We advert to this fact more particularly, because the old parallel, in its course from the west, crosses Hall's Stream above its junction with the Connecticut River, and strikes the latter at a spot where a land mark was placed in 1772, as evidence of the Boundary between the then British Provinces of Quebec and New York. We shall see hereafter, in discussing the third branch of difference between Great Britain and the United States, that the United States object to the general rectification of the Boundary Line along the parallel of 45° north latitude from the Connecticut to the St. Lawrence. If, however, they apply that objection to the point of departure of that parallel on the River Connecticut, yet still maintain their claim to "Hall's most Head of Stream," as containing the north-westernmost head of the Connecticut, it is Northwesternmanifest that the Line of Boundary claimed by them can never strike the real Connecticut Connecticut at all, but must stop short at Hall's Stream; since it is only by River. adopting the rectified parallel of latitude, that the mouth of Hall's Stream can be made to join the Connecticut above that latitude. A reference to the Map A will at once elucidate this point. On all the grounds above adduced Great Britain claims that the northwesternmost head of Counecticut River, as designated in the Treaties, be established at the source of the north-westernmost stream, which flows into the uppermost of the lakes, which are above Connecticut Lake, that point being the north-westernmost head of waters tributary to the said Connecticut Lake, up to which the Connecticut River is known by that distinctive title: and that from thence the line of boundary be traced " down along the middle of that River to the 45th degree of North Latitude:" such as it is exhibited on the official map A. THIRD BRANCH OF DIFFERENCE RESPECTING THE LINE OF We now come to the third and last branch of difference respecting the Boundary Line Boundaries between Great Britain and the United States. That branch, as from the River before stated, embraces the Line of Boundary along the parallel of 45° north to the River latitude from the River Connecticut to the River St. Lawrence. Connecticut St. Lawrence along the pa We recite here such portions of the provisions of the Treaty of 1814 as have rallel of 45 reference to this point. N. Latitude. "Whereas that part of the Boundary Line between the dominions of the Appendix, "two Powers, which extends from the source of the River St. Croix ***** No. 3, p, 12. "to the north-westernmost head of Connecticut River, thence down along the "middle of that river, to the 45th degree of north latitude; thence by a line due "west on said latitude, until it strikes the River Iroquois, or Cataraguy, HAS **** NOT YET BEEN SURVEYED The said Commissioners ***** shall "cause the Boundary aforesaid, from the source of the River St. Croix to the River "Iroquois, or Cataraguy, to be surveyed and marked according to the said provisions." The Treaty of 1783, already cited above, provides, with reference to the point now under consideration, that the line between the British and American Possessions shall be described by a line drawn from the 45th degree of north latitude on Connecticut River "due west on said latitude, until it strikes the "River Iroquois or Cataraguy (St. Lawrence)." Of these plain and explicit stipulations Great Britain simply desires the strict and faithful execution. As it may appear singular that upon a provision so clear and intelligible any question should have arisen, it will be necessary to explain the proceedings which have already taken place relative to this matter between the British and American Commissioners who were appointed under the 5th Article of the Treaty of Ghent to carry that provision into effect. In the year 1818 the Commissioners under the 5th Article of the Treaty of Ghent, having already executed some portion of the general task assigned to them, in the direction of the river St. Croix, proceeded to order their respective astronomers to ascertain in concert various points of that part of the Boundary Line which is provided by Treaty to extend along the parallel of 45° north latitude, from the River Connecticut to the River St. Lawrence. |