CO885-(10-11) — Page 881

3664.

།།།།།

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

6

umimmin

Reference :-

C.O.

|ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

885

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

No. 696.

(CANADA.)

LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.

Temple, April 3, 1871. MY LORD,

We are honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 24th ultimo, stating that he was directed to transmit to us a letter which has been received at the Foreign Office from the Colonial Department enclosing a memorandum and papers prepared in Canada respecting a portion of the boundary between the British and American territories in North America under the 6th Article of the Treaty of Ghent. Mr. Hammond was also pleased to enclose a memorandum which has been prepared in the Foreign Office on the subject, and to request that we would take these papers into our consideration and report to your Lordship our opinion whether the objection raised by the Canadian Government to the authority of the maps prepared by the Commissioners under the 6th Article of the Treaty of Ghent is one which could be sustained.

"

I

In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to

Report

That we are unable to agree to the proposition that "maps are not receivable in

if they

" evidence of the exact position of the boundary line determined by the Commie- sioners," or that (as put by Captain Cameron) "if the description given in the "Commissioners' report be held to support the accuracy of the map, then their decision being contrary to the intent of the treaty of 1783, is subject to reconsideration, for "the Commissioners were only authorised to act in conformity with the true intent of the said treaty." The latter proposition amounts to this, that their award is not to be conclusive, but may be questioned by either party at any time. The duty of the Commissioners to "designate the boundary by a report or declaration" does not, in our opinion preclude them from declaring the boundary by means of a map, think fit to do so. We, however, so far agree with the Canadian Government con- sidering the character of the report, and of the reference to the map, as to think that the map can only be referred to as illustrating the report, and that if the report and the map should be found in any particular at irreconcileable variance the report must prevail. We cannot but observe, however, that it appears improbable that the Com- missioners, intending no doubt to illustrate and explain their meaning by a map, should have drawn their map altogether at variance with their report, and the con- clusion that the one contradicts the other should not be arrived at except on the most cogent grounds. We are not altogether satisfied that such a case of contradiction has been established.

The Earl Granville, K.G.,

&c.

&o.

&o.

We have, &c. (Signed)

B. P. COLLIER. J. D. COLERIDGE. TRAVERS TWISS.

⚫ 16976.-911.

25. 5/06.

I