“The climate and soil of these Provinces and Possessions, seemingly less indulgent than those of tropical regions, are precisely those by which the skill, energy, and virtues of the human race are best developed. Nature there demands thought and labour from man as conditions of his existence, but yields abundant rewards to wise industry. Those causes which, in our age of the world, determine the wealth of nations are those which render man most active; and it cannot be too often or too closely remembered in discussing subjects so vast as these, where the human mind may be misled if it attempts to comprehend them in their boundless variety of detail, that sure and safe guides in the application of political economy, and to our own prosperity, are to be found in the simple principles of morality and justice, because they alone are true alike in minute and great affairs, at all times and in every place.” CHAPTER XVI. The “Ashburton Capitulation”--Boundaries of Quebec--Arbitration in 1831--Lord Ashburton’s Mission--The questions in dispute--“The Sea” _v._ “The Atlantic”--American Diplomatists--Franklin’s Red Line--Compromise--The Maps--Maine--Damage to Canada--Mr. Webster’s Defence--His Opinion of the Road--Value of the Heights--Our Share of Equivalents--Value of Rouse’s Point--Vermont--New Hampshire. It was by the celebrated Treaty of Washington, August 9th, 1842, that the boundary line between the British possessions in Canada and the State of Maine in the territories of the United States, was settled and determined. That treaty has been sometimes spoken of as the “Ashburton Capitulation.” The story of the two maps which played so distinguished a part in the negotiations, is tolerably well known, and has formed a subject of many discussions which have now settled down into fixed convictions. By many, if not by most Americans, acquainted with the subject, it is believed that Mr. Webster did a very smart thing. Englishmen, similarly instructed, believe their country to have been cheated by the great American elocutionist. Canadians are of opinion that they have suffered an irreparable injury at the hands of, or through the weakness of, those appointed to guard their interests by the Imperial Government. The Treaty of Paris, in 1783, did not define the north-eastern boundary of the United States; it merely declared that the boundary was drawn along the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean. If we had had at that time the knowledge of geography and geology, with respect to the basin of the St. Lawrence, which, thanks to the labours of the United States’ engineers and of Sir William Logan, we now possess, there would not have been much difficulty in fixing on the real line, as there could not well be any dispute respecting the exact line of highlands from which the rivers flowing into the St. Lawrence