The British Empire and the United States; a review of their relations during the century of peace following the treaty of Ghent

Front matter

Ill :

iir

M

Preface

Under the happiest auspices and with the hearty co-operation of the leaders of opinion throughout the British Empire and in the United States, plans have been made for an adequate and dignified celebration of the impressive fact that for one hundred years the English-speaking peoples throughout the world have been at peace with one another. The impressiveness of this fact is heightened by the circumstances leading up to and attending the American Revolution and by those which relate to the War of 1812. With the exception of the short contest of 1898 with Spain, which contest had its origin in purely American conditions, the United States has been not only at peace, but usually in the friendliest possible relations with Germany, France, Russia, Italy, and the other nations of continental Europe. On the other hand, there have been many and frequent occasions when public opinion, either in Great Britain or in the United States, or in both, has been deeply stirred by some difference vi PREFACE

of view or by some incident of diplomatic controversy. There have been more tempting occasions for misunderstanding and armed conflict between the British Empire and the United States than between the United States and all other nations of the earth combined. The points of contact between the British Empire and the United States are many, and each point of contact is a point of possible friction. Their commercial interests are often in keen rivalry. In times past theirterritorial ambitions have been in sharp conflict with each other. Notwithstanding, a full hundred years has passed during which war between them has been avoided. This fact is of itself an eloquent testimony to the temper and self-restraint of the English-speaking peoples and a noble tribute to the statesmen who have in succession guided their policies and conducted their international business. The long invisible line which separates the United States and the Dominion of Canada has been left unguarded despite the fact that two energetic, rapidly expanding peoples have been pushing steadily westward on either side of it. This long, invisible, unguarded line is the most convincing testimony that the world has to offer to the ability of modern self-disciplined peoples to keep the

PREFACE vil

peace. It affords an example which it is not unreasonable to hope may one day be universally followed.

As part of the celebration of one hundred years of peace between the British Empire and the United States, the committees in charge planned a historical review of the relations between the two countries since the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. This delicate and difficult task was committed to William Archibald Dunning, Lieber Professor of History and Political Philosophy in Columbia University, and at the time President of the American Historical Association. With what clearness, cogency, and impartiality Professor Dunning has fulfilled his task the pages that follow amply testify. It has been his purpose to

". . . Nothing extenuate.

Nor set down aught in malice. . . ."

He has made no attempt to minimize or to gloss over the differences that have arisen between the two peoples, the grounds or causes for those differences, or the errors of judgment that may have been committed in attempting to resolve them. The result is a survey of the past century which is full of encouragement viii PREFACE

for those who are longing for the day when justice and not force shall rule the destinies of the world. If disputes such as are here traced and recounted can be adjusted without war; if differences of temperament, of ambition, and of interest such as are here described can be settled without armed conflict; if points of honor and of national pride like those here presented can be satisfactorily met without the shedding of innocent human blood, then surely there is no limit to what may be hoped for in the century that is to come. The United States has sedulously followed the earnest injunction of Washington in maintaining friendly relations with all nations while entering into alliance with none. Having been itself carved by revolution from the side of the British Empire, it is but natural that both the bonds of friendship and the causes for jealousy should be more numerous between the United States and the British Empire than between the United States and any other people. This is a plain historical fact which must be accepted by those who guide opinion and who frame public policies.

Friendship, close intercourse, and peace between the English-speaking peoples involve no antagonism to the interests or influence of

PREFACE ix

Other nations. On the contrary, they are but the beginning of a new world order when neither differences of speech, nor of race, nor of creed shall longer be permitted to sow dissension among civilized men, or to arouse human passion to an extent where human reason cannot control it and direct it toward the goal of justice, of human sympathy, and of a peace which is lasting because it rests upon a secure economic and ethical foundation.

Nicholas Murray Butler.

Columbia University, June 4, 1914.

Chapter I Page

Readjustment After War i

Signing of the Treaty of Ghent — Power and importance of Great Britain — ^Weakness and insignificance of the United States — European expectation that the American Republic would be short-lived — Contrasting views of Tories and Whigs as to the Americans — Peace the only important matter settled at Ghent — Rejoicing over the Treaty in the United States — Treaty attracts slight interest in Great Britain — Canadians develop a patriotic tradition of the war — Diverse British views as to the future of Canada — Commercial convention of 1815 between Great Britain and the United States — Rivalry in fleet-building on the Great Lakes at the end of the war — Proposals for disarmament discussed by Adams and Castlereagh — Conclusion of the Rush-Bagot Arrangement of 1817 — ^The rival fleets on the Great Lakes voluntarily destroyed — Conciliatory attitude of Castlereagh in London and Bagot in Washington — Conclusion of the Treaty of 18 18 between Great Britain and the United States — Positions and proposals of the two governments as to the right of search — Draft agreement on the subject fails ultimately of adoption — Peril to peace in the opposing views tenaciously maintained — Agreement in the Treaty of 1818 as to the North Atlantic fisheries — Nature of the disputes on this subject — Claims respectively of Americans and British — Limited liberty of inshore fishing recognized to Americans — Agreement as to boundary from Lake of the Woods to the Pacific — Oregon territory left open to both British and Americans — Difiiculties as to the northeastern boundary of the United States as defined in the Treaty of 1783 — Progress in defining the line before 1812 — Failure to agree by commissioners under Treaty of Ghent — Arbitration of King of Netherlands fails of acceptance — Correct and friendly character of diplomatic intercourse after the war — Anti-British feeling among Americans in the Mississippi valley — Basis of this feeling in British alliance with the Indians — Disturbing influence of Andrew xii CONTENTS

PAGE

Jackson's proceedings in Florida — Military execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister — Indignation in the British press and populace — Cabinet ultimately concedes that victims had forfeited right to protection — Conflicting commercial interests of Great Britain and the United States— Americans favor freedom of commerce, British maintain restrictive system — Agreement to abandon discriminating duties, 1815 — ^The doctrines of Adam Smith and Bentham promote economic and political reform in Great Britain — America exhibits these doctrines in practice— Reform in Britain, therefore, means approach to the American practice.

CHAPTER II Whig Reform and Jacksonian Democracy . . 46

Personality and policies of John Quincy Adams and George Canning — The European situation that produced the Monroe Doctrine — Canning's suggestion and Monroe's message as to intervention — Effect of Monroe's pronouncement; Canning's dissatisfaction — Monroe's message as to colonization; Canning's protest — Influence and spirit of John Quincy Adams in the matter — Canning's fear of an American alliance against Europe — ^Tension between British and American governments over commerce in West Indies — Improved relations after death of Canning and displacement of Adams by Andrew Jackson — Whig ministry of Earl Grey supplants Tories in Great Britain — Movement for economic and political reform in Great Britain after the fall of Napoleon: Whigs and Radicals — Liberalizing trend of Canning's policy; Navigation Laws relaxed — Restrictive labor laws repealed — Protective corn laws assailed but successfully defended by Tories — Catholic emancipation carried by O'Connell, 1829; effects in Ireland and in Great Britain — Parliamentary reform carried, 1832 — American sympathy with Wbig^and Radical politics — Abolition oFWest Indfan slavery and regulation of^mpressment — Futile negotiations between Great Britain and the United States for joint action in suppressing the African slave-trade — Influence of the claim to right of search and impressment — Influence of British abolitionism on South in United States — America adopts protective tariff for manufactures — Protectionism defeated by Southern slave-

Slers — Era of Andrew JacksonTtraitsoFtTie American people ha*-tLroe — ^The democracy versus the expert: Jackson versus the Bank — The democracy and the administration of govern-1 ment: the Spoils System — Brltishliteraryjudgments of theAmer-j icans under the Tory ascendancy — Less unfavorable judgments'

CONTENTS xili

PAGE j after 1832; Harriet Martineau; Tocqueville — Richard Cobden's I views in the thirties — American opinions of British formed by

observation of immigrants — ^Judgments due to this fact and

to the treatment of the Chartists.

CHAPTER III The Roaring Forties: Polk and Palmerston . 88

Van Buren and Victoria at the head of the governments in 1837 — Political ebullition in the Canadas — Conflict of the races in Lower Canada — United Empire Loyalists versus later-comers in Upper Canada — Insurrections of Papineau and Mackenzie, 1837 — Defeated insurgents make raids from United States — Steamer Caroline destroyed on American side by Canadian troops — ^Arrest of McLeod in New York for complicity, 1840 — Extreme tension and ill feeling till his acquittal, 1841 — Simultaneous grounds of ill feeling in Maine, Texas, and Oregon — Lord Durham's mission and report as to Canada — His comparison of the Canadas and the United States — Views of Radicals and of Cobden as to future of colonies — Durham favors policy looking to Canadian nationality — Union of the two Canadas by constitution of 1841 — Failure of arbitration and negotiation as to the northeastern boundary of the United States — New Brunswick lumbermen and Maine militia: the Aroostook War — Renewed diplomacy, more surveys, no agreement — ^American Whigs in power at Washington; British Whigs out of power at London — Webster secretary of state; Aberdeen succeeds the truculent Palmerston — Friction over search of American ships by British slave-trade patrol — ^Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842: criticised by British, Americans, and Canadians — Controversies settled by it — Conventional line fixed between Maine and New Brunswick — The red-line map and other maps — ^Joint patrol of the African slave coast agreed to-^The diplomatic debate over search, visitation, and approach — The popular forces behind the diplomacy — Webster sets impressment over against slavery — ^The case of the Creole — American expansionist movements bring friction in the South and the West— British policy as to Texas — Annexation to United States strongly opposed by Aberdeen — Anti-British feeling strong among American annexationists — British and American fur-traders in Oregon — Missionaries and settlers from the East enter by the Oregon Trail — Popular demand in the United States for the whole of the Oregon territory: "fifty-four forty or fight" — President Polk indicates a positive attitude — Buchanan-Pakenham negotiations for division of region.

dv CONTENTS

PAGE

184s — Polk's belligerent message of 1845 — His extension of the Monroe Doctrine — ^Joint occupation denounced by United States — ^Treaty of June 15, 1846 — ^The war between the United States and Mexico — Polk's purpose to secure California lest Great Britain acquire it — Aberdeen eager to keep it from the United States — Mexico rejects his advice to refrain from war — Aberdeen abandons California policy — Idealistic basis of the American movement to Oregon and California — The democracy's sense of power and craving for bigness — Discovery of gold an amazing coincidence, confirming destiny — Comparative population: Great Britain, 27,000,000; United States, 20,000,000 — No need for more territory for American population — Dependence of British industry and commerce on the United States — Danger of famine in the United Kingdom — American sentiment on O'Connell's Irish agitation — Peel's policy of abolishing the protective tariff — Cobden and the Anti-Corn- Law League — Democratic agitation involved in the activity of the League — Corn Laws repealed in 1846 — ^The Tory ministry gives way to the Whigs under Russell and Palmerston — The great famine in Ireland and its efltects on America.

CHAPTER IV Through Threefold Tension to Harmony . . 149

Singular importance of the month of February, 1848 — Emigration from revolutionary Europe to Great Britain and America — German immigration into United States rivals Irish — ^The popular foreign policy of Lord Palmerston — Manchester school of Cobden and Bright oppose Palmerston — His triumph in the Don Pacifico debate and after — Contrast of Polk and Palmerston — Importance of transisthmian communication after Mexican War — British protectorate over the Mosquitos used to control Nicaragua route — ^Treaty of 1846 with New Granada gives United States control of Panama — Critical situation at the island of Tigre — Danger removed by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, April 19, 1850 — Purpose and content of the treaty — Controversies over its meaning — Settlement in i860 by withdrawal of Great Britain from Mosquito coast — ^Joint guarantee of protection fails to bring construction of canal — Filibustering projects against Latin America — British suggestion for stopping them resented by United States— Anti-British feeling in Democratic party due to Irish and slaveholders— Effect of the Crimean War on American opinion — Enlistment of recruits for British army in the United States— Dismissal of Crampton the British minister — Revival of discussion of the right of search — American view formally accepted by the British Government—

CONTENTS XV

PAGE

Effect of this on the slave-trade and impressment — Canadian problems under the constitution of 1841 — Policy of Lord Elgin assures responsible government — Conflict between French and English interests — Industrial and commercial depression in 1849 — Effect on Canada of Peel's free-trade policy — Agitation for annexation to United States — Party politics at the basis of the agitation — American indifference to the movement — British political leaders expect ultimate separation of Canada — Lord John Russell's speech on the subject — Protest of Lord Elgin — Disintegrating elements in the philosophy of the free-trade movement — Canadian situation brings final repeal of British Navigation Laws — Importance to Canada of trade with United States — Dissatisfaction in United States at limits upon the inshore fisheries — Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 results from this situation — Effects of the Treaty on relations between Canada and America — Comparative numbers of English-speaking peoples in i860 — Economic leadership of Great Britain — Democratic movement in British politics — Effects of great migrations on Britain and America — Influence of the Irish in America — Growth and influence of American literature — Harmonizing 1 influence of the British mid-Victorians, especially Dickens. \

CHAPTER V The American Civil War and Its Effects . 199

tions — Southernargument for iHdependence — Northern counter argunieiit^^^Iiiffiaitly-eiperieneed by the other English-speaking peoples in choosing between these arguments — ^The British belief that a great democracy could not endure — Favor for the South due to this belief_and to the Southern preference for free~tHHe — Slavery a source~or§n5picic>n-toward the South — Influence of Britis hr~antisIaveiy"i eadetgr!£Ee""Cobden and Bright--rBfili^"proclamation of neutrality and its grounds — Resentment in the North at the British position — Attitude of the British cabinet toward the Southern demand for recognition^^=^esentment of the South at this position — ^The Trent affair of November, 1861 — American rejoicings at the act of Captain Wilkes — Indignation and warlike fervor in England — Demand for release of the envoys and preparations for war — Surrender of the envoys — Confused reasoning of Seward and Russell about the matter — Hatred of British caused by the affair — Attitude of the British cabinet toward the Confederate envoys — Increased irritation on the part of the South — Additional causes of anger in the North — ^The effect of blockade-running — ^The careers of the cruisers, especially the Florida and xvi CONTENTS

PAGE

the ^/fliama— Grievances of the victorious North at the end of the war— Hatred of Great Britain in the South— Ill-feeling between the United States and Canada — ^Termination of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854— The Fenian movement from the United States against Canada— Complaints as to the treatment of naturalized Irishmen in Great Britain— Strong Irish influence in the United States— Cleavage of sympathies according to social classes in England — Result of the war discredits the foes of democracy — ^Triumph of the Liberals in the Reform Bill of 1867— Lincoln's death softens hostility to the_ United States in Great Britain — Absorbing nature of domestic problems after the war — Alabama claims formally presented by the United States — Basis and content of the claims as presented by Charles Francis Adams— The reply of Eari Russell— Lord Russell peremptorily rejects arbitration as well as compensation — Sentiment in Great Britain against Russell's attitude — Renewal of negotiations by Lord Stanley — ^The Johnson-Clarendon Convention of January, 1869 — Great concessions by the British Government — Rejection of the Treaty by the American Senate — Charles Sumner's demand for reparation for national wrongs — His demand for compensation for national losses — Anti-British feeling greatly stimulated by Sumner's speech — Resentment caused by it in Great Britain — Connection of Sumner's views with those of Cobden and Bright — Sumner aims to acquire British North America — Secretary Fish begins negotiations with the Gladstone cabinet — Influences promoting success — The Treaty of Washington of May, 1871 — ^The agreement as to arbitration of the Alabama claims — Great concessions by the British Government as to the "three rules" — American concession on the recognition of Confederate belligerency — The Geneva Tribunal and its work — Final exclusion of the national claims — ^The award of the Tribunal — Amity with America associated with the liberalizing projects of Gladstone — Arbitration of the San Juan water boundary — Arbitration of Civil War claims other than Alabama claims — Arbitration as to the inshore fisheries — Award of the Halifax Commission — Relation of the fisheries arbitration to political movements in Canada.

CHAPTER VI The Growth of Canada and Its Problems . 265

Participation of the Canadians Rose and Macdonald in negotiaring the Treaty of Washington — Influences making for union of the British-American provinces — Effect of the Civil War across the border— Party deadlock in Canada— Movement

CONTENTS xvii for union in the Maritime Provinces — General conference of delegates at Quebec, 1864 — Dominion of Canada established, 1867 — Influence of the United States on the constitution — Extension of the Dominion to the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans — The problem of national unity in the Dominion — Separation of Ontario from Quebec — Projects for east-and-west railways — Protectionism adopted under lead of Macdonald, 1878 — United States committed to protectionism — Friction-making influence of these tariff policies — Operation of the agreement of 1873 as to the inshore fisheries — Termination of the agreement by the United States, 1885 — Seizure of American fishing-vessels by the Canadian coast-guards, 1886 — Retaliation enacted by Congress — ^Adjustment by temporary modus vivendi — Treaty for permanent settlement fails in American Senate — Anti- British feeling caused by the situation — Increased by defeat of Irish home rule and accession of Salisbury — And by incidents in the conflict over Cleveland's tariff policy — Dismissal of Sackville-West, the British minister — Forebodings of trouble when Blaine became secretary of state — Previous trouble over sealhunting in Behring Sea — British vessels seized in Behring Sea beyond three-mile limit — American court decides Behring Sea to be mare clausum — Secretary Bayard seeks joint prohibition of pelagic sealing — Agreement fails through intervention of Canada — Renewed seizures of Canadian vessels in 1889 — Warm correspondence between Blaine and Salisbury — Modus vivendi and treaty of arbitration — Decision of the tribunal against the United States — Influence of the episode on national susceptibilities — Sense of growth and power in the United States — Creation of a modern fleet — Foothold secured in Samoa — British movement for imperial federation a challenge to the United States — Canadian development of militia and railways causes uneasiness — Agitation in Canada for commercial union with the United States — Goldwin Smith holds annexation inevitable — Sir John Macdonald wins election of 1891 on protection and loyalty to the British connection — American tariff policy, after fluctuation, settles on high protection — General effect of tariff controversies on American opinion.

CHAPTER VII Venezuela — ^and After 300

Salisbury's Liberal-Unionist ministry of 1895 and its problems — ^The difference with Venezuela as to the boundary of Guiana — Early aspects of the controversy — ^Tender of good offices by United States declined by Salisbury — Venezuela presses for xviii CONTENTS arbitration of full claims; Great Britain declares Schomburgk line her irreducible minimum — Cleveland's foreign policy and American public sentiment — Secretary Olney's despatch of July, 1895 — Extreme positions as to the Monroe Doctrine — Saltsbury's replies of November 26 — Irreconcilable views of the two governments — Cleveland's message of December 17, suggesting war — Excitement and approval in America — Calming effect of longer reflection — British incredulity and amazement — Strong movement of unofficial opinion against rupture with America — ^Jameson's raid diverts attention to Africa and Germany — British Government agrees to negotiate with United States as to the disputed line — Arbitration with Venezuela arranged and carried out — General effect of the incident on American prestige — Effect on the movement for arbitration — Unratified 01ney-PauncefoteJIxe&ty„.oi„j897--Iiifluences con- "triSuting tolts failure — The war of 1898 with Spain popular in the United States — British sympathy demonstratively with the Americans — Anti-British feeling dies out in America — Reciprocal sympathy in connection with the wars in the Transvaal and the Philippines — Cordiality leads to efforts to settle outstanding controversies especially with Canada — The unsuccessful Herschell Commission of 1898-9 — Failure due to dispute as to the boundary of Alaska — The opposing claims and their relation to the Klondike gold mines — Diplomatic agreements between Great Britain and America effected by Secretary Hay and his successors and associates — The modus vivendi as to the Alaskan boundary — American dislike of the Clayton- Bulwer Treaty — Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 supersedes Clayton-Bulwer — Alaskan boundary fixed by arbitration, 1903 . — End of boundary disputes confirmed by Root-Bryce convention, 1908 — Other treaties of 1908 — Renewal of friction over inshore fisheries — Arbitration, as recommended by Hague Conference, agreed to by English-speaking nations, 1908 — Northeastern fisheries sent to arbitration — Decision of the tribunal, 1910 — Pelagic sealing in Behring Sea forbidden by treaty, 191 1 — Proposal for reciprocity rejected by Canadians in elections — Spirit and reasoning of the Canadians not repugnant to Americans — Arbitration treaty of 191 1 — Transformation of British and American systems at end of century of peace — ^American imperialism approved by British — British federative empire approved by Americans — American activity in world politics under Roosevelt — Recasting of speculative equilibrium as a consequence — British opinion approves American development — Movement for imperial federation of British dominions — The Colonial Conference of 1887 — Development into the

Imperial Conference — Results of its consolidating activity — Democratic reaction of the colonies on the motherland — Influence on the Irish Home Rule problem — Promotes

CONTENTS xlx

PAGE

harmony with the American Republic — Changes of the century of peace in the English-speaking world — Is Great Britain still the nerve centre? — Populations of United Kingdom and colonies, 1814 and 1914 — American Republic the home of most of the English-speaking people — Contrast with British Empire geographically — Resemblances social, economic, and political — Cordial relations probable in the future.

CHAPTER VIII Conclusion 357

The fallacy of too sweeping generalization in international affairs — Illustrated in the relations of Great Britain and the United States — ^The four periods of the century of peace — What the Treaty of Ghent did not do — Progress and failure in the diplomacy of the first period — Many causes of friction in the second period — Influences making for amity and their triumph — General disturbance of good feeling through the American Civil War — Pacifying processes after the war — Initial controversies of the fourth period — Cause and meaningof the ^xplosionoyerjhe VfiBeZUfilaa^boundarjgi^Effects of the Spanish-American War — Far-reaching progress in cordiality — The two great political organisms of the English-speaking world — Persistent consciousness of a special ground for peace between them.

Index 373

Introduction

That the centenary of the treaty which has secured to Great Britain and the United States one hundred years of unbroken peace should deserve a celebration might seem strange to some philosopher in his study, whose meditations on the folly and cruelty of war would have led him to suppose that peace was natural between two great nations kindred in blood, both highly intelligent and highly civilized. Very different are the feelings of the historian, who remembers how often wars have arisen from slight causes, or of the practical statesman, who knows the kind of motives by which rulers who determine the issues of peace or war have been and still are governed. Jealousies, rivalries, antagonisms have still so much power over peoples, rulers are still so far from trying to apply as between states that moral law which the better sort of individual men recognize in private social and in business intercourse, and which public opinion imposes even upon the worse sort, that the maintenance of peace bexxii INTRODUCTION

tween neighbor states through three generations of men is a novel and admirable thing, fit to inspire joy and deserve commemoration.

The peoples of these two states were no doubt of kindred blood. But the quarrels of kinsfolk are proverbially bitter, and between these there were plenty of causes for quarrel. The separation, begun in 1776, sealed by treaty in 1783, had been made by war, a long war, which left angry feelings. The behavior of some of the British forces, and especially of the Hessian mercenaries, had exasperated colonial sentiment, while the harshness with which the revolutionary party among the Americans had treated those of their fellow citizens who adhered to the British Crown had sown the seeds of more enduring anger, especially among those United Empire Loyalists who when expelled from the United States took refuge in Canada. For many years afterward the offensively supercilious attitude of the English and the self-assertive arrogance of the Americans made the average man in each people distasteful to the other, and it was only the wisest and largest minds that preached good understanding and good feeling. These aversions did not die down till the Civil War of 1 86 1-5, with its display of courage and

INTRODUCTION xxiii

high spirit on both sides, had brought Europeans to respect the American people, and had given that people itself new martial deeds to be proud of, deeds of a valor which had not been directed against the old country.

Besides these unpleasant memories there were also controversies over important material interests that emerged from time to time. The northeastern frontier of the United States where the State of Maine borders on New Brunswick and Lower Canada had been left uncertain by the treaty of 1783, and also by that of 18 14, and as the country began to be settled the disputes over it became threatening. After this question had been disposed of by the Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842 another boundary quarrel arose for the possession of the region then called Oregon. Each nation had a legal case, and for many months neither seemed likely to give way. Even after the treaty of 1846 had fixed the forty-ninth parallel of latitude as the frontier line all the way to the shores of the Pacific, the diplomatists of both countries were harassed by a dispute relating to the ownership of the island of San Juan in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and after that dispute had been referred to the German Emperor, and determined by xxiv INTRODUCTION

him in favor of the United States, a larger issue was raised over the frontier of Alaska and that newly colonized extreme northwestern region of Canada which we call the Yukon. This was disposed of by a joint commission in 1903. There still remained one small outstanding controversy about a tiny island, called Pope's Folly, and some fishing-grounds in Passamaquoddy Bay (a large inlet from the Bay of Fundy), through which the international boundary runs. In 191 1 an agreement was drafted to refer it to arbitration. When the negotiators, feeling the absurdity of employing the elaborate machinery of a court to determine so trivial a matter, agreed to split the difference, they gave the islet to the State of Maine while the fishing-grounds were assigned to the Canadian province of New Brunswick. With this there ended the long series of frontier questions that had so often been a source of disquiet, and now every yard of the nearly four thousand miles of boundary has been marked out by scientific surveyors. To have escaped or amicably settled all the grounds of friction which might occur along this line, far longer than any other frontier between civilized nations, is itself an event without parallel in history.