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The time had come when this life was to be laid down-laid down in sorrow, but in calmness, with a pious trust in his Redeemer, and still thinking of his fellow-men. A stranger solicited his opinion of an apparatus he had invented for steering, and he began to answer the letter with the hand of death upon him. "It is my duty," he replied to entreaties to refrain. But he could not finish.

"There was no appearance of disease," writes Mr. Bateman to the author. "Even his teeth were perfect, and, if he could have been induced to take the repose which he had so well earned, his life would in all probability have been prolonged for many years." The kind doctor warned him against such toil. "Of what consequence is it whether I live a year or two more or less?" he replied. "I never was idle, and it is misery to me to be so. I have served my Queen and country, not unprofitably I hope, and it is the wish of my heart to die in harness."

But his resistance to armour-ships bore him down: his arguments met unbelief, or elicited taunts, and ceased to influence the public. He discovered the barrenness of fame after a life of success, and the harass and toil hastened his end. His thoughts turned to a better existence, for which he had prepared, and he always bade his family "good night" with a tender look, as if they should never meet again-for he remembered the fate of his father and daughter. But it was to fall otherwise with him. His children surrounded him at the last, and he passed away in their presence, in possession of his faculties, and assured of resurrection. Armour-ships proved vulnerable a few weeks later, leading to their

renouncement by Mr. Fairbairn before the British Association; and it is remarkable that a letter arrived as Sir Howard expired, announcing his spontaneous election as an Associate of the Institute of Naval Architects, where his opinions had been most strongly opposed.

Yet he knew that he was right. "All that I have said about armour-ships will prove correct," he remarked, twenty-four hours before his death. "How little do they know of the undeveloped power of artillery!'

His services had won him the honours of the Bath, of which he was a Knight Commander in the Military Division and a Grand Cross in the Civil, wearing both decorations by the authority of the Prince Consort. He was also a Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George; and Lord Palmerston offered him the Grand Cross of the Military Division of the Bath shortly before his death, but this he declined, alleging that he was "too old for such vanities." On the 9th of November, 1861, earthly distinctions ceased for him, and

"He gave his honours to the world again,

His blessed part to Heaven, and died in peace.”

APPENDIX.

Opinion of the DUKE OF WELLINGTON on the Boundary

Treaties.

The difference of opinion between Great Britain and the United States respecting the true course and position of the St. Croix River appears important in the discussion of the question respecting the boundary in the following views.

The second article of the treaty says, "From the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz., that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix River to the Highlands," &c.

The conclusion to be drawn from the perusal of this article is that the position of the river St. Croix must have been known to both parties when the treaty was concluded; and it must be supposed to have been the intention of both to fix the north-west angle of Nova Scotia upon a point in the Highlands due north of that position. This point had before been fixed, by the Commissioners of the United States, at the source of the St. John's River.

It appears, however, from subsequent transactions, that the real St. Croix River and the position of its real source were not known till the year 1794.

The British Commissioners considered the Penobscot to be the St. Croix. The river designated by that name in the treaty was at length fixed upon by Commissioners appointed. under the article of the treaty of 1794.

Even if the position of the source of the St. Croix had been accurately known at the moment that the treaty of peace was concluded in the year 1783, the north-west angle of Nova Scotia as described in the second article remained to be found. That point depended on the Highlands described on

which the due north line from the source of the St. Croix should strike those Highlands. But in the article as framed everything was to be discovered-the St. Croix River, its course, its source; the due north line from that source, and the point at which that due north line should touch the Highlands.

It is very important that the arbitrator who shall decide the difference which has arisen under the treaty of Ghent should understand exactly what passed respecting the St. Croix River and its source; and seeing how little was known of that important point at the time the article was drawn, should seek for the intentions of the parties from other sources of information besides the words of the article itself.

We should attend to the original instructions of the Commissioners of the United States in 1779; to the admission which they contain that the north-west angle of Nova Scotia was to be found at the source of the river St. John; to the geographical features of the country; and to the distinction which clearly exists between the term sea and the term Atlantic Ocean, and between those parts of the sea called respectively Atlantic Ocean, Bay of Fundy, Bay of Chaleurs, and Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the diplomatic act referred for his arbitration. It is quite clear that neither party knew what was the real source of the St. Croix River. Is it not probable, considering the source of the negociation of the definitive treaty, that both parties considered it to be placed further to the westward than it has been found to be? In that case the due north line from that point would have struck the Highlands not far from the source of the river St. John.

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