parative retirement; but he was never idle. He continued to be actively interested in the several fraternal societies of which he was a member, and in the religious and educational institutions of his denomination. Respected and trusted by his fellow-citizens of every religious body and of all political parties, his counsel and coöperation were sought in the efforts made, happily with a large degree of success, to promote the good government and general welfare of Cambridge. For many years he was regular in his attendance at the meetings of the historical societies. For the last four or five years his attendance was necessarily less frequent. His communications whenever present, and his letters when he was compelled to be absent, gave, even to the last, no indication of decay in his mental powers. His large correspondence, his reading of historical and kindred books, and unfailing interest in public events, furnished ample employment for his mind. He knew what was transpiring in foreign lands and in the world about him, and he also knew the chief contents of the monthlies and quarterlies. Surrounded by his carefully selected library, and by pieces of furniture and other relics that had descended to him from his ancestors, he read-read without glassesand made copious notes, to the end of life.

Those who knew Dr. Paige only as a citizen, with his quiet, dignified and refined manners and gentle spirit, were in a large measure strangers to his reserved force, his capacity for concentrated thought, and the deep and strong currents of his emotional nature. To those who were honored with his intimate friendship in his own home, when the doors were shut and the curtains drawn, he disclosed his abounding humor, the warmth and generosity of his heart, the sweetness, purity, and elevation of his nature. He also gave evidence, in his unpretentious way, of the fulness and accuracy of his knowledge of history, both ancient and modern, and his extraordinary memory. He seemed to have forgotten nothing that he had read or

witnessed. His conversation was enlivened by a great fund of illustrative reminiscences; but he was always a gentleman and dealt kindly with the reputations of his contemporaries and of the dead. He abhorred that habit which reveals itself in the repetition of scandal, and in efforts to excite mirth over the weaknesses and eccentricities of other men. Of such "reminiscences" Dr. Paige could not be the author or the disseminator. Nor was this reserve the dictate of mere prudence. We might rather apply to him the remark made by Paul de Rémusat concerning M. Thiers, and say that this reserve was not an "incident of his life," but "was a trait of his character."

Born and bred among a people who were separated from the Puritan epoch more by a long interval of years than by any substantial difference in spirit or in principles, Dr. Paige inherited their quick and clear apprehension of truth and justice, their unswerving loyalty to whatever they regarded as the imperative demand of duty. But his Puritanism was ameliorated by his warm sympathies for his fellow-men, a tolerant disposition, and a serene faith in the infinite love of his Divine Master.

He was conservative in respect to established principles in the sphere of politics and government, and in the sphere of ethics and conduct. At the same time, he was unaffectedly hospitable to every real advance in science and Christian philosophy, as he was, likewise, to every rational effort for reform in civil and in social life.

Looking back over his long life, he took delight in noting the upward progress of the race. He believed in theBrotherhood of Man," and saw with joy every step gained towards the conciliation of the nations.

In his nearer view, he looked for the best results from the average man. He saw how, under the coöperating influences of wise laws and good government, of peaceful and useful industries, of the culture that comes from the schools and the wide diffusion of the products of the print

ing-press, and more than all, under the benign influence of religious institutions and inculcations,--the average man is advancing to a plane higher than that occupied by his predecessors. And this advance, although it might be interrupted and delayed by periods of reaction, he believed would continue. Hence he was never disturbed by sudden gusts of folly and fanaticism, of social and political passion. Hence he could not be a "prophet of evil," nor, like Carlyle, a hero-worshiper. He approved the saying of the late Sir John Seeley, that hero-worship is the natural issue of despair of society." It seemed to him "a sign of pessimism," as another writer had said, "just as pessimism in turn is a sign either of epicureanism, or of impatience." His hopefulness saved him from impatience; his Christian faith furnished a firm basis for his recognition of a vast providential law of secular progress," and so saved him from despair.

"

To Dr. Paige was granted an ideal old age, which was passed in a community where everybody was his friend, eager to show him tokens of reverent regard, and during all which he was ministered to by a loyal and devoted wife -a playmate and schoolmate of his boyhood days, the companion of the last thirty years of his life. The end came after only a few days of serious illness-his vision undimmed, his mind unclouded, his Faith unshaken, his resignation perfect.

For the Council,

A. H. H.

THOMAS C. MENDENHALL.

TWENTY UNSETTLED MILES IN THE NORTHEAST BOUNDARY.

BY THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL.

FOR nearly three hundred years, and almost without cessation, there has raged a conflict of jurisdiction over territory lying near to what is known as the Northeast Boundary of the United States. It has been generally assumed, however, that the Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842, together with the Buchanan-Packenham treaty of 1846, settled all outstanding differences with Great Britain in the matter of boundaries, and few people are aware that there is an important failure in these and earlier treaties, to describe and define all of the line which extends from ocean to ocean and fixes the sovereignty of the adjacent territory. From the mouth of the St. Croix River to the ocean outside of West Quoddy Head is a distance of about twenty-one miles, if the most direct route through Lubec Channel be taken. Somewhere, from the middle of the river at its mouth to a point in the ocean about midway between the island of Campobello and Grand Menan, the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick must go, and, inferentially, for about one mile of this distance it is tolerably well fixed. But this is only an inference from the generally accepted principle that where two nations exercise jurisdiction on opposite sides of a narrow channel or stream of water, the boundary line must be found somewhere in that stream. That this has not been a universally accepted principle, however, will appear later. Throughout the remaining twenty miles, the territory under the jurisdiction of the ited States is separated from that under the dominion of

Great Britain by a long, irregularly shaped estuary, almost everywhere more than a mile in width and over a large part of its length opening into Passamaquoddy Bay and other extensive arms of the sea. This large body of water, with an average depth of twenty-five fathoms and everywhere navigable for vessels of the largest size, flows with the alternations of the tides, the rise and fall of which is here eighteen to twenty feet, now north, now south, with current in many places as swift as five and six miles per hour. Nothing like a distinct channel or "thread of stream" exists, and it can in no way be likened to or regarded as a river. When once the mouth of the St. Croix is reached, the boundary line is defined by the treaty of 1783 to be the middle of that river, up to its source, but literally, as well as figuratively, we are at sea as to its location from that point to the open ocean. It is the purpose of this paper to give some account of the circumstances which gave rise to such a curious omission; the incidents which led to a diplomatic correspondence and convention relating to the matter, in 1892, between the two governments interested; and the attempt which was made during the two or three years following the convention to determine and mark the missing boundary.

The present controversy really had its beginning nearly three hundred years ago. Up to the end of the 16th century, not much attention had been given by European. colonists to the northeastern coast of America, although it had been visited by Cabot before the beginning of that century. The coast was tolerably well known, however, and it had been explored to some extent by both English and French, who were alive to the importance of the extensive fishing and other interests which it represented. In 1603, the King of France (Henry IV.) made the famous grant to De Monts of all the territory in America between the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of north latitude, thus furnishing a beautiful example of the