traordinary results which can, in this respect, be brought about in a short period by the united and welldirected efforts of a community like ours, Our surplus profits, the energy and industry of our population, and the wonderful advantage which providence has bestowed upon our country, in its climate, its various productions, indispensable to other nations, will, in due time, afford abundant means to perfect the most useful of those objects, for which the states have been plunging themselves of late in embarrassment and debt, without imposing on ourselves or our children such fearful burthens.

But let it be indelibly engraved on our minds that relief is not to be found in expedients. Indebted ness cannot be lessened by borrowing more money, or by changing the form of the debt. The balance of trade is not to be turned in our favour by creating new demands upon us abroad. Our currency cannot be improved by the creation of new banks, or more issues from those which now exist. Although these devices sometimes appear to give temporary relief they almost invariably aggravate the evil in the end. It is only by retrenchment and reform, by curtailing public and private expenditures, by paying our debts, and by reforming our banking system, that we are to expect effectual relief, security for the future, and an enduring prosperity. In shaping the institutions and policy of the general government, so as to promote, as far as it can with its limited powers, these important ends, you may rely on most cordial co-operation.

That there should have been, in the progress of recent events, doubts in many quarters, and in some a heated opposition to every

change, cannot surprise us. Doubts are properly attendant on all reform; and it is peculiarly in the nature of such abuses as we are now encountering to seek to perpetuate their power by means of the influence they have been permitted to acquire. It is their result, if not their object, to gain for the few an ascendancy over the many, by securing to them a monopoly of the currency, the medium through which most of the wants of mankind are suppliedto produce throughout society a chain of dependence which leads all classes to look to privileged associations for the means of speculation and extravagance-to nourish, in preference to the manly virtues that give dignity to human nature, a craving desire for luxurious enjoyment and sudden wealth, which renders those who seek them dependent on those who supply them

to substitute for republican simplicity and economical habits a sickly appetite for effeminate indulgence, and an inanition of that reckless extravagance which impoverished and enslaved the industrious people of foreign lands; and, at last, to fix upon us, instead of those equal political rights, the acquisition of which was alike the object and supposed reward of our revolutionary struggle, a system of exclusive privileges conferred by partial legislation.

to

To remove the influences which had thus gradually grown among us to deprive them of their deceptive advantages test them by the light of wisdom and truth-to oppose the -force which they concentrate in their support-all this was necessarily the work of time, even among a people so enlightened and pure as that of the United States. In most

other countries, perhaps, it could only be accomplished through that series of revolutionary movements which are too often found necessary to effect any great and radical reform; but it is the crowning merit of our institutions that they create and nourish in the vast majority of our people a disposition and a power peaceably to remedy abuses which have elsewhere caused the effusion of rivers of blood, and the sacrifice of thousands of the human race.

The result thus far is most honourable to the self-denial, the intelligence, and the patriotism of our citizens. It justifies the confident hope that they will carry through the reform they have so well begun; that they will go still further than they have yet gone in illustrating the important truth, that a people as free and enlightened as ours will, whenever it be comes necessary, show themselves to be indeed capable of self-government, by voluntarily adopting appropriate remedies for every abuse, and submitting to temporary sacrifice, however great, to ensure their permanent welfare.

My own exertions for the furtherance of these desirable objects

have been bestowed throughout my official career with a zeal that is nourished by ardent wishes or the welfare of my country, and by an unlimited reliance on the wisdom that marks its ultimate decision on all great and controverted questions.

Impressed with the

solemn obligations imposed upon me by the constitution desirous also of laying before my fellow citizens, with whose confidence and support I have been so highly honoured, such measures as appear to me conducive to their prosperityand anxious to submit to their fullest consideration the grounds upon which my opinions are formed, I have on this, as on preceding occasions, freely offered my views on those points of domestic policy that seem, at the present time, most prominently to require the action. of the government. I know that they will receive from Congress that full and able consideration which the importance of the subject merits, and I can repeat the assurance heretofore made, that I shall cheerfully and readily cooperate with you in every measure that will tend to promote the welfare of the union.

M. VAN BUREN.

MR. FOX TO MR. FORSYTH.

Washington, Jan. 26. The undersigned, her Britannic majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, has the honour to acquaint Mr. For

syth, secretary of state of the United States, that since the date of his last official note, of the 12th instant, he has been furnished by her majesty's authorities in North America with more correct infor

mation than he then possessed respecting certain reported movements of British troops within the disputed territory, which formed the subject of a part of that official note, as well as of the two official notes addressed by the secretary of state to the undersigned on the 24th of December, and on the 16th of the present month. The same reported movements of troops were referred to in a recent message from the governor of Maine to the legislature of the state, and also in a published official letter addressed by the governor of Maine to the president of the United States on the 22d of December.

It appears from the accurate information now in the possession of the undersigned, that the governor of Maine, and through him, the president and general govern ment of the United States, have been misinformed as to the facts. In the first place, no reinforcement has been marched to the British post at the Lake Temiscouata; the only change occurring there has been the relief of a detachment of her majesty's 24th regiment by a detachment of equal force of the 11th regiment, this force of one company being now stationed at the Temiscouata post, as it always has been, for the necessary purpose of protecting the stores and accommodations provided for the use of her majesty's troops, who may be required, as heretofore, to march by that route to and from the provinces of Canada and New Brunswick. In the second place, it is not true that the British authorities either have built, or are building, barracks on both sides of the St. John's river, or at the mouth of the Madawaska river; no new barracks have in fact been built anywhere. In the third place,

her majesty's authorities are not concentrating a military force at the Grand Falls. The same trifling force of sixteen men is now stationed at the post of the Grand Falls, which has been stationed there for the last twelvemonth. It was perhaps, however, needless for the undersigned to advert to this last matter at all, as the post of the Grand Falls is beyond the bounds of the disputed territory, and within the acknowledged limits of New Brunswick.

The undersigned, while conveying the above information upon a matter of fact to the secretary of state of the United States, takes occasion to repeat distinctly his former declaration that there exists no intention on the part of her majesty's authorities to infringe the terms of those provisional agreements which were entered into at the beginning of last year, so long as there is reason to trust that the same will be faithfully adhered to by the opposite party. But it is the duty of the undersigned, at the same time, to clearly state that her majesty's authorities in North America, taking into view the attitude assumed by the state of Maine with reference to the boundary question, will, as at present advised, be governed entirely by circumstances in adopting such measures of defence and protection (whether along the confines of the disputed territory, or within that portion of it where it has been before explained the authority of Great Britain, according to the existing agreements, was not to be interfered with) as may seem to them necessary for guarding against, or for promptly repelling, the further acts of hos tile aggression over the whole of the disputed territory, which it

appears to be the avowed design of the state of Maine sooner or later to attempt.

For the undersigned has to observe, that not only is the extensive system of encroachment, which was denounced and remonstrated against by the undersigned in his official note of the 2d of last November, carried on and persisted in by armed bands, employed by the authorities of Maine in the districts above the Aroostook and Fish rivers, but that acts, as above stated, of a character yet more violent and obnoxious to the rights of Great Britain, and more dangerous to the preservation of the general peace, are with certainty meditated by the inhabitants of that state. The existence of such designs has for months past been a matter of notoriety by public report; those designs were plainly indicated in the recent message of the governor of Maine to the legislature of the state; and they are avowed in more explicit terms in the letter addressed to the president of the United States by the governor of Maine on the 21st of November, which letter has, within the last few days, been communicated to congress, and published.

The undersigned, it is true, has been assured by the secretary of state, in his note of the 16th instant, that the general government see no reason to doubt the disposition of the governor of Maine to adhere to the existing arrangements, and to avoid all acts tending to render more difficult and distant the final adjustment of the boundary question. But in face of the above clear indications of the intentions of Maine, as given out by the parties themselves, the secretary of state has not given to the undersigned any adequate assur

ance that Maine will be constrained to desist from carrying those intentions into effect, if, contrary to the expectation of the general government, the legislature or the executive of the state should think fit to make the attempt.

The undersigned not only preserves the hope, but he entertains the firm belief, that if the duty of negotiating the boundary question be left in the hands of the two national governments, to whom alone of right it belongs, the difficulty of conducting the negotiation to an amicable issue will not be found so great as has been by many persons apprehended. But the case will become wholly altered if the people of the state of Maine, who, though interested in the result, are not charged with the negotiation, shall attempt to interrupt it by violence.

Her majesty's authorities in North America have on their part no desire or intention to interfere with the course of the pending negotiation by an exertion of military force; but they will, as at present advised, consult their own discretion in adopting measures of defence that may be rendered necessary by the threats of a violent interruption to the negotiation which have been used by all parties in Maine, and which the undersigned regrets to find confirmed by the language (as above referred to) employed by the highest offi cial authority in that state.

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the secretary of state of the United States the assurance of his distinguished consideration.

H. S. Fox.
The hon. J. Forsyth, &c.