Reference number: RS13

Place : Madawaska County
Date : 1847

The boundary issue between Quebec and New Brunswick, although less contentious than the line that would finally mark off the territory between the United States (State of Maine) and New Brunswick, was still the source of many negotiations before the final boundary was settled in 1851 by an Imperial Act of Parliament. Today, the boundary is still the same between New Brunswick and Quebec in the Madawaska area.
This document is a two-page letter dated November 22, 1847, and a one-page follow-up dated December 18, 1847, written by Jean Baptiste Pouliot, a justice of the peace from Rivière-du-Loup. The letters are addressed to Étienne Parent, the Under Secretary of the Province of Canada (Quebec). The subject is the boundary between Quebec and New Brunswick, which had not yet been determined. No judgement of a court of the province of Quebec or of New Brunswick could be executed. There were disputes about this, and they wanted to settle the matter to put an end to the "anarchy" in the area.
Also included is the reply of the provincial secretary of Upper and Lower Canada, Dominick Daly, indicating that no decision had been made about the boundary situation between Canada and New Brunswick and that the status quo would prevail until a further order was made, so that all the territory including Lac Témiscouata and the Madawaska River up to the St. John River would be under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Canada.