the part of that Government a delay to proceed to the execution of that instrument. Questions belonging lo the duties of the commissioners and surveyors could not be properly presented or considered until they met to enter upon those du ties. A correspondence between the United States and Mexico, for the adoption of the treaty of limits madP. bP-twecn Spain and the United States, was no place to look for traces of the pretensions of the two Governments, founded on a construction of that instrument; nor were they likely to be found m the correspondence for the additionalarticle to provide for carrying that treaty into effect. It could only be when in the course of execution that the rival pretensions of the parties and the conflicting constructions could arise. To discuss them in advance would have been useless, if not suspicious. It is not therefore surprising that Mr. Gorostiza should have risen from the perusal of the correspondence to which he refers without accurate knowledge of the claims of the United States. The undersigned is constrained, however, to express his surprise at the apparent want of information on this subject, derivable from other sources, in the Mexican envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary. The indication in Mr. Butler's note of the 21st December, 1834, was of itself sufficiently distinct to have elicited inquiry. If not made, it is presumed it was because the allusion was understood. Whatever may have been done or omitted prior to that time, it is certain that want of information on this point since November last cannot be complained of by the Mexican Government. The undersigned had the honor lo give to the Mexican charge d'affaires, Mr. Castillo, in a conference in that month, the most distinct intimation of the claims and expectations of the Government of the United States under the treaty of limits and the additional article; a conference which the undersigned has supposed was the chief cause of the subsequent extraordinary mission of l\'lr. Gorostiza to the United States. The undersigned is instructed by the President to decline any discussion at present of the claims or pretensions of the United States to the territory in question. The appropriate occasion for advancing them is approaching. The United States are preparing and will hasten to be ready to execute in perfect good faith the treaty, according to the second additional article lately agreed upon, and they expect that Mexico will be equally prompt.
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