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that Grants should be sued out under the seal of New York , Subject to the usual Quit Rents, andthat a Grant to one Person should not exceed 20,000 acres.
The Committee have examined the Council Books and cannot discover that the Government ofQuebec ever gave the least Intimation to this Province of any French Grants upon Lake Champlain ,neither before nor after the said Order of August 1768 until excited thereunto by your Excellency’slate proclamation, nor is there an Entry to be found of any Notification of such Claim by Privatepersons, nor even of an application for any grant or Confirmation under this Government for LandsGranted in Canada before the surrender of that Country.
The Committee therefore conceive that it was a natural and reasonable presumption either thatthere were no such French Grants or that the Grantees and their Assigns considered them as invalidand perhaps forfeited to the French Crown before the Conquest or that they declined the acceptanceof British Confirmations subject to Quit Rents and new Patent Charges, intending to set themselvesup as sufficient under the Capitulation Articles in the Courts of Law, upon the supposition that theywere within the Ancient Dominions of the Crown of France , and agreeable thereto this Governmentbegan again to Grant Lands in that Quarter, and continued the practice until Your Excellency waspleased to communicate to the Council his Majestys 50 th Instruction prohibiting Patents for Lands tothe Northward of Crown Point, claimed under French Titles, and if the late Grants of this Provinceare detrimental to those Claimants, the Committee are of Opinion that the Blame falls upon them-selves, as it is owing to their neglecting to give the Information naturally to be expected, if theyintended to submit to and take advantage of the Royal order of the 12 th August 1768.
The Committee observe that among the Papers now transmitted from Quebec, there are no French Concessions and Ratifications for any of the Lands mentioned in the List of those said to be Granteden Roture, nor for several of those in the List of the Seigneuries , besides those specified in M rCramahe’s Letter to your Excellency, nor is there a single petition sent or preferred by either of thoseClaimants for a Confirmation under this Province of any of their Grants, which is the more extra-ordinary as Your Excellency’s Proclamation required a full exhibition of their Titles, and the Crownis greatly interested in the Question concerning the Validity of the French Claims in the Articles bothof Quit Rents and Escheats, their pretentions extending not only to a vast Quantity of Land, but toLands the more valuable for their Contiguity to the Forts and Passes, and the Navigable Waters ofthe Lake : and from the whole we conjecture that this Conduct is owing to their adopting an Opinionwhich deserves a serious attention to wit:
That the Lands they Claim are situated to the Northward of the Antient British Claim, and thatconsequently they can maintain a Title under the Surrender without the aid of the Crown, andfree from the usual Reservations, Restrictions, Conditions, and Quit Rents.
With respect therefore to the Lands Southward of Crown Point, and to those to the Northward ofthat Fort, not within the Limits of the French Grants, we are of Opinion that your Excellency mayissue Patents for them as Lands to which the 50 th Article of the Royal Instructions has clearly norelation.
Nor do we think that Article ought to be considered to prohibit the Grant of those Tracts to whichno French Concessions or Ratifications appear to be transmitted from Quebec , nor any Excuse assignedfor not laying them before this Government pursuant to the late Proclamation, it being very plainfrom the Instruction that it was intended to restrain only new Patents for Lands before claimed byTitles derived from the French King, and prior to the Surrender of Canada and as clear that it wasthe indispensable Duty of all such Claimants in Justice to the Crown to give due Notice of theirClaims.
But in due deference to his Majesty’s authority, we advise as to the Lands to the Northward ofCrown Point, and included by the Concessions & Ratifications lately notified to this Government, that