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CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.

a Society as that for propagating the Gospel should present a Petition supposed to be grounded onFacts which are not true in themselves has astonished every one here who has been informed of it.By some similar expressions to those in the Petition of Robinson, I apprehend they both camefrom the same quarter, and that the Society has been first imposed upon and afterwards engaged topresent a Petition of the same kind with that relative to the New r Hampshire Grants with no otherintent than to be a more effectual means to impose on his Maty’s Ministers.

There are but three particular causes of complaint assigned which are all easily answered andset aside. The first is, that the Grantees had settled some part of the townships ; were preparing tosettle the remainder with a reservation of the said several shares for the public uses, but wereprevented by the Governmn 1 of New York &c. How far the settlements have been carried on hasbeen already shewed, and I shall leave it to your Ldp. to judge of their intentions in regard to theremainder when I take upon me to assert that notwithstanding the appropriation of these Shares forpublic uses and Expressly so described in the Body of the Charters, The Petitioners had so little designto serve any body but themselves that they had the assurance to request that these public sharesmight be divided among them, without giving the least attention to the purposes for which they weredesigned and without the least scruple of defrauding the Society of its Rights ; If the intention ofHis Majesty’s Council in regal’d to the Interest of the Society had not differed greatly from thoseof the Petitioners I can take upon me to say that the Society w’ould not at this time, have beenentitled to a single lot of Land in all that part of the Province. There is not the least Foundationfor that assertion of being prevented by the Government of JYew York for great care w r as taken to givethem all the assurances possible that they should be protected in their Eights and no pains werespared to convince the Settlers of the good Intentions of this Government towards them.

The Second Complaint? is, That they are altogether deprived of the greater and better part of tlmrRight. I have already had the honor of acquainting your Lordship that there have been proceedingsonly on 2S of these Townships ; In 24 of them the Rights of the Society and all the grants in the firstCharters for public uses have been expressly reserved for the uses therein mentioned. No failurehas been made but in the four first Grants which passed the Council, and as I am informed thatthe Charters w r ere not at that time before them, it occasion d an Omission which has been guardedagainst ever since, of these four, only one has passed the Great Seal, so that the shares may be stillreserved in the three which remain. This happened before my arrival in America .

The Third Complaint is, That as the Residue of such Lands which are not already granted away ,they are burthened with such expenses and Charges as are greatly more than equal in point of value tothe Shares themselves. The only way this assertion can be answ d is by denying it flatly, and I amextremely sorry to be under the necessity of declaring to your Lordship that there is not a word oftruth in it; When the first Petitioners for these public Shares could not obtain them for their ownuses, as I have already mentioned they desired that the Society might be Charged with a Share of theExpenses which would be incurred for surveying & c . But this was likewise absolutely refused,and they were told that if they did not choose to take out their grants on the Terms of paying theCosts of the four Public Shares amongst them they should not have them at all. Tire Reasonwhich occasioned this Declaration was that as there appeared on the back of each Charter a longlist of Names the greatest part of which are entirely unknown The Council joined in Opinionwith me that if these were the names of real Proprietors there could be no hardship in fixing theExpense on them as the Quota of each person interested in the Township would be so small as toamount at most to a mere trifle. By this means the Society ’s shares were so far from being bur-thened with expenses and charged greatly more than equal in point of value to the Lands themselves , thatthey are not charged with the expense of a single shilling. I am sorry to say that our suspicions