CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.

437

growth of white pine Trees, and of other Timber fit for Naval purposes and when we consider thegreat advantage of them in this light it is our duty in Conformity to what we humbly representedto His Majesty on the 24 day of July 1767 respecting the preservation of wood Lands in America , torecommend to your Lordships to advise His Majesty not to allow any further Grants to be made, orwarrants of survey issued for any Lands within this District; until the person who in consequenceof that Representation has been appointed Surveyor for that Division of North America in whichthis district is included shall have carried his Instructions into execution & shall have marked out, forReservation to His Majesty such parts of it, as shall contain any considerable growth of Trees fit forthe purposes above mentioned.

When this service shall have been executed we see no reason why the residue of the Land maynot be laid open to settlement & improvement from his Majesty ; but we can by no means recom-mend to your Lordships to advise his Majesty to suffer the Governor and Council of New York todispose of the said Lands either upon the terms or in the manner in which they have hithertqexercised that power.

The well known fertility & particular advantage of these Lands arising from their situation in themidst of a well settled and cultivated Country render them w r e conceive far more valuable thanthose which lye more distant & remote and we see no reason why his Majesty may not in this case atleast reasonably expect the same advantages which the proprietors of the province of Maryland &Pennsylvania derive from the Grants of their waste and uncultivated Lands who over and above aQuit Rent nearly double what is reserved on Lands Granted by the Governor & Council of New York ,receive five pounds for every hundred acres, which is required to be paid to their respective receiverswhose certificate of such payment is made an indispensable requisite for obtaining a warrant ofSurvey for the Lands.

We have hitherto avoided stating to your Lordships the pretensions of those persons who claimthe possession of Lands in this district under the exorbitant Grants from the Governor of NewHampshire but who have not taken any steps towards acquiring possession of the Land or for seatingor improving the same We are persuaded your Lordships will agree with us in opinion that combin-ing this circumstance of neglect of improvement with the little degree of attention, which is due tothe grants themselves, from the manner & circumstances under which they were passed the claimsof these persons can or ought to have in a general view of them little weight in the present consid-eration, In order however to avoid all possible ground of complaint and to give facility to theexecution of what is proposed in the cases already stated we submit it to your Lordships Con-sideration whether it may not be advisable after the Reservations above mentioned for naval purposeshave been made, that such of the Grantees as shall before a certain day to be fixed by proclamationapply by petition to your Majestys Governor and Council of New York for Grants of Land within thesaid District, may receive warrants of Survey for such parts ot the said Lands as they shall chusein quantity proportioned to their ability to cultivate and improve the same ; with this Restrictionhowever, that no one of the said persons, so applying shall either in his or her own name or in thename or names of any other person or perons in trust for him or her receive more than five hundredacres, the said Grantees not to be subject to payment of the purchase money above recommended, orto any other terms or conditions than what are usually contained in Grants from His Majestys Gov-ernor of New York under the present Instructions.

We are aware that the Claims of persons under this general description must vary in theirCircumstances ; and that a greater regard and attention may be due to one than ought to be shewedto another ; but it is we fear impossible to distinguish any different Case ; and we humbly conceiveit is the less necessary in as much as these General Regulations will not preclude any particular