Examination by the Board of Trade of the Law for making this Provision, it shall be found to be such as to justify your opinion. Such a becoming Conduct and Obedience to the Laws of Parliament, in so respectable a Province as that of New York, will do Honor to it's Councils, and cannot fail of making it a peculiar object of that Paternal Regard & Affection which His Maty has ever shewn to the Interests of His Subjects in America.

His Majesty trusts that the flagitious & inflammatory Publications inserted in printed News-Papers, with an avowed Design to keep up those Animosities & Divisions between the Mother Country & it's Colonies, which have operated so prejudicially to Both, will be treated, by all wise and sober People, with the contempt they deserve, which will conduce the most effectually to the Disappointment of the Authors.

Sir Wm. Johnson His Maty's Superintendant for the Affairs of the Indians in the Northern District whose Vigilance & Attention to His Duty cannot be too much commended has not failed to communicate in the fullest manner the Apprehension He is under from a variety of Intelligence received through different Channels that the Indians in general are meditating some general attack upon His Maty's Colonies.

Amongst the many causes to which he attributes the present defection of the Savages he seems to lay particular stress on the Uneasiness which they have repeatedly expressed from their not having received His Maty's Determination upon the Proposition of a Boundary Line on the Plan suggested by them in 1765. His Majesty has accordingly sent the fullest Instructions to Sir Wm. Johnson on this head, and it is hoped that the attention which His Majesty has shewn to a 'matter which they seem to have so particularly at Heart, will have the effect to keep them quiet, and induce them to desist from any intended Hostilities.

The inclosed copy of the Earl of Shelburne's Dispatch to Sir William Johnson of the 5th of last month will fully inform you of the Instructions which have been judged proper on this occasion.

It is not however his Majesty's Intention that the safety of His Colonies should rest upon, or the Bounds of his Justice to the Savages be limited by the Decision of this Point alone. Every other Consideration relative to the Interests of the Colonies in respect to the Indians both commercial & political, will be attended to without Delay, and every complaint of the Savages of matters that either affect them generally, or relate to the Interests of particular Nations, will be examined with the greatest impartiality, and it is hoped that the whole will be finally settled upon such a lasting Basis, as may restore mutual confidence and prevent those abuses of which the Indians have but too much reason to complain.

The King however in the mean time is well pleased with your vigilance & attention to this important subject, and it is a matter of surprize to His Majesty that the Assembly, if the services you mention in your letter, have been fully laid before them, should have refused to reimburse your Expences.

I am truly concerned to find, that the Directions contained in Lord Shelburne's letter to you of the 11th of April 1767, which flowed from that unalterable love of Justice, which is the Foundation of all His Maty's Measures, should have been the Occasion of so much uneasiness as is expressed in your Letter of the 14th of January last, and in that of the 9lh of June, to which you refer. You may safely rely that as on the one hand His Maty will not suffer the complaints of any of his Subjects, be their Condition what it may, to pass unnoticed, or unattended to, so on the other hand He will not hastily decide upon such charges as may be brought by persons of unknown character against the conduct or fidelity of His Servants

employed in Situations of the greatest Trust & Eminence; But I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that His Maty does give full and entire credit to what you have alledged in your Justification in the Case of the Complaints exhibited by Captain Robinson.

His Majesty's Order in Council of the 24,h of July last directing you to desist from making any further Grants of the Land annexed to New York by that Order which made the River Connecticut the Boundary between that Province and New Hampshire, has, I am informed been transmitted to you, but as I do not find any entry of such transmission in Lord Shelburne's Books, I now for fear of any mistake, inclose to you a Copy of it.

It is not however His Majesty's Intention that such part of the said Land as shall, upon any equitable adjudication, appear to remain for His Maty's Disposal should be locked up from Cultivation & Improvement, longer than is necessary to ascertain those Facts and Allegations in the Petitions on which the Order itself is grounded, & therefore His Maty expects that a very full and particular Account should be transmitted with all convenient Dispatch of the actual State in respect to Cultivation and Settlement of such Townships as were laid out by the Governor of New Hampshire, expressing the Degree of such Cultivation, and the Number of Persons actually brought upon the lands, & how far such cultivation and settlement has conformed to the Terms & Conditions expressed in the Grants themselves.

Besides the Circumstances of Enquiring relative to Cultivation and Settlement, there is another Object of Examination relative to the State of this District of very great national Importance which is, how far it is capable of affording a plentiful and lasting supply of Timber proper for Masts for the Royal Navy, and for other naval uses; The Representations which have been made of it, state it to excel almost all others in Advantages of this kind, and surely when the present supply to this Kingdom from it's Colonies of these Important Articles on which it's strength and security so greetly depend, is become so difficult & precarious & consequently the Expence enhanced to an immoderate degree the finding out and securing new Resources, is an object that merits the fullest consideration. It is therefore His Majesty's pleasure, that, in examining into & reporting, a State of this District you should be particularly attentive to this advantage, causing actual surveys to be made of all such Parts as shall be found to produce any considerable growth of White Pine Trees, & taking every possible caution to secure them for His Maty's use, and to prevent any waste or Destruction being committed until His Maty's pleasure can be known.

Your letter to Lord Shelburne N° 5. which relates to the claims of His Maty's Canadian Subjects, to lands on that part of Lake Champlain, which is now a part of the Colony of New York, has been referred to the Lords of Trade and their Lordships having made a Report to His Maty thereupon, It is his Maty's Resolution upon the fullest consideration not to allow any claims made upon the ground of ancient grants from the Government of Canada to Lands which were never acknowledged to belong of right to the Crown of France.

His Maty has the most tender Regard to the Rights of His new Subjects, and is desirous of giving every proper Testimony of His Attention to their Interests and Welfare, & therefore it is His Maty's Pleasure, that they should not be disturbed in the peacable possession of any Tracts so circumstanced, which they may have actually settled & improved, provided they consent to establish their Title by Grants under the seal of the Province of New York, upon the usual Conditions of Quit Rent and Improvement.

In this Case therefore, as well as in that which I have already mentioned, relative to the lands between the Rivers Hudson and Connecticut, it will be necessary that very exact

information should be transmitted of the State of these claims, and of the Degree of Cultivation and Settlement upon every Tract claimed as well by His Maty's natural born subjects as by His new subjects of Quebec, and that the same Measures and Precautions should be taken in respect to the Preservation of Pine Trees, with which there is good Reason to beleive this Country does also plentifully abound.

His Majesty has been graciously pleased in considering the Request of the Assembly, concerning a Paper Currency mentioned in your Letter N° 31. to give to it the greatest Attention. And the Assembly may rest assured that it will ever be an Object of His Maty's care and attention to promote by reasonable and proper Measures, the Interests of His Subjects in every part of His Dominions, and to give all possible Releif in every case of real Difficulty & Distress; But both you and they must know that as the Law now stands, the allowing any of the Colonies to Issue Paper Bills of Credit with a Legal Tender, is not a matter left to the Discretion of the Crown, & that it would be inconsistent with repeated Resolutions of the House of Commous to allow Paper Bills of Credit under any Description to be created by Laws made to take effect before His Maty's Pleasure could be known, and therefore if it were wished to have such a Paper Currency in the Province of New York as the Law allows, His Majesty does not see what reasonable pretence there could be for not transmitting with the Request the Draught of such a Bill as they proposed to enact.

The prohibiting the Governors of those Colonies which are under the immediate Government of the Crown from assenting in particular cases to Laws, until His Maty's Pleasure should be known, upon a full communication of all the Regulations intended to be established, is a Right inherent in the Crown, upon the Principles of the Constitution of those Colonies; But in order to remedy as much as possible any Inconvenience which might attend the Operation of this necessary and Constitutional Restriction upon the Exercise of the legislative Power of the Colonies, the Wisdom of Government has substituted the regulation of the suspending Clause merely as an alternative to prevent that Delay which would attend the passing a Bill thro' all it's forms after the Crown had signified it's consent that it should be enacted into a Law. This, Sir, is I conceive the exact state of the case with respect to the suspending Clause, and therefore I am at a loss to guess upon what Ground it is that the Assembly object to a Regulation that has been evidently calculated to give every possible advantage and Benefit which can be given, without departing from those Constitutional Principles on which the Government of the Colonies was founded.

I have it in command from His Maty to transmit to you the enclosed Copies of Two Letters to the Earl of Shelburne from Mr Colden stating the Injustice of the Assembly's Refusal to Compensate him for his losses by the Mob on the 1st of Nov 1765. and to pay him the arrears of Salary due to him at the time of your Arrival.

It is His Majesty's Pleasure that you should examine into the state and nature of these Demands, and in case you find them just & reasonable that you should recommend to the Assembly to provide for the Discharge of them, as a matter of Justice that ought not to be denied from Considerations of any Dissatisfaction which the conduct of that Gentleman may have occasioned.

Governor of New York.

I am &ca

HILLSBOROUGH

Governor Moore to the Lords of Trade.

[New-York Papera, Bundle Br., No. 29. ]

My Lords.

New York 2G. Febr* 1768.

I have the honor of transmitting to your Lord?"" by this opportunity the Acts of Assembly passed in the late Session to which an end was put on the blh day of this month by a dissolution, as they had sat seven years, and new writs are issued returnable some time in March. Most of these Acts have been passed in former sessions and only continued in this for some time longer, two or three very short new Acts, are as fully explained in their titles as I could do by letter, but it is necessary, that I should make some observation on two, which are not only new but require some explanation. The first is intitled "An Act to declare the extention of "several Acts of Parliam' made since the establishment of a Legislation in this Colony, and "not declared in the said Acts to extend to the Plantations." The uncertain determinations, and different opinions of the Judges relative to Acts of Parliament, and the confusion, which of course ensued in the Law proceedings here have occasioned this Act, that there might be some fixed and permanent rule to go by, for an Act of Parliament in which the Colonies were not mentioned, was pleaded in one term and rejected in the next, so that in effect the issue of a cause depended not so much on the right of the Client, as on the breath of the Judge, and what was looked upon as a very good plea in one circuit was disallowed in another; Your Lordeps may easily imagine, what must have been the consequence of this method of Acting, and the difficulties under which all the suitors in the Courts must have laboured. This Act was intended to remedy these inconveniencies and only a certain number of Acts of the English Legislature adopted, as many of them were merely local, and could not be of any service here, or indeed properly carried into execution in our present situation. The second, is the "Act " for the more effectual vesting the real and personal Estate whereof Abraham De Peyster1 Esqre, "late Treasurer of this Colony died seized and posessed, in Trustees for the payment of his "debts"—Mr De Peyster's death happening during the recess of the Assembly, his executors upon a thorough examination of the State of his Affairs before the session began, found, that he had died so much indebted to the Province, that it was apprehended all the Estate he left behind him, would hardly be able to satisfy the public Demand; Upon this, for the Credit of the Family, all the parties interested in the succession determined to petition the Assembly for a Bill, to vest the Estate in trust for the payment of the monies due, and the house of Assembly were proceeding on a supposition, that such a Bill would pass, provided the Heirs declared their willingness to give up every thing to the Govern'. As soon as I was informed of this, I sent a copy of His Maju Instruction relative to private Bills to the Council and desired they would lay it before the Assembly in the conference, they were to have together that morning, concerning Mr De Peyster's Affairs, that they might regulate themselves accordingly in the forming of the Bill then before them; I likewise gave them to understand, that as it was apparent the Instruction was designed to check the Colony Legislative (when exercising Judicial) Authority not only by preserving the Crown's claim as the dernier resort of Justice in Plantation causes, but by securing private property from being sacrificed to the spirit of Party,

1 ABRAHAM DE PEYSTER, eldest son of Abraham, supra, IV., 777, was born in New-York on the 28th August, 1696, and married Margaret, eldest daughter of Jacobus van Cortland, 1st July, 1722. He was elected Treasurer of the Province 2d June, 1721, and died 17th September, 1767, aged 71. De Peyster Genealogy, 28. ED.

no designs of the Legislature though never so public spirited and laudable, could furnish reasons for disregarding an instruction important to the Crown and safe to the People. Neither the Council, nor the Assembly were strangers to the Instruction, it had been often made use of and the security derived from it to their properties left no room to entertain thoughts of evading it, but they did not think the present Bill to be the object of it; they had now changed the first Plan for the proprietors of the Treasurer's Estate had by a voluntary act and Deed transferred all their Rights and title to it, to public Trustees for jmblic uses, it was their opinion, that it thenceforth became public property, and no individual being any longer interested in it, of course a Law might be as freely passed relative to that Estate as to any money in the Treasury, all of it now belonging to the public with no other difference, than that some part of the fund consisted of Land, Bonds ettc and the rest of cash. When matters were so far advanced, I sent for one of the Sons-in-Law of the late Treasurer, who confirmed to me what I have here related; and I afterwards mentioned to him His Maj'*'* Instruction concerning private Bills, telling him at the same time, that if there had been the least reluctance in any of the parties interested to make the conveyance, that it must necessarily put a stop to the Bill in its present form, oblige us to go through the whole ceremony prescribed of publication, and afterwards of inserting a suspending clause, till the King's pleasure should be known, but he assured me, that the conveyance was voluntary, and that all parties interested in the succession desired nothing more than, that the Estate shd be applyed as far as it would go to satisfy the debt due to the Province. The Members of His Majesty's Council being of opinion, that as the conveyance absolutely extinguished all private Interest, the Bill in question did not come under the Instruct" I had sent to them, they passed it, and by their advice I gave my asscent to it, as from the circumstances here set forth-I did not apprehend that either the Crown or the subject would be injured by it. These, My Lords, are the reasons, why this Bill now appears without the usual certificate and suspending clause, and as there was not the least design in any of the branches of the Legislature to evade His Maju'* Instruction, we hope to find Your Lord PPs sentiments concurr with ours on this occasion. I have the honor to be with the greatest Respect— My Lords.

In many letters which I have had the honor of writing to your Lordship, I have been under a necessity of mentioning the difficulties I have struggled with for two years past in bringing back to a sense of their Duty those minds which the late tumults and disorders here had so much inflam'd, and at the same time could not avoid laying before your Lordship the present weakness of the Government in many Instances, so ill attended to by those here whose