and prayers for the happiness of you and yours, shall always attend you. "We have seen many governors, and may see more; and as none of those who had the honour to serve in your station, were ever so justly fixed in the affections of the governed, so those to come will acquire no mean reputation, when it can be said of them, their conduct has been like yours. "We thankfully accept the honour you do us, in calling yourself our countryman; give us leave then to desire that you will not forget this as your country, and, if you can, make haste to return to it. "But if the service of our sovereign will not admit of what we so earnestly desire, and his commands deny us that happiness, permit us to address you as our friend, and give us your assistance, when we are oppressed with an administration the reverse of yours." Colonel Hunter departing the province, the chief command devolved, the 31st of July, 1719, on Peter Schuyler, esq. then the eldest member of the board of council. As he had no interview with the assembly during his short administration, in which he behaved with great moderation and integrity, there is very little observable in his time, except a treaty at Albany with the Indians, for confirming the ancient league, and the transactions respecting the partition line between this and the colony of New-Jersey: concerning the latter of which I shall now lay before the reader a very summary account. The two provinces were originally included in the grant of king Charles to the duke of York. NewJersey was afterwards conveyed by the duke to lord Berkley and sir George Carteret. This again, by a deed of partition, was divided into east and west Jersey, the former being released to sir George Carteret, and the latter to the assigns of lord Berkley. The line of division extended from Little Egg harbour to the north partition point on Delaware river, and thus both those tracts became concerned in the limits of the province of New-York. The original rights of lord Berkley and sir George Carteret, are vested in two different sets, consisting each of a great number of persons, known by the general name of the Proprietors of East and West Jersey, who, though they surrendered the powers of government to queen Anne in the year 1702, still retained their property in the soil. in the soil. interested against the claim of New-York. It is agreed on all sides, that the deed to New-Jersey is to be first satisfied out of that great tract granted to the duke, and that the remainder is the right of New-York. The proprietors insist upon extending their northern limits to a line drawn from the latitude of 41° 40' on Delaware, to the latitude of 41o, on Hudson's river, and allege that before the year 1671, the latitude of 41° was reputed to be fourteen miles to the northward of Tappan creek, part of those lands being settled under New-Jersey till 1684. These were the They also contend that in 1684 or 1685, Dongan and Lawrie, (the former governor of New-York, and the latter of New-Jersey,) with their respective councils, agreed that the latitude on Hudson's river was at the mouth of Tappan creek, and that a line from thence to the latitude of 41° 40' on Delaware should be the boundary line. In 1686, Robinson, Wells, and Keith, surveyors of the three several provinces, took two observations, and found the latitude of 41° to be 1' and 25' to the northward of the Yonker's mills, which is four miles and forty-five chains to the southward of the mouth of Tappan creek; but against these observations the proprietors offer sundry objections, which it is not my business to enumerate. It is not pretended by any of the litigants, that a line according to the stations settled by Dongan and Lawrie was actually run; so that the limits of these contending provinces must long have existed in the uncertain eonjectures of the inhabitants of both; and yet the inconveniences of this unsettled state, through the infancy of the country, were very inconsiderable. In the year 1701, an act passed in New-York, relating to elections, which annexed Wagachemeck, and great and little Minisink, certain settlements near Delaware, to Ulster county. The intent of this law was to quiet disputes before subsisting between the inhabitants of those places, whose votes were required both in Orange and Ulster. The natural conclusion from hence is, that the legislature of New-York then deemed those plantations not included within the New-Jersey grant. Such was the state of this affair till the year 1717, when provision was made by this province for running the line the same being done in New-Jersey the succeeding year, commissions for that purpose, under the great seals of the respective colonies, were issued in May, 1719. The commissioners by inden *The same who left the quakers, and took orders in the church of England. Burnet's history of his own times. ture dated the 25th of July, fixed the north station point on the most northern branch of the Delaware, called the Fishkill; and from thence a random line was run to Hudson's river, terminating about five miles to the northward of the mouth of Tappan creek. In August the surveyors of East Jersey met for fixing the station on Hudson's river. All the commissioners not attending through sickness, nothing further was done. What had already been transacted, however, gave a general alarm to many persons interested in several patents under NewYork, who before imagined their rights extended to the southward of the random line. The New-York surveyor afterwards declined proceeding in the work, complaining of faults in the instrument which had been used in fixing the north station on DelaThe proprietors, on the other hand, think they have answered his objections, and the matter rested, without much contention, till the year 1740. Frequent quarrels multiplying after that period, relating to the rights of soil and jurisdiction southward of the line in 1719, a probationary act was passed in New-Jersey, in February, 1748, for running the line ex parte, if the province of New-York refused to join in the work. Our assembly soon after directed their agent to oppose the king's confirmation of that act, and it was accordingly dropped, agreeable to the advice of the lords of trade, whose report of the 18th of July, 1753, on a matter of so much importance, will doubtless be acceptable to the reader. ware. "To the king's most excellent majesty: "May it please your majesty: We have lately had under our consideration an act passed in your majesty's province of New-Jersey, in 1747-8, entitled, "An act for running and ascertaining the line of partition and division betwixt this province of New-Jersey, and the province of New-York.” "And having been attended by Mr. Paris, solicitor in behalf of the proprietors of the eastern division of New-Jersey, with Mr. Hume Campbell and Mr. Henley, his counsel in support of the said act; and by Mr. Charles, agent for the province of New-York, with Mr. Forrester and Mr. Pratt, his counsel against the said act; and heard what each party had to offer thereupon; we beg leave humbly to represent to your majesty, that the considerations which arise upon this act are of two sorts, viz. such as relate to the principles upon which it is founded, and such as relate to the transactions and circumstances which accompany it. "As to the first, it is an act of the province of New-Jersey, interested in the determination of the limits, and in the consequential advantages to arise from it. "The province of New-Jersey, in its distinct and separate capacity, can neither make nor establish boundaries; it can as little prescribe regulations for deciding differences between itself and other parties concerned in interest. "The established limits of its jurisdiction and territory, are such as the grants under which it claims have assigned. If those grants are doubtful, and differences arise upon the constructions, or upon the matters of them, we humbly apprehend that there are but two methods of deciding them-either by |