Place and Country be re-delivered into the Hands of the said States, whensoever his Majestie will send his Commands to re-deliver it, it shall immediately be done.

"XXI. That the Town of Manhattans shall choose Deputyes, and those Deputyes shall have free Voyces in all publique Affairs, as much as any other Deputyes.

"XXII. Those who have any Property in any Houses in the Fort of Aurania, shall, (if they please) slight the Fortifications there, and then enjoy all their Houses, as all People do where there is no Fort.

"XXIII. If there be any Soldiers that will go into Holland, and if the Company of West-India in Amsterdam, or any private persons here, will transport them into Holland, then they shall have a safe Passport from Colonel Richard Nicholls, Deputy-Governor under his Royal Highness, and the other Commissioners, to defend the Ships that shall transport such Soldiers, and all the Goods in them, from any Surprizal or Acts of Hostility, to be done by any of his Majestie's Ships or Subjects. That the Copies of the King's Grant to his Royal Highness, and the Copy of his Royal Highness's Commission to Colonel Richard Nicholls, testified by two Commissioners more, and Mr. Winthrop, to be true Copies, shall be delivered to the honourable Mr. Stuyvesant, the present Governor, on Monday next, by Eight of the Clock in the Morning, at the Old Miln, and these Articles consented to, and signed by Colonel Richard Nicholls, Deputy-Governor to his Royal Highness, and that within two Hours after the Fort and Town called New-Amsterdam, upon the Isle of Manhatoes, shall be delivered into the Hands of the said Colonel Richard Nicholls, by the Service of such as shall be by him thereunto deputed, by his Hand and Seal." [Southwick & Co's Laws of N. Y.]

The above capitulation was confirmed by the peace of Breda. This event occurred in the reign of the Second Charles, who granted the same to his brother, the Duke of York, af

terwards James the Second. No account was then made of the Iroquois country west of the Hudson. An extract from that regal document connects the history of land titles in New-York.

VIII. GRANT OF CHARLES II. TO JAMES, DUKE OF YORK. "KNOW YE, that we, for divers good causes, &c., HAVE, &C., and by these presents, &c., Do give and grant unto our dearest brother JAMES, DUKE OF YORK, his heirs and assigns, all that part of the main land of New-England, beginning at a certain place called or known by the name of St. Croix, next adjoining to New-Scotland, in America; and from thence extending along the sea coast unto a certain place called Pamaque or Pemaquid, and so up the river thereof to the farthest head of the same as it tendeth Northward; and extending from thence to the river of Kimbequin, and so upwards by the shortest course to the river Canada, northward. And also all that Island or Islands commonly called by the several name or names of Matowacks or Long-Island, situate, lying and being toward the West of Cape Cod, and the Narrow Higansetts, abutting upon the main land between the two rivers there called or known by the several names of Connecticut and Hudson's river, together, also with the said river called Hudson's river, and all the lands from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay. And also all those several Islands, called or known by the names of Martin's Vineyard and Nautukes, or otherwise Nantuckett." Signed and sealed with the royal signet. [Clarke's Compilation of 1826, 80.]

The land between Pemaquid and St. Croix was, by the charter of 1692, annexed to Massachusetts, and a portion of that contained in the foregoing grant, situate between the Hudson and Delaware rivers is embraced with New-Jersey. The balance, together with the territory of the Six Nations, to which the Duke asserted the pre-emption right, remained

the manor, and subsequently became the province, of NewYork and dependencies thereof. In 1673 the Dutch retook the colony, but relinquished it at the treaty of Westminster. Upon the accession of James to the throne of England, the grant merged in the crown.

IX. EXTRACT FROM A GRANT OF PRIVILEGES OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF NEW-YORK

AND ITS DEPENDENCIES, OCTOBER 30, 1683.

"BE IT ENACTED, &c., That from henceforth no lands. within this province shall be esteemed or accounted a chattel or personal estate, but an ESTATE OF INHERITANCE, according to the customs and practice of his MAGESTY'S REALME OF ENGLAND: That all lands and heritages within this Province and Dependencies, shall be free from all fines and licenses upon alienations, aud from all heriotts, wardships, liveries, primier seignis, year, day, and wast, escheats and forfeitures, upon the death of parents or ancestors, naturall, unnaturall, casuall or judiciall, and that forever; cases of high treason only excepted: That all wills in writing attested by two credible witnesses, shall be of the same force to convey lands as other conveyances: That no estate of a femme covert shall be conveyed but by a deed acknowledged by her in a court of record, the woman being secretly examined if shee doth it freely without threats or compulsion of her husband: And that shee shall be invested with dower, and may tarry in the chiefe house of her husband forty days after his death." [Appendix to Van Ness & Wentworth's Revision of State Laws.]

Although the original and ultimate title of the English Monarchs was acknowledged for nearly a century, it was repudiated in 1776, when it was declared to be a sovereign State, and effectually subverted, in 1783, by the treaty of Paris.

X. FIRST AND SECOND ARTICLES OF THE TREATY OF

PARIS, CONCLUDED SEPTEMBER 3, 1783.

"ART 1. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be free, sovereign, and independent States; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof.

"ART. 2. And that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are, and shall be, their boundaries, viz: from the Northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz: that angle which is formed by a line drawn due North from the source of Saint Croix to the highlands, along the said highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the Northwesternmost head of Connecticut river; thence, down along the middle of that river, to the forty-fifth degree of North latitude; from thence, by a line due West on said latitude, until it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraquy; thence, along the middle of said river, into Lake Ontario, through the middle of said lake, until it strikes the communication by water between that lake and lake Erie; thence, along the middle of said communication into lake Erie, through the middle of said lake, until it arrives at the water communication between that lake and lake Huron; thence, along the middle of said water communication, into the lake Huron; thence, through the middle of said lake, to the water communication between that lake and lake Superior; thence, through lake Superior, Northward to the isles

Royal and Philipeaux, to the Long Lake; thence, through the middle of the said Long Lake, and the water communication between it and the Lake of the Woods, to the said lake of the Woods; thence, through the said lake, to the most Northwestern point thereof; and, from thence, on a due West course, to the river Mississippi; thence, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river Mississippi, until it shall intersect the Northernmost part of the thirty-first de- gree of North latitude. South, by a line to be drawn due East from the determination of the line last mentioned, in the latitude of thirty-one degrees North of the equator, to the middle of the river Appalachicola or Catahouche; thence, along the middle thereof, to its junction with the Flint river; thence, straight to the head of St. Mary's river; and, thence, down along the middle of St. Mary's river, to the Atlantic Ocean. East, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth, in the bay of Fundy, to its source, and, from its source, directly North, to the aforesaid highlands, which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the river St. Lawrence, comprehending all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due East from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one part, and East Florida on the other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean; excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been, within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia."*

Upon the conclusion of the treaty of Paris, the People of this State, in their sovereign capaçity, succeeded to all the rights over the soil of New-York that were before the Revolution vested in the British Crown; yet the body of the State

* The United States, or the several States, have a clear title to all the lands described in the boundary lines of the treaty; subject only to the Indian right of occupancy. [8 Wheaton's Reports, 543.]