I have therefore inclosed a letter, but not knowing who is in my Lord Carteret's post, or has the care of the Plantations, in his room, I must desire you to superscribe, and improve it as you may find it useful.

J. TALCOTT.

[Indorsed] Letter to the Agent, transcribed out of the rough draft Oct 22d, 1724, which rough draft was sent to the Agent.

DEPUTY-GOVERNOR LAW* TO GOVERNOR BURNET OF

NEW YORK.

By a letter from

May it please your Excellency: Gov. Talcott I am directed to transmit by the post a letter from his Honour to your Excellency, which I have herewith enclosed. He has omitted the sending a copy of the Act of our Assembly,+ whereby Commissioners are reappointed for the settling the partition lines, of which I shall put him in mind by the first opportunity. I am also directed to write to your Excellency on that subject, that if possible all misunderstandings might be removed and that affair about the line might be comfortably proceeded in at the time appointed, to the good satisfaction of both Governments. And to that end I would say a few words to the Agreement consider'd without the Survey, then to the Survey, and then to both of them together.

Upon the Agreement I would state the questions truly according to my understanding, which, if I mistake in, your Excellency will correct.

* Jonathan Law was born in Milford, Aug. 6, 1674; graduated Harvard College, 1695; commenced the practice of law in his native town 1698, and acquired great reputation as a counselor. In 1717 he was chosen an assistant; in 1725 he was elected chief-justice and deputy-governor, which offices he held until chosen governor in 1741, to succeed Governor Talcott. He died in office, Nov. 6, 1750.- Lambert's History of the Colony of New Haven. Hollister's History of Connecticut, II. 647.

+ Colonial Records, VI. 492.

The grand question on the Agreement, on which hangs all our different sentiments is, where is the east end of the second partition line?

I take this to be the great enquiry, because where that ends the parallel or 3d partition line must begin, in that parallel lines can't depart to a greater distance from one another than they are at where they begin without the hazard of their meeting some time or other in a centre.

And such is the variety of expression in those parts of the Agreement which serve to decipher and describe that matter as leads to these three enquiries, vizt. Whether it be at the northern end of the 3d line mentioned in the Agreement, or at 12 miles distance from the northern end of the first eight-mile line? Whether at the east end of the 4th line mention'd in the Agreement, or at 20 miles distance from Hudsons River?

Whether at the east end of the 4th line, or at such a distance from Hudsons River as that a parallel line to the river may be drawn without approaching nearer to any part of the river than 20 miles?

A word to each of these in order.

Relating to the first, the expressions are these, [And also that a fourth line be run, that is to say, from the eight-mile line, being the third mentioned line,] according to the copy sent home for confirmation, out of which is omitted in the vacancy I have left these words, [Line first mentioned onto the northmost end of the,] according to the copy on our records, which doubtless is the truth as the sense of it plainly shows. And afterwards, when this line is spoken of again, its said of it in one place in a parenthesis, (which is to be 12 miles in length;) and in another place in these words, [And the line that is then to run 12 miles to the end of the 3d forementioned line of eight miles.]

That the east end of the fourth line, which I call the 2d partition line, is plainly and expressly declar'd in the Agreement to be at the northern end of the 3d line mention'd in the Agreement is too obvious to be deny'd.

That its being afterwards described to be 12 miles in length is too weak an expression to set aside the fix'd place for its termination and extend it three quarters of a mile further eastward. Both can't be true in a literal sense. I can conceive of a construction to be put upon the length of 12 miles which will reconcile it to the terms from which and to which the line is to be drawn, namely an acceptance of it for 12 miles.

Here is no expression used which might imply a condition, [that in case the northerly ends of the two eight-mile lines should not be exactly 12 miles asunder, that then the 4th line should be contracted or extended to the precise measure of eight miles,] for the expression in the proviso is [And the line that is then to run 12 miles to the end of the third forementioned line of eight miles.]

I would only add, that if the copy sent Home for confirmation be the true one, it alters not the case, but only the shape of the argument, which would then be, that a line drawn to the westward from a certain point should extend itself further east than that place from whence its drawn is an impossibility.

To proceed to the 2d enquiry. The words which relate to it are these, [And that from the east end of the fourth mentioned line (which is to be 12 miles in length) a line parallel to Hudsons River in every place 20 miles distant from Hudsons River shall be the bounds there.] And again in the proviso it is said in these words, [Shall be added out of the bounds

of Conecticutt unto the line aforemention'd parallel unto Hudsons River and twenty miles distant from it.] To avoid troubling your Excellency with the repetition of any positions or arguments already alleged which are pertinent to this question, I shall only add on the first passage which I have quoted, that when the place assigned for drawing the parallel or next partition line from is the east end of the fourth line, that a bare description of its course to be at 20 miles distance is too slender an expression to extend the fourth line beyond its limits. A reconciling construction may easily be put upon this description of 20 miles distant. And seeing the 12 miles before mention'd are in the same predicament with the 20 miles, and the proviso hath to a demonstration shewn that they are not numerically intended, when it says, [That in case the line from Biram Brook's mouth north-northwest eight miles and the line that is then to run 12 miles to the end of the third forementioned line of eight miles,] its beyond any doubt with me, that if there had been the like occasion to have spoken of the 20 miles as there was of the 12 miles it had been in the same phrase, vizt. that is then to run 20 miles distant from Hudsons River to the end of the third mentioned line.

And as to the second abovemention'd passage in the proviso, it serves only to shew that the bounds of Conecticutt were to be on the west side of the additional lands, and they to remain still in Conecticutt Government, for the 20 miles were as fully expressed in the body of the Agreement.

That these expressions do imply a condition, or were ever intended for any such purpose, that in case the 4th line should not extend itself to the length of 20 miles from Hudsons River, that then it should

be further extended, seems more unreasonable inasmuch as it sets aside a considerable part of the operation and makes the measuring three of the lines a fruitless thing.

To the third enquiry I shall add nothing to what hath been said which is applicable to this, only that such a train of implications of conditions which to me seem the only colour for extending the 2d partition line as the gentlemen of your Province would have it, would introduce a multitude of experiments to purpose. Certainly it hath been easier to have said at once in the Agreement, and much more intelligible too, that the 2d partition line should be extended so far eastward as that a parallel line might be drawn from the end of it which would not come within miles of any part of the River.

20

As to the Survey. I must confess I have not yet seen the commission given to the surveyors, and take it to be pursuant to the Agreement, that is to say, to make a survey and run the lines, partitions, limits and bounds mention'd in the Agreement. And since truth will always bear examination, I shall compare the work directed by the Agreement to be perform'd by them with their report of what they did, and then make a few reflections upon it.

Agreement. Shall begin at a certain brook or river called Byram Brook or River, which river is between the towns of Rye and Greenwich, that is to say, at the mouth of said Brook where it falleth into the Sound at a point called Lions Point, which is the eastward point of Byram River, and from the said point to go as the said river runneth to the place where the common road or wading place over the said river is, and from the said road or wading place to go N. N. West into the country, so far as will be eight English miles from the foresaid Lions Point.