Nor need we mind the apprehensions of some who tell us of what ill consequence it may be if the People of the Plantations should apprehend that the people of England design to cut them off from the common body of English subjects by denying them the fundamental English Privilege of being tryed by their country Our mother country the nursery of Liberty will never give up her children to the ravenous appetites of any one man nor will they loose the surest tye she has upon the affections of the people in the plantations especially in a Frontier Province in the neighbourhood of so

potent & cunning a nation as the French are where the native English are less in number than & Dutch who at present think themselves happy under the English liberty, for

Foreigners French

the maxim that free subjects are more useful to their Prince than Slaves will be found as true in

America as in Europe. But suppose the People could be restrained from cutting any White Pines it will not answer the end for which it was designed, For if the King were to send People -to cut down Masts in the place where they grow and to transport them to such places where they can be carried by water the charge

New York, if the carrying of them were this case The King in must have a great many hands & overseers left to the Inhabitants themselves He must buy horses, Oxen & Carriages & maintain them or hire them after the most in constant pay chargeable manner whereas the country people carry these Trees in the Winter upon the Snow & Ice when they cannot labor in the ground & are glad to make a little profit at any rate. will amount to treble the sum they might be bought for at