Having signified to you His Majesty's commands upon all those parts of your letter, upon which you desire instruction, I cannot avoid taking some notice of the observations you make upon the plan for Indian Affairs, prepared by the Lords of Trade in 1764, when I had the honour of a Seat at that Board : But before I make any remarks upon the plan itself as applied to the present state and circumstances of America, you will give me leave to observe to you, that the Lords of Trade did not consider it as a measure ripe for execution, and therefore did not report it to the Kingj but in order to enable themselves to form a more complete judgement of it, they transmitted it as minutes of their board to yourself and the Governors of the Colonies, for your consideration, and to receive your opinion upon the several propositions it contained : What you say therefore of its having met with His Majesty's approbation of its having been carried into execution, and of the assurances

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. 911

given that it should be finally established, are circumstances of which I am entirely ignorant.

The propriety and practicability of carrying that plan into execution depended upon the possession of the interior country by posts and establishments, upon the concurrence of the colonies in an opinion of the commercial advantages of it, and upon the creating a fund in those colonies to defray the expence. But since it has been thought advisable to withdraw the troops from and to abandon the posts ; since the colonies themselves do not think that a general regulation for commerce consists with their interests, and have each for itself desired to make its own regulations, and since it is become more difficult in the present state of the colonies to create a general fund to defray the expence, I must confess that I do entirely concur in the measures which have been proposed by the Board of Trade, and are the foundation of those instructions which I have it in charge from His Majesty to recommend to your attention, not doubting but that, through your assistance and with your advice, the colonies will be induced to adopt such regulations for the commercial part, as will improve the trade and fix the affection of the savages, and in the end produce all those advantages which you seem to think would have been derived from the execution ot the plan suggested by the Board of Trade in 1764.