I look therefore upon all the Rest as Empty Names and places possest forty years by former Grants, and of no consequence to your Royal Highness ; except all New England could be brought to submit to your Royal Highness's Patent."

If any Settlement was then made by the Commissioners and the Massachusetts Bay, it appears not on Record, altho' that with Connecticut in the same year, is Registered in both Provinces--And if actually made, it was unauthorized, the Powers

NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS. 565

to the Commissioners being expressly confined to the Disputes between the New England Governments, Namely--Massachusits Bay, Connecticut, New Plymouth, Rhode Island & the Providence Plantations, as evidently appears from the Commission, a copy of which I inclose Your Lordships; nor can it be supposed that the Crown meant to invest a Power in the Commiss'® to settle Boundaries between the Governments of New England and this Province, the Commission bearing Date if April 1664, and the conquest of this Government from the Dutch not taking place till the month of August following--There is also a Mistake in the Assertion, that the " Places were Possest forty yeares by former Grants," unless by the Dutch--for the English did not settle to the Westward of Connecticut River till 1635 or 1636, which settlement was made Southward of the Massachusits south line without authority from any Government; the Determination then, in respect to Connecticut could not with propriety be considered as a Leading case of Equal Justice in all the Colonies ; nor. could the Boundary of Connecticut River, have affected the other Governments so materially as Connecticut, as those Governments have a far greater Extent Eastward than Connecticut. This Reasoning is Justified also, from the Consideration that the Crown did not by any act Ratify or approve the opinion of the Commissioners, or of Governor Nicholls who was one of them, but on the contrary, after the Dutch had in 1673 reconquered this Province, and by the Treaty of Breda in 1674 yielded it to England, made a second. ° Grant to the Duke of York in the Same Terms with the first.