'When this service shall have been executed we see no reason why the residue of the Land may not be laid open to settlement & improvement from his Majesty; but we can by no means recommend to your Lordships to advise his Majesty to suffer the Governor and Council of New York to dispose of the said Lands either upon the terms or in the manner in which they have hitherto exercised that power.

The well known fertility & particular advantage of these Lands arising from their situation in the midst of a well settled and cultivated Country render them we conceive far more valuable than those which lye more distant & remote and we see no reason why his Majesty may not in this case at least reasonably expect the same advantages which the proprietors of the province of Maryland & Pennsylvania derive from the Grants of their waste and uncultivated Lands who over and above a Quit Rent nearly double what is reserved on Lands Granted by the Governor & Council of New York, receive five pounds for every hundred acres, which is required to be paid to their, respective receivers

NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS. 717

whose certificate of such payment is made an indispensable requisite for obtaining a warrant of Survey for the Lands.

We have hitherto avoided stating to your Lordships the pretensions of those persons who claim the possession of Lands in this district under the exorbitant Grants from the Governor of New Hampshire but who have not taken any steps towards acquiring possession of the Land or for seating or improving the same We are persuaded your Lordships will agree with us in opinion that combining this circumstance of neglect of improvement with the little degree of attention, which is due to the grants themselves, from the manner & circumstances under which they were passed the claims of these persons can or ought to have ina general view of them little weight in the present consideration, In order however to avoid all possible ground of complaint and to give facility to the execution of what is proposed in the eases already stated we submit it to your Lordships Consideration whether it may not be advisable after the Reservations above mentioned for naval purposes have been made, that such of the Grantees as shall before a certain day to be fixed by proclamation apply by petition to your Majestys Governor and Council of New York for Grants of Land within the said District, may receive warrants of Survey for such parts of the said Lands as they shall chuse in quantity proportioned to their ability to cultivate and improve the same ; with this Restriction however, that no one of the said persons, so applying shall either in his or her own name or in the name or names of any other person or perons in trust for him or her receive more than five hundred acres, the said Grantees not to be subject to payment of the purchase money above recommended, or to any other terms or conditions than what are usually contained in Grants from His Majestys Governor of New York under the present Instructions.