Indeed We are at a Loss to conceive upon what grounds the people of Bennington and that neighborhood can flatter themselves even by their application to the Crown, with any other hope than of obtaining Confirmations of such Parcels of their New Hampshire Grants as are not comprehended in any patents under this Colony, the rights of the New York patentees being as uncontrovertable as the claim of this province to the Jurisdiction of that country, and the Question of Property determinable only in the King's Courts of Law.

The Committee in great tenderness to a deluded people who are in danger of forfeiting the Favour of the Crown by resisting the authority of the Laws, and with a prospect of restoring

792 CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE

Peace in that District are nevertheless desirous that your Excel- Jency should afford the Inhabitants of these Townships all the Relief in your Power, by suspending until his Majesty's pleasure shall be known, all prosecutions on Behalf of the Crown, 'on account of the Crimes with which they stand charged by the Depositions before us, and to recommend to the Owners of the contested Lands under Grants of this Province, to put a stop during the same Period to all Civil Suits concerning the Lands in Question, and to agree with the Setlers for the purchase thereof on moderate Terms.

And the Committee are humbly of opinion that your Excellency do adopt Measures so extremely lenient on their submission to the following Conditions.

That the Inhabitants of Bennington and the adjacent Towns concerned in the late Disorders, conform themselves to the Laws of this Government--That the Setlers on both sides shall continue undisturbed--and that such as have been dispossess'd or foreed by Threats or other means to desert their Farms, do in future enjoy their possessions unmolested.