SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18

"in the General Instructions which they shall prepare and lay before "Your Majesty with all possible Dispatch.-That there are in the "Commissions to the Governors of Your Majesty's other Colonies "some Clauses respecting the Power of suspending and comptrolling "the Council, but as they conceive these Matters may be more pro"perly and regularly provided for in the Instructions under those "Articles which direct the Nomination of the Council, ascertain their Authority and point out their Duty and Methods of Proceedings, they have therefore omitted these Clauses in the present Draughts "in order to insert them in the Instructions-"

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The Lords of the Committee in Obedience to Your Majestys said Order of Reference this day took the said Representation and Draughts of Commissions into their Consideration, and are of opinion, that in order to make the said Commissions agreeable to the Instructions to be given to the said Governors the following Addition should be made to each of the said Commissions at the End of that Article whereby the said Governors are empowered to make Grants of Land -Viz

"Provided the same be made conformable to the Instructions here"with delivered to you, or to such other Instructions as may hereafter "be sent to You under Our Signet and Sign Manual, or by Our Order "in Our Privy Council.-"And the Lords of the Committee having accordingly caused the said Addition to be made in each of the said Draughts do agree humbly to lay the same so amended before Your Majesty for Your Royal Approbation

Your Majesty having been pleased by Your Order in Council of the 5th of this Instant to referr unto this Committee a Representation from the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations setting forth, "that in Obedience to Your Majesty's Commands signified to them by a Letter from the Earl of Halifax, dated the 27th of last Month they have prepared, and humbly lay before Your Majesty, the Draught of a Commission appointing Montagu Wilmot Esq' Governor of Nova Scotia, in which Draught they have so described the Northern and Eastern Limits of this Province, as to make it conformable to what has been already approved in respect to the Southern boundary of the Province of Quebec, and to comprehend the Islands of Cape Breton and St Johns, that they have also made the River St Croix the Boundary to the Westward, for, although it be true that the ancient Limits of this Province, as it was possessed by France under the Treaties of Breda and Ryswick and ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht under the Name of Acadia, did extend as far West Committee Report pon the Draught of as the River Pentagoet or Penobscot, yet as it appears to have been determined in the Year 1732, upon a full examination of the Claims of the Province of the Massachusets Bay, as well by the Attorney and Sollicitor General, as by this Board, and finally by His Majesty in Council, that the said Province had a right of Jurisdiction and property under the Limitation of the Charter, to the Country between the Rivers Sagadehock and St Croix, and as in consequence of this Examination, the Instructions given to Colonel Dunbar, and to the Governor of Nova Scotia to make Settlements within that Tract were revoked, and it was Ordered that the Province should not be disturbed in the possession they claim to have of this Country it does not appear to them that this question is for the present open to a New Discussion: But as they conceive there are many material circumstances in favour of Your Majesty's Right to the Country as far West

Comicon for

Montagu Wilmot
Esq to be Gov

I Now Prince Edward Island.

6-7 EDWARD VII., A ward as the River Penobscot which were not stated in the Cas before the Attorney and Sollicitor General in 1732, upon which their Opinion and the Dicision of the Council were founded, th not think it adviseable that this Restriction of the Western B of Nova Scotia to the River St Croix should pass without some vation of Your Majesty's Right to the Country between that and Penobscot, being entered upon the Council Books; And they 1 humbly proposed this to Your Majesty, as it may be a means of after removing any Objection which may be taken on the part Province of Massachusets Bay to the Southern Line of Quebec, as it concerns their Northern Limits, for if such Objection shot made, and it should appear upon examination they have any ground of Complaint, it will be in Your Majesty's power to make a reasonable Compensation, by allowing their Jurisdiction to ex as far Eastward as the River St Croix, between which and the 1 Penobscot they have lately made some considerable Settlements? The Lords of the Committee in Obedience to Your Majesty Order of Reference this day took the said Representation and Dri of a Commission into their Consideration, and being of Opinion Your Majesty's Right to the Country between the River S Croix the River Penobscot (the ancient Limits of the said Province) to be reserved in a more publick manner than by an Entry in Council Books, do therefore propose that the following alter: should be made in the said Draught of a Commission for that pur Viz' After the Appointment of Montagu Wilmot to be Captain C ral and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of Nova Sc the description of the Boundarys of the said Province to be left and the following words inserted in lieu thereof. "Which we thought proper to restrain and comprize within the following limi "Viz: to the Northward, Our said Province shall be bou by the Southern Boundary of Our Province of Quebec as "as the Western extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs; To the 1 These boundaries are "ward by the said Bay and the Gulph of St Lawrence, to described in Montagu " Cape or Promontory called Cape Breton in the Island of Wilmot's Com" dated " Name including that Island, the Island of St Johns, and all o

the same as those

21. Nov. 1763.

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"Islands within Six Leagues of the Coast; To the Southward by "Atlantick Ocean from the said Cape to Cape Sable, including "Island of that Name, and all other Islands within forty Leagu "the Coast, with all the Rights, Members and Appurtenances w soever thereunto belonging; And to the Westward altho' Our “Province hath anciently extended, and doth of Right extend a "as the River Pentagouet or Penobscot, it shall be bounded by a "drawn from Cape Sable across the Entrance of the Bay of Fu "To the mouth of the River St. Croix, by the said River to its so "and by a Line drawn due North from thence to the Southern Bo "ary of Our Colony of Quebec." And their Lordships are furth Opinion that it will be proper to make the following Addition at end of the Article empowering the said Governor to make Gran Lands Viz" Provided the same be made conformable to the Ins "tions herewith delivered to you, or to such other Instruction "may hereafter be sent to you under Our Signet and Sign Mar "or by Our Order in Our Privy Council."

The Lords of the Committee have therefore caused the said a ation and Addition to be made in the said Draught of a Commis accordingly, and do agree humbly to lay the same before Majesty for Your Royal Approbation

SESSIONAL PAFER No. 18

Halifax to Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations.

B. N° 5.

St JAMES'S Oct. 8. 1763.

A. & W. I.
Vol. 268
261
1763

Oct. 8.

Lords Commiss's for Trade & Plantations

MY LORDS, Having laid before the King your Lordships Letter of the 6th instant with the Dra' of a Proclamation therein inclosed, and His Majesty having been pleased to approve the said Draught, & to order it to be printed, & passd under the great Seal, in the usual Form, I send your Lordships herewith a number of printed Copies of the said Proclamation & am to signify to your Lordships His Majesty's Pleasure that you should transmit them to the Governors of His Majesty's several Colonies & Plantations in America & to the Agents for Indian Affairs.

endorsed: October 8. 1763.

I am &c

DUNK HALIFAX

Dra to Board of Trade

Signifying the King's Pleasure that they should transmitt Copies of the Proclamation to the Governors of the Colonies & the Agents for Indian Affairs.—

WHEREAS We have taken into Our Royal Consideration the extensive and valu able Acquisitions in America, secured to our Crown by the late Definitive Treaty of Peace' concluded at Paris, the 10th Day of February last; and being desirous that all Our loving Subjects, as well of our Kingdom as of our Colonies in America, may avail themselves with all convenient Speed, of the great Benefits and Advantages which must accrue therefrom to their Commerce, Manufactures, and Navigation, We have thought fit, with the Advice of our Privy Council, to issue this our Royal Proclamation, hereby to publish and declare to all our loving Subjects, that we have, with the Advice of our Said Privy Council, granted our Letters Patent, under our Great seal of Great Britain, to erect, within the Countries and Islands ceded and confirmed to Us by the said Treaty, Four distinct and separate Governments, styled and called by the names of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida and Grenada, and limited and bounded as follows, viz.

1 Taken from the text as contained in the "Papers Relative to the Province of Quebec," 1791, in the Public Record Office. Copied in the Canadian Archives Q 62 A, pt. I., p. 114.

The attitude of the Home Government at this time, on the subject of immigration, the kind of immigrants to be favoured, and even the need of an outlet for surplus population on the part of some of the older colonies in America, may be gathered from a report of the Lords of Trade, Nov. 5, 1761, upon the proposal to transport a number of Germans to the American Colonies after the peace. They point out that as "regards colonies possessed before the war, the increase of population is such as scarce to leave room in some of them for any more inhabitants. The encouragement and advantages of the less populated southern colonies are such as to induce sufficient migration without burdening the public. Our own reduced sailors and soldiers would be more proper objects of national bounty, and better colonists, than foreigners, whose ignorance of the English language, laws, and constitution cannot fail to increase those disorders and that confusion in our Government, which the too great migration of people from Germany has already fatally introduced in some of our most valuable possessions." Calendar of Home Office Papers, of the Reign of George III. 1760-1765, No. 349.