the upper Ohio valley so that an extension of the settlements might be made in this direction. The third remedy was the encouragement of settlement in the provinces of Nova Scotia, East and West Florida. Shelburne hoped in this way that the land bordering the Indian reservation would be relieved of pressure. He realized the temporary character of these expedients, and intended that further relief should be obtained in the future by the purchase, under the auspices of the crown, of large tracts of land situated in the Indian reservation either for the expansion of the older colonies or for the erection of new ones.

This policy was outlined with some reservations in the report of the Board of Trade of June the eight, and was in general accepted. The only objection raised was concerning the neglect to provide for some civil supervision of the Indian reservation. Lord Egremont proposed that this territory should be annexed to the government of the Province of Quebec, unless the Lords of Trade had some better suggestion. In his letter, there is no evidence that he wished to create a strong military province for the purpose of coercing the other colonies, or even that he had any serious objection to the general policy propounded by Shelburne." Shelburne's main reason for rejecting this proposal was that it would give warrant for the belief that the West had been ceded to England by France, whereas he thought the English possession rested on better grounds. Other reasons alleged were that it would give the inhabitants of the northern province an advantage in the trade, and that the governor of such a large territory must become practically commander-in-chief of the king's forces. Shelburne proposed, therefore, placing the Indian reservation under the commander-in-chief of the army. The disagreement in regard to this part of the policy was closed by the death of Lord Egremont. Shortly afterwards Lord Halifax, Egremont's successor, accepted the suggestion of the president of the Board of Trade.".

40

It was Shelburne's intention to collect all attainable information on the various phases of his policy and then to embody it in instructions to the governors. As we have already learned, such a delay was made impossible by the outbreak of Indian hostilities, the news of which reached England early in August. It was felt that the alarm of the Indians for their lands would be allayed by the immediate declaration of the general purpose of the ministry. On August 5th, Shelburne recommended that a proclamation be prepared on the subject of the pres

Can. Archives Report, 1906, p. 108. See also Fitzmaurice, Life of Shelburne, I., 247, et seq.

"Can. Archives Report, 1906, p. 112.

*Ibid., p. 107.

ervation of the Indian hunting grounds, and that there be added to this the proposed inducements to immigrants to settle in the new provinces, with the exception of Quebec, in order to attract those, who were pressing on the reserved lands, to territory where settlements could be made immediately without alarming the Indians. For the purposes proposed, it was necessary that a boundary line between the settlements and the Indian reservation be immediately named. It would not be sufficient to declare that some vague line, such as Shelburne had in mind, was to be determined in the future. The crisis demanded the announcement of a definite and conspicuous land-mark. Such was the line of the mountains, and that was chosen.

Lord Shelburne resigned from the presidency of the Board of Trade and the ministry on September 2," but there is evidence that the wording of the part of the proclamation concerning Indian affairs had received his attention, if it was not written in full by himself. The proclamation announced directly or by inference the policy which had been formulated by himself. The wording of these paragraphs is very careful, and the utmost pains was evidently taken to prevent such contrary interpretations as might be made by his colleagues. Particularly is the policy at variance with that which was advocated by his successor in later years.

Lord Hillsborough, Shelburne's successor, was in Ireland at the time of his appointment." When he returned I do not know, but at any rate the time between his return and the date of the issuance of the proclamation, October 7, was too short for him to reverse a policy so maturely considered. Nor could he have hoped to succeed, since the ministry had pledged itself to the policy. The proclamation was actually issued under the presidency of Lord Hillsborough, but the contributions, that may be accounted his, fall in a different part of the document. On the development of the Indian policy there is no evidence that he exercised the least influence." That was and remained Lord Shelburne's.

The importance of settling the question of the authorship of this part of the famous proclamation is not slight, for Lord Shelburne's attitude towards the various matters in dispute between the colonies and the mother country is well known. Throughout the troublous years which followed the close of the French and Indian War, he sympathized with and encouraged the colonists. In the interpretation of the proclamation

"Von Ruville, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham III., 122.

42Grenville Papers, II., 116.

The conclusions reached in the following pages present the full proof of this statement.

this friendliness of his must be borne in mind, for he could not have conceived a policy that would be likely to arouse a feeling of discontent among the Americans, or that would limit the development of those colonies, whose interests he had so much at heart.

In tracing the development of the Indian policy of Great Britain, the fundamental motives which brought this proclamation into being have been clearly shown. Conditions had made necessary the centralization of the control over all relations with the Indians. The former policy of permitting each colony to settle these delicate affairs had proved a failure; and, if the Indians were to receive fair treatment in the future -and this they deserved as much as the colonists—a radical change of policy had to be adopted. The policy as developed by Shelburne was only an outgrowth of the work of his predecessors and of the conditions prevailing in America. It is also in direct line with the development of the imperial tendencies of Great Britian during the eighteenth century. The previous century had been one of general neglect, but the particularistic tendencies which had been fostered in the colonies had become detrimental both to their own and the imperial development, so that the preservation of the empire required that those interests which were general should be assumed by some power superior to the separate colonies, and be conducted with greater regularity and consistency.

It has been already pointed out that the proclamation did not announce the comprehensive policy that Shelburne had conceived, and, therefore, it must be regarded as tentative and partial. It was prepared in haste to meet a crisis in American affairs, and naturally many points could not be made clear, until further information had been obtained. In order not to interrupt the narrative of the writing of the proclamation, I have assumed a knowledge of this completed policy, without advancing the proof, although it is not to be readily found in the document. It is now time that the evidence for these unmentioned purposes should be given.

The first concerns the tentative character of the boundary line between the Indians and the settlements. It has been said that Shelburne intended, in spite of the accepted evidence of the proclamation, that the line should be run between the settlements and the Indian reservation so that the lands on the upper Ohio would be included. This would place it considerably west of the mountain barrier named in the proclamation. The discussion of this subject is complex, because there is involved the question concerning the intention of the ministry to fix western limits to the colonies; but it will be clearer to treat the subject as two problems,