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consideration suggests that two capital objects of the proclamation of 1763 were, to confine future settlements to the "sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest" (or, in other words, to the eastern side of the Alleghany Mountains), and to the three new governments of Canada, East Florida, and West Florida; and to establish this fact, the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations recite a part of that proclamation.

But if the whole of this proclamation is considered, it will be found to contain the nine following heads, viz.:

I

1. To declare to his Majesty's subjects that he had erected four distinct and separate governments in America, viz., Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Granada.

2. To ascertain the respective boundaries of these four new governments.

3. To testify the royal sense and approbation of the conduct and bravery, both of the officers and soldiers of the king's army, and of the reduced officers of the navy, who had served in North America, and to reward them by grants of land in Quebec, and in East and West Florida, without fee or reward.

4. To hinder the governors of Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida from granting warrants of survey, or passing patents for lands beyond the bounds of their respective governments.

5. To forbid the governors of any other colonies or plantations in America from granting warrants or See the Proclamation in the Appendix, No. I., p. 49.

passing patents for lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest, or upon any lands whatever " which, not having been ceded to or purchased by the king, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them."

6. To reserve, "for the present," under the king's sovereignty, protection, and dominion, "for the use of the said Indians," all the lands not included within the limits of the said three new governments, or within the limits of the Hudson's Bay Company; as also all the lands lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest, and forbidding the king's subjects from making any purchases or settlements whatever, or taking possession of the lands so reserved, without his Majesty's leave and license first obtained.

7. To require all persons who had made settlements on land not purchased by the king from the Indians, to remove from such settlements.

8. To regulate the future purchases of lands from the Indians, within such parts as his Majesty, by that proclamation, permitted settlements to be made upon.

9. To declare that the trade with the Indians should be free and open to all his Majesty's subjects, and to prescribe the manner how it shall be carried

on.

And, lastly, to require all military officers, and the superintendent of Indian affairs, to seize and appre hend all persons who stood charged with treasons,

murders, etc., and who had fled from justice and taken refuge in the reserved lands of the Indians, to send such persons to the colony where they stood accused.

From this proclamation, therefore, it is obvious that the sole design of it, independent of the establishment of the three new governments, ascertaining their respective boundaries, rewarding the officers and soldiers, regulating the Indian trade, and apprehending felons, was to convince the Indians "of his Majesty's justice and determined resolution to remove all reasonable cause of discontent," by interdicting all settlements on land not ceded to, or purchased by, his Majesty; and declaring it to be, as we have already mentioned, his royal will and pleasure," for the present, to reserve, under his sovereignty, protection and dominion, for the use of the Indians, all the lands and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest." Can any words express more decisively the royal intention? Do they not explicitly mention that the territory is, at present, reserved, under his Majesty's protection, for the use of the Indians? And as the Indians had no use for those lands which are bounded westerly by the southeast side of the river Ohio, either for residence or hunting, they were willing to sell them; and accordingly did sell them to the king in November, 1768, the occasion of which sale will be fully explained in our observations on the succeeding paragraphs of the report. Of course, the proclamation, so far as it regarded the settlement of the lands included within

that purchase, has absolutely and undoubtedly ceased. The late Mr. Grenville, who was, at the time of issuing this proclamation, the minister of this kingdom, always admitted that the design of it was totally accomplished, so soon as the country was purchased from the natives.

IV. In this paragraph the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations mention two reasons for his Majesty's entering into engagements with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and determinate boundary line than was settled by the proclamation of October, 1763, viz.:

First-Partly for want of precision in the one intended to be marked by the proclamation of 1763.

Secondly-And partly from a consideration of justice in regard to legal titles to lands.

We have, we presume, fully proved, in our observations on the third paragraph, that the design of the proclamation, so far as related to lands westward of the Alleghany Mountains, was for no other purpose than to reserve them, under his Majesty's protection, for the present, for the use of the Indians; to which we shall only add that the line established by the proclamation, so far as it concerned the lands in question, could not possibly be fixed and described with more precision than the proclamation itself describes it; for it declares that "all the lands and territories lying to the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest," should be reserved under his Majesty's protection.

Neither, in our opinion, was his Majesty induced

to enter into engagements with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and determinate boundary," partly from a consideration of justice, in regard to legal titles to lands," for there were none such (as we shall prove) comprehended within the tract now under consideration.

But for a full comprehension of all the reasons for his Majesty's "entering into engagements with the Indians, for fixing a more precise and determinate boundary line" than was settled by the royal proclamation of October, 1763, we shall take the liberty of stating the following facts. In the year 1764, the king's ministers had it then in contemplation to obtain an act of Parliament for the proper regulation of the Indian commerce, and providing a fund, by laying a duty on the trade, for the support of superintendents, commissaries, interpreters, etc., at particular forts in the Indian country, where the trade was to be carried on; and as a part of this system it was thought proper, in order to avoid future complaints from the Indians, on account of encroachments on their hunting-grounds, to purchase a large tract of territory from them, and establish, with their consent, a respectable boundary line, beyond which his Majesty's subjects should not be permitted to settle.

In consequence of this system, orders were transmitted to Sir William Johnson, in the year 1764, to call together the Six Nations, lay this proposition of the boundary before them, and take their opinion upon it. This, we apprehend, will appear evident from the following speech, made by Sir William to

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