FRENCH SEIGNIORIES ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. dicated, 'twas certain that I was possessor of these Estates in good faith ; that they cost

me much

money and trouble; that no individual could come forward of right, to question my property in them; that the King alone opposes to me pretensions which can tend only to establish his right of Sovereignty over that portion before the entire cession of the Country, and not to despoil one of His subjects in whose favour every tiling speaks at this moment, and to whom justice cannot be refused. And if If this chapter of pretensions is examined in its entire breadth where will it not lead to 1 the argument that is derived from it be considered invincible, who can assure himself of an inch of land in any country whatsoever as soon as it is conquered ? And if treaties which assure the subject the property of his Estates, cannot serve as a barrier, on what is he to stand, and what hereafter

is

to be done to preserve them 1

The Attorney General, who perceives all the consequences of such a principle

;

who feels how

essential and just it is to preserve to every one his right, is requested to give the Lords Commissioners

of Plantations to understand that however laudable

may be their zeal for the maintainance of the

rights of the Crown, it is carried too far when it unnecessarily tends to the ruin of a private IndiHowever, if they consider for reasons they doubtless foresee, that His Majesty cannot depart vidual.