The Committee have examined the Council Books and cannot discover that the Government of Quebec ever gave the least Intimation to this Province of any French Grants upon Lake Champlain, neither before nor after the said Order of August 17G8 until excited thereunto by your Excellency's late proclamation, nor is there an Entry to be found of any Notification of such Claim by Private persons, nor even of an application for any grant or Confirmation under this Government for Lands Granted in Canada before the surrender of that Country.

The Committee therefore conceive that it was a natural and reasonable presumption either that there were no sucli French Grants or that the Grantees and their Assigns considered them as invalid

and perhaps forfeited to the French Crown before the Conquest or that they declined the acceptance of British Confirmations subject to Quit Rents and new Patent Charges, intending to set themselves

up as sufficient under the Capitulation Articles in the Courts of Law, upon the supposition that they were within the Ancient Dominions of the Crown of France, and agreeable thereto this Government began again to Grant Lands in that Quarter, and continued the practice until Your Excellency was pleased to communicate to the Council his Majestys 50 th Instruction prohibiting Patents for Lands to the Northward of Crown Point, claimed under French Titles, and if the late Grants of this Province

Blame falls upon themowing to their neglecting to give the Information naturally to be expected, if they intended to submit to and take advantage of the Royal order of the 12 th August 1768. The Committee observe that among the Papers now transmitted from Quebec, there are no French