[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] He would never have at-tained to such positions had not great trust been placed in his integrity and executive ability. The Earl of Bellomont in 1699 writes that Col. Cortlandt, the collector, sends sheriffs to collect the rents,-' and in writing to the Lords of the Treasury of the revenue and accounts of "this Province during Col. Fletcher's government" says, "had it not been for the credits kept by the collector I could never have come to any knowledge in the accounts." In his letter to the Board of Trade, Bellomont narrates the services ren-dered by Col. Schuyler and Robert Livingston in keeping the Five Nations quiet, and states that they had disbursed from their own estates not less than seven thousand pounds " besides what Col. Cort-landt has disbursed at York (New) for the companies there, which I believe is £3000 by this time." The succeeding year Bellomont " writes to the Board of Trade that Col. Cortlandt has become very infirm, but that he gives a just account of all the monies that come in his hands, although he has made no seizures since he became Collector." Although Lord Bellomont wrote in these laudatory terms of Van Cortlandt, he was none the less desirous of breaking the large land grants made to him and to others, and his letters home teem with com-plaints of the great acquisition made by these land-holders. He proposed to the Lords of Trade that an act should be framed in England to prevent the giving of any grant of lands exceeding one thousand acres.