cles are opposed to their entire gratification? What are the means of removing such obstacles? And if irremovable the next most probable means of affording them reasonable Satisfaction.

It seems not to bear a doubt that the original purchase and assignment was made on the same principle, which has induced the Crown to buy from the Natives, other large Tracts to accommodate with Land its own reduced Soldiers and loyal Adherents among the White people, who from necessity or choice abandoned their possessions in the revolted Colonies. The manners of the Indians required that the Tract assigned them should be in Common, unalienable and kept out of the view of our Municipal Laws, at least so long as they affected to consider themselves. independent Allies, for this purpose a Council, a Treaty a Belt, was adequate; it was a Compact of one nation with another, to be governed by general rules and not by the provisions of the common Law of England-to answer the fair intent, all was done that ought to have been done except the exclusion from their Tract of all white subjects. Holding what was then done to have been adequate to the wish of the Indians, and the Intent of Government, new Circumstances must have arisen to justify any Call by the Indians on Government for further assurance or Change. Such new circumstances do exist, the gradual approach of the White people on either side the Tract, the necessity of Roads through it, and of Municipal protection to Travellers and occasional Sojourners in it absolutely demand a less equivocal Dominion, subjected to known rules of Law. I instance these as a Motive to the Government to listen to a change, tho' perhaps if not too invidious the land speculation Mania might be fairly suggested as the principal Inducement of those who require it. It imports not to know their motive, the British Government can only want a reasonable call upon their Justice and Liberality. As to the first proposition of a general unrestrained Deed as acceded to by Lord Dorchester; the objection is in our Law, for the Territory in parcel of the Province and all Questions of property arising within it must bear the Judgment of its Laws. A Grant to the Six Nations and Successors must be by Charter of Incorporation.

N. B.-It must also contain the church Reserve.

To the present members of the Nation in fee, each one who takes must be named and will become Tennant in Common and Subject

to all the incidents of that tenure known to the common Law or established by Statute. A Charter being the creature of the Law must be subjected to the cognizance of the King's Courts. The Government cannot wish to constrain them or to introduce our Laws among them so long as they continue a people apart, but if by any Contrivance they can become Landlords and Granters of Land to under purchasers, or Lessees, a thousand Cases may arise in process of time, requiring legal Investigation, and in which the first Title may be questioned; it therefore should be legal, short of a corporate Body to receive the Grant or a Deed to each Individual by name, there seems no Contrivance fully to gratify the wish of the Chiefs but the scheme devised of giving Deeds to white subjects on their Nomination and appointment. This can only take place, under existing regulations to a certain extent, as the powers of the Government are limited to the Grant of 1200 Acres to any Individual not claiming by Military Title, which is not defeasible in the first Instance and by the Stat: such Grant must specify a proportional reserve for the Church, which cannot be done on the Sales made under the Governor's proclamation. This restraint militates against the proposed Accommodation. It is doubtful even if by law the Military reward can be Attributed to Aliens without a specific License from the Crown to each Holder, and that by Construction only of a Statute derogatory of the common Law. The latter obstacles can be most easily removed, and the following proposition is submitted. It is proposed to ascertain the Contents in Acres of the whole Tract purchased at the Grand River, and the number of Indians who have 54 West One Hundred and fifty-two Chains: then West One Hundred and Sixty Chains to a Maple tree on a branch of the said Grand River: then following the Eastern shore of the said River against the stream to the place of beginning: And whereas by an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in the 31st year of his Majesty's Reign Intitled "An Act to repeal certain parts of An Act passed in the Fourteenth year of his Majesty's reign Intituled An Act for making more effectual provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North Anerica, and to make further provision for the Government of the said Province, it is declared 'that no grant of land hereafter made shall be valid or effectual unless the same shall contain a specification of the lands to be allotted and appropriated solely to the mainte

nance of a Protestant Clergy within the said Province in respect of the lands to be thereby granted.' Now Know ye that we have caused an allottment or appropriation of Four Thousand Four Hundred Acres to be made in a certain Tract of Land to the Westward of the Lands occupied by the five Nations (in the Rear of the Lands Reserved for the future disposition of the Crown in respect of the County of Lincoln) being in the proportion of One to Seven of the lands hereby granted as and for a Reserve and to and for the sole use benefit and support of a Protestant Clergy being as nearly adjacent thereto as Circumstances will admit, and being as nearly as Circumstances and the nature of the case will admit of the like quality as the lands in respect of which the same is allotted and appropriated and as nearly as the same can be estimated equal in value to the seventh part of the lands so hereby granted as aforesaid, to have and to hold the said parcel or tract of Land to him the said William Jarvis and his heirs and assigns for Ever: Saving nevertheless to Us Our Heirs and Successors all mines of gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron and coal that shall or may now or hereafter be found on any part of the said parcel or tract of Land hereby granted as aforesaid: And saving and reserving to Us Our Heirs and Successors all White pine trees that shall or may now or hereafter grow or be growing on any part of the said parcel or tract of Land hereby granted as aforesaid: Provided also that if at any time or times hereafter the land so hereby given and granted to the said William Jarvis and his heirs shall come into the possession and tenure of any person or persons whomsoever either by Virtue of any Deed of Sale conveyance enfeofment or exchange or by gift inheritance, descent devise or marriage such person or persons shall within twelve months after his her or their entry into and possession of the same, take the Oaths prescribed by Law before some one of the Magistrates of our said Province, and a Certificate of such Oaths having been taken shall cause to be recorded in the Secretary's Office of the said Province. In default of all or any of which said conditions limitations and restrictions this said grant and everything herein contained shall be and We do hereby declare the same to be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever and the land hereby given and granted and every part and parcel thereof shall revert to and become vested in Us Our Heirs and Successors in like manner as if the same had never been granted,

anything herein contained to the Contrary in anywise notwithstanding: Given under the Great Seal of Our Province: Witness the Honorable Peter Russell President Administering the Government of Our said Province this fifth day of February in the year of Our Lord one Thousand seven Hundred and Ninety Eight, and in the Thirty Eighth year of Our Reign.

By Command of His Honor in Council.

ENDORSED: B. Verbatim Copy of a deed to be issued to a Nominee of the Five Nations

For His Honor

The President.

In Mr. Prest. Russell's No. 26 of 20th Feby. 1798.

Copy.

[Enclosure 5.]

YORK 6 Feby. 1798.

SIR: Having yesterday signed five Deeds or Grants from the King of certain Portions (as therein described) of the Land held by the five Nations on the Grand river to Philip Stedman, William Jarvis, William Wallace, Benjamin Canby; and to Richard Beasley, James Wilson and St. John Baptist Rousseau which will be transmitted by the Attorney General with his fiats for your affixing the Great Seal to them. You are hereby directed to deliver the said Deeds to the respective Persons therein named upon their producing to you an order for so doing signed by the Honble. David W. Smith, William Claus Esqr. and Alexr. Stuart Esqr. the Trustees appointed by the five Nations to take Mortgages and other Securities for the annuities stipulated to be paid them for their Benefit, which you are to do without demanding from them any Office Fee or other Expense for so doing. And you are further hereby directed not to part with any of the above Deeds out of your possession before you have received from the Party entitled to receive it the Trustees order as above specified I am Sir &c.

William Jarvis Esqr.,

Secty and Register.

(Signed)

PETER RUSSELL.

EXHIBIT 351.

Memorials of the Grand River Indians.

Memorial for the Six Nations, settled on the Grand River, in Upper Canada, North America, Humbly presented to the British Government by John Norton, one of their adopted Chiefs, in their name and by their desire.

By the treaty of peace concluded between Great Britain and the United States of America in 1783, the whole of the ancient Country of the Six Nations, the residence of their ancestors from times far beyond their earliest traditions, was included within the boundary granted to the Americans. From the warm and active part which these Indians had taken in the Royal cause, and the contests they had engaged in against its enemies, mutual exasperation had been created, and as they declined returning to their former situation; the lands of the Mohawks and Oghkevagas, which were intermixt with and adjoining to the back settlements, became in a general degree forfeited as those of other Loyalists. The Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes, although not entirely in the same predicament, from the more western situation of their lands, were yet left at the discretion of their enemies, from whom they had only to hope, for that respect, which was due to the known intrepidity of their warriors, and to some little regard which might be had to their ancient and natural claim. In this situation Capt. Brant and other Chiefs and warriors of the aforesaid Six Nations made application for a grant within the British province of Upper Canada, and His Excellency the late General Haldimand, granted to them and their posterity, the Grand River or Ouse, from its source to its entry into Lake Erie, extending six miles on each side of the River, and forming a space of land of about one hundred miles in length by twelve in breadth. This tract though much smaller than that they had been obliged to forsake within the United States, amply satisfied these loyal Indians, who preferred living under the protection of His Britannic Majesty (ready to fight under his standard again, if occasion might require,) to a more extensive territory.

Fully contented with the stability of the Grant thus obtained, the settlement increased rapidly, both from natural causes and

'Canadian Archives, Q. 299, p. 266.