292 | From the Board of Trade

    Whitehall July the 13. 1764.

    Sir,

    As almost all the Letters, which we have lately received from you, relate intirely to the State of the Trade of the Province under your Government, so far as it depends upon the Execution of the Law for laying a Duty upon foreign Sugar, Rum and Melasses, and to the Claim of Lord Colville, to a Share of Seizures made by Officers under his Command, and condemned under the Act of the 15.th of Charles 2d; We have thought it proper to communicate the Contents of these Letters to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury: But we apprehend neither this nor any other Board can decide upon Lord Colville’s Claim, it appearing to us to be a Question depending upon the Construction of an Act of Parliament, and therefore cognizable only before the proper Courts of Law.

    The Measures taken by the General Court for laying out Townships in the District of Sagadehock, is a Matter of great Importance, and is complicated with a great Variety of difficult Questions and Considerations; all which will be brought before His Majesty by a Report, that we shall make in a few Days upon the petition of the Proprietors of six of these Townships to have their Grants confirmed.1

    We have sent the Laws, referr’d to in your Letter of the 10th of March, to our Counsel, for his Opinion upon them, in Point of Law;2 and as soon as he makes his Report, we shall take them into Our Consideration and shall have a particular Attention to the Alteration which you State to have been made in the Impost Act and in that for regulating the Indian Trade; which Alterations, as far as we can judge of them at present, appear to us to be reasonable and proper.

    In considering the Laws pass’d in 1763, we could not avoid taking Notice of that for incoperating3 the Mashpee Indians, which in general appears to us to be a reasonable Law, and will we hope operate to prevent any further Complaints of these Indians concerning those Lands; But we see no Reason for not extending to this Indian Settlement the same Powers and Priviledges rested by Law in other Districts.4 And so we bid you heartily farewell, and are, Sir,

    Your very loving Friends

    Hillsborough,

    Bamber Gascoyne,5

    J. Dyson,6 Geo: Rice7

    Francis Bernard Esqr. Govr of Massachusets Bay

    LS, RC BP, 10: 179-182.