limits aforesaid, their factors or agents there, for any offence by them done, shall appeal from the same, that then and in such case it shall and may be lawful to and for the said President and Council, factors or agents, to seize upon him or them, and to carry him or them home prisoners into England, to the said Governor and Company, there to receive such condign punishment as his cause shall require, and the law of this nation allow of; and for the better discovery of abuses and injuries to be done unto the said Governor and Company, or their successors, by any servant by them to be employed in the said voyages and plantations, it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Governor and Company, and their respective President, Chief Agent or Governor in the parts aforesaid, to examine upon oath all factors, masters, pursers, supercargoes, commanders of castles, forts, fortifications, plantations or colonies, or other persons, touching or concerning any matter or thing in which by law or usage an oath may be administered, so as the said oath, and the matter therein contained, be not repugnant, but agreeable to the laws of this realm AND WE DO hereby straitly charge and command all and singular our Admirals, Vice-Admirals, Justices, Mayors, Sheriffs, Constables, Bailiffs, and all and singular other our officers, ministers, liege men and subjects whatsoever to be aiding, favouring, helping and assisting to the said Governor and Company, and to their successors, and to their deputies, officers, factors, servants, assigns and ministers, and every of them, in executing and enjoying the premises, as well on land as on sea, from time to time, when any of you shall thereunto be required; ANY STATUTE, act, ordinance, proviso, proclamation or restraint heretofore had, made, set forth, ordained or provided, or any other matter, cause or thing whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. IN WITNESS WHEREOF we have caused these our Letters to be made Patent. WITNESS OURSELF at Westminster, the second day of May, in the two-and-twentieth year of our reign.

By Writ of Privy Seal.

Pigott.

APPENDIX B.

EXTRACTS FROM BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S LETTERS TO HIS SON.-See Spark's "Franklin,” vol. 4.

May 10, 1766.-I like the project of a colony in Illinois country, and will forward it to my utmost here.

Aug. 25, 1766.-I can now only add that I shall endeavor to accomplish all that you and your friends desire relating to the settlement westward.

Sept. 12, 1766.-I have just received Sir William's open letter to Secretary Conway, recommending your plan for a colony in the Illinois, which I am glad of. I have closed and sent it to him. He is not now in that Department; but it will of course go to Lord Shelburne, whose good opinion of it I have reason to hope for-and I think Mr. Conway was rather against distant Posts and settlements in America. We have, however, suffered a loss in Lord Dartmouth, who I know was inclined to grants there in favour of the soldiery, and Lord Hillsborough is said to be terribly afraid of dispeopleing Ireland. Gen. Lyman has been long here soliciting such a grant, and will readily join the interest he has made with ours; and I should wish for a body of Connecticut settlers, rather than all from our frontiers. I purpose waiting on Lord Shelburne on Tuesday, and hope to be able to send you his sentiments by Falconer, who is to sail about the 20th. A good deal, I imagine, will depend on the account when it arrives of Mr. Croghan's negotiation in that country. This is an affair I shall seriously set about; but there are such continual changes here that it is very discouraging to all applications to be made to the Ministry. I thought the last set to be well established; but they are broken and gone. The present set are hardly thought to stand very firm, and God only knows whom we are to have next. The plan is, I think, well drawn, and, I imagine, Sir William's approbation will go a great way in recommending it, as he is much relied on in all

affairs that may have any relation to the Indians. Lord Adam Gordon is not in town, but I shall take the first opportunity of conferring with him. I thank the Company for their willingness to take me in, and one or two others that I may nominate. I have not yet concluded whom to propose it to; but I suppose our friend Sargent should be one. I wish you had allowed me to name more, as there will be in the proposed country, by reckoning, near sixty-three millions of acres, and therefore enough to content a great number of reasonable people; and by numbers we might increase the weight of interest here. But perhaps we shall do without.

Sept. 27, 1766.-I have mentioned the Illinois affair to Lord Shelburne. His lordship has read your plan for establishing a colony there, recommended by Sir William Johnson, and said it appeared to him a reasonable scheme; but he found it did not quite rate with the sentiments of people here; that their objections to it were, the distance, which would make it of little use to this country, as the expense on the carriage of goods would oblige the people to manufacture for themselves; that it would. for the same reason be difficult both to defend it and to govern it; that it might lay the foundation of a Power in the heart of America, which in time might be troublesome to the other colonies, and prejudicial to our government over them; and the people were wanted both here and in the already settled colonies, so that none could be spared for a new colony. These arguments, he said, did not appear of much weight, and I endeavoured by others to invalidate them entirely. But his lordship did not declare whether he would or would not promote the undertaking, and we are to talk further upon it.

I communicated to him two letters of Mr. Crogan's, with his journal, and one or two of yours on the subject, which he said he would read and consider; and I left with him one of Evans' maps of the middle colonies, in the small scale part of which I had marked with a wash of red ink the whole country included in your boundaries. His lordship remarked

that this would coincide with Gen. Lyman's project, and that they might be united.

Sept. 30, 1766.-I have just had a visit from Gen. Lyman, and a good deal of conversation on the Illinois scheme. He tells me that Mr. Morgan, who is Under-Secretary of the Southern Department, is much pleased with it, and we are to go together to talk to him concerning it.

Oct. 11, 1766.--I was again with Lord Shelburne a few days since, and said a good deal to him on the affair of the Illinois settlement. He was pleased to say that he really approved of it; but intimated that every new proposed expense for America would meet with great difficulty here, the Treasury being alarmed and astonished at the growing charges there, and the heavy accounts and drafts continually brought in from thence; that Major Farmer, for instance, had lately drawn for no less than thirty thousand pounds, extraordinary charges, on his going to take possession of the Illinois, and that the Superintendents, particularly the Southern one, began also to draw very largely. He spoke, however, handsomely of Sir William on many accounts.

Nov. 8, 1776.-Mr. Jackson has now come to town. The Ministry have asked his opinion and advice on your plan of a colony in the Illinois, and he has just sent me to peruse his answer in writing, in which he warmly recommends it, and enforces it by strong reasons, which give me great pleasure, as it corroborates what I have been saying on the same topic, and from him appears less to be suspected of some American bias.

June 13, 1767.-The Illinois affair goes forward but slowly. Lord Shelburne told me again last week that he highly approved of it, but others were not of his sentiments, particularly the Board of Trade. Lyman is almost out of patience, and now talks of carrying out his settlers without leave.

Aug. 28, 1767.-Last week I dined at Lord Shelburne's, and had a long conversation with him and Mr. Conway (there being no other company) on the subject of reducing

the American expenses. They have it in contemplation to return the management of Indian affairs into the hands of the several Provinces on which the nations border, that the colonies may bear the charge of treaties and the like, which they think will be then managed more frugally, the Treasury being tired with the immense drafts of the Superintendents. I took the opportunity of urging it as one mode of saving expense in supporting the outposts that a settlement should be made in the Illinois country, expatiated on the various advantages, namely, furnishing provisions cheaper to the garrisons securing the country, retaining the trade, raising a strength there, which on occasion of a future war, might easily be poured down the Mississippi upon the lower country, and into the Bay of Mexico, to be used against Cuba, the French islands, or Mexico itself. I mentioned your plan, its being approved of by Sir William Johnson, and the readiness and ability of the gentlemen concerned to carry the settlement into execution with very little expense to Government. The Secretaries appeared finally to be fully convinced, and there remained no obstacle but the Board of Trade, which was to be brought over privately before the matter was referred to them officially. In case of laying aside the Superintendents, a provision was thought of for Sir William JohnHe will be made Governor of the new colony.

son.

Oct. 9, 1767.-I returned last night from Paris, and just now hear that the Illinois settlement is approved of in the Cabinet Council so far as to be referred to the Board of Trade for their opinion, who are to consider it next week.

Nov. 13, 1767.-Since my return, the affair of the Illinois settlement has been renewed. The King in Council referred the proposal to the Board of Trade, who called for the opinion of the merchants on two points, namely whether the settlement of colonies in the Illinois country and at Detroit might not contribute to promote and extend the commerce of Great Britain; and whether the regulation of the Indian trade might not be best left to the several colonies that carry on