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Letter Bk. IV
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Words prescribed by his Instruction must be adhered to or
not, at the same time I cannot help hinting that to vary now
from the usual Form of the Condition inserted in the Patents
relative to the Lands reverting to His Ldp for non payment
of the Alienation Fine might by ill disposed Persons be said
to proceed from a Consciousness in His Ldp or those employed
in his Service that such old Conditional Clause of Forfeiture
is really defective. Had not my Lord already taken his
Resolution with regard to the Sale directed by his Instruction,
or if I may take the liberty to offer my Opinion thereon I
should indeed be far from advising His Ldp to part with any
of his Mannours or Reserve Lands, but if possible to have
every part of them leased on some Terms or other, so that
they may add' something annually to his Revenue, for if it is
worth the while of Gentlemen here to purchase Lands at this
time at a pretty high price with no other View than to lease
them out hereafter when Patent Land is not to be obtained,
It must I think answer as well for His Ldp to keep what
Mannours he has especially if he can now get Tenants for
them, & I am confident that if His Ldps Mannours were but
managed agreeable to the Plan I sometime ago recommended
& as many Persons in the Province would manage them were
they their own, the Rents of them would soon amount to a
considerable Sum & hereafter become the most valuable Part
of the Lord Proprietary's Estate, but really It cannot be
expected that a person of so large Estate as Colo Lloyd
possesses in different parts of the Province & else where &
distracted with his own private Business should give so much
Attention to His Ldp's & particularly to the Concerns of his
Mannours (none of which I believe he ever saw) as would be
necessary to bring them under proper Regulations, & to
make them yield a Rent adequate to their Value. By the
Instruction relative to such part of Talbot Mannour as lies
Northward of the Temporary Line but will upon the Articles
of Agreement being carried into Execution fall into Caecil
County His Ldp impowers his Agent with my Approbation to
grant Leases for a certain Term to Persons in possession of
such part of said Mannour & on such Rents as they may have
hitherto paid the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, but as those
people or at least many of them never acknowledged them-
selves Tenants to the Proprietors of Pennsylvania but having
taken possession or bought out such as had hold & are deter-
mined to keep possession till some Body can oust them by
shewing a better Title, we know not what Terms His Ldp
would have us offer such people, whether he would grant
them Leases for ninety nine years renewable forever on the
Rent of Twenty shillings a year as the Rest of the Tenants
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