Minutes of the Board of Revenue, 1768-1775. 481

with you, as you certainly know it much better than I do, but
I hope you will excuse my reminding you that I applied to you
& M^r Calvert & to M^r D. Dulany before any warrant issued out
of your Office, to go with me to the Governor to prevail upon
his Excellency to recall the Order. And had my request been
complied with I think he would readily have postponed the
Measure, til the Proprietor's pleasure was known, for I must
do him the Justice to say, that I have ever found him ready
to take the Advice of those in whom he placed a Confidence.
I am far from imputing an Inclination in the Proprietor or

his Guardians to do any thing inconsistent with honour &

justice, but when a new Measure is about to be taken by
which his Property is meant to be transferred, it would seem
but reasonable that he & his Guardians should have an Op-
portunity of considering the propriety & Fitness of carrying
that measure into Execution, before they were precluded
exercising a Judgment in the Case, by Patents being given
under the great Seal. This was all I requested I would not
presume to do anything, which might tend to limit the Ex-
tention of the Grant to the Proprietor's noble Predecessor,
nor can I conceive how such a Construction could be made

Lib. No. 86

upon my Letter; but as the Lands to the Westward of a
Meridian drawn from the head of the North Branch, to its
intersection with the West Line of the Province, have never
yet been granted by the Proprietors of Maryland, however
clear the Right may be, I stil think a delay of exercising that
Right for a short time, cannot weaken it, or encourage the
Virginians to consider it as a dereliction; and that it would be
more agreeable to the Proprietor to delay granting those
Lands until the Dispute was fairly Settled, than to bring on an
abrupt Contest, by exercising his Right at this particular time.
My Conduct in this Affair has flowed from the Duty I owe to
the Proprietor & the attention I shall ever pay to his Concerns
here, whilst I have the Honour of being employed by him, in
which tho' I have not the Pleasure of your Concurrence in
this Instance, yet I cannot in conformity to your wishes retract
my Letter, no Reason having been as yet offered to convince
me, that the Request contained therein is unreasonable, or
that the Compliance with it, can possibly be attended with any
ill Consequence. Your own Judgment & Discretion assisted
by the advice of the Board, you mention, I doubt not will
govern your Conduct in granting or delaying to grant Pat-
ents; I have only interfered so far as I thought it my Duty to
do.
As I am informed that Surveys are now actually making
within the Lands reserved for the Proprietor, it would seem
fit & prudent to make such restriction in the Patents (as you

31

p. 132