hboring colonies, the legislature consisting of a governor,
council and assembly and every township, so soon as it should consist
of fifty families, would be entitled to send two representatives to
the assembly. The courts of justice were similar to those of
Massachusetts, Connecticut and the other northern colonies, and full
liberty of conscience was secured to persons of all persuasions,
"papists" excepted, by the royal instructions and a late act of the
Assembly. As yet no taxes had been imposed or fees exacted on grants.
Forts garrisoned with troops were established in the neighborhood of
the lands it was proposed to settle.

The Lords of Trade approved of Governor Lawrence's proceedings in
settling the province, and at the same time desired that land should
be reserved "as a reward and provision for such officers and soldiers
as might be disbanded in America upon a peace." This led the governor
to desist from making further grants of the cleared lands to ordinary
settlers. He did not, however, anticipate much benefit to the
province in consequence of the attempt to people it with disbanded
British soldiers, and he wrote to the Lords of Trade:

"According to my ideas of the military, which I offer with all
possible deference and submission, they are the least qualified, from
their occupation as soldiers, of any men living to establish new
countries, where they must encounter difficulties with which they are
altogether unacquainted; and I am the rather convinced of it, as every
soldier that has come into this province since the establishment of
Halifax, has either quitted it or become a dramseller."

Soon after the treaty of Paris, a proclamation of George III. (dated
at the Court of St. James, Oct. 7, 1763) signified the royal sense and
approbation of the conduct of the officers and soldiers of the army,
and directed the governors of the several provinces to grant, without
fee or reward, to disbanded officers and soldiers who had served in
North America during the late war and were actually residing there,
lands in the following proportions:--

To every field officer, 5,000 acres.

To every captain, 3,000 acres.

To every subaltern or staff officer, 2,000 acres.

To every non-commissioned officer, 200 acres.

To every private man, 50 acres.

Like grants of land were to be made to retired officers of the navy
who had served on board a ship of war at the reduction of Louisbourg
and Quebec.

Petitions and