nd unanswerable; and _admitting_
that the settlers in the country in question are _as numerous as report
states them to be_, yet we submit to your Lordships, that this is a
fact which does, in the nature of it, operate strongly in point of
argument _against_ what is proposed; for if the foregoing reasoning has
any weight, it certainly ought to induce your Lordships to advise his
Majesty to take every method to _check_ the progress of these
settlements, and _not_ to make such grants of the land as will have an
immediate tendency to encourage them; a measure which we conceive is
altogether as unnecessary as it is impolitic, as we see nothing to
hinder the government of Virginia from extending the laws and
constitution of that colony to such persons as may have already settled
there _under legal titles_.

X. And there is one objection suggested by Governor Wright to the
extension of settlements in the interior country, which, we submit,
deserves your Lordships particular attention, viz. the encouragement
that is thereby held out to the emigration of his Majesty's European
subjects; an argument which, in the present peculiar situation of this
kingdom, demands very serious consideration, and has for some time past
had so great weight with this Board, that it has induced us to deny our
concurrence to many proposals for grants of land, even in those parts
of the continent of America where, in all other respects, we are of
opinion, that it consists with the true policy of this kingdom to
encourage settlements; and this consideration of the certain bad
consequences which must result from a continuance of such emigrations,
as have lately taken place from various parts of his Majesty's European
dominions, added to the constant drains to Africa, to the East Indies,
and to the new ceded Islands, will we trust, with what has been before
stated, be a sufficient answer to every argument that can be urged in
support of the present memorial, so far as regards the consideration of
it in point of policy.

XI. With regard to the propriety in point of _justice_ of making the
grant desired, we presume this consideration can have reference only to
the case of such persons who have already possession of lands in that
part of the country under legal titles derived from grants made by the
Governor and Council of Virginia; upon which case we have only to
observe, that it does appear to us, that there are _some_ such
possessions held by persons w