THE AUSTIN PAPERS. 821 Money to pay the Surveyors and Go,·errunent fees- the time, Cost, and labor expended in the business and the pecuniary responsibility imposed on me by it-Then add to this the labor and expence in- curred by my Father to obtain the original permission, his health destroyed and Life sacrificed- Also the three years perplexing and fatiguing Labors which I have undergone and the Money expended to perfect the Grant, And to all this Add the vast burthen of responsi- bility whic.h rests upon me, to be Accountable for the good Conduct of the Settlers, And the perplexing task of administering the Civil Government of the Colony, And then Ask yourselves whether yon would not rather take your Single League of Land in peace than to receive what I am entitled to together with the 12-¼cts an acre A.nu be involved in the Labyrinth of trouble and Vexation and responsi- b1lity that I am- As regards the equivalent which you were to receive for this 12½cts an Acre, was it not wortli it? And if you could not have obtained it any other way would you have been unwilling to pay that Sum for it 1 And could you or would you ever have obtained it unless through my exertions1 I Have been thm lengthy in this exposition because I deemed it my duty to explaill to you fully every step I had taken or intended to take int.he Busi- ness- You now can form your own Opinion relative to the merits or demerits of my exertions And particularly whether I ought in justice to be charged with illegally and unjustly speculating on the Settlers as I am told I have been by a few, And whether the Conditions made public by me in the beginning of the settlement was not in fact a proposal for a fair And specific Contract in which I was one Party And All who applied to me for a settlement in this Colony formed the other party 1 And whether every honorable man ought not to feel himself in Equity bound to that Contruct, eveu if the Government of this Province declared otherwise- It is a well acknowledged rule that a Man's labor merits reward in proportion to the benefits derived from it, and also that the value of an Article is prized in proportion to the difficulty of obtaining it- Apply this rule to the present case- ·when my Father obtained the per- mission for this Settlement no other person had ever been able be- fore that time to procure such a privilege, And Altho hundreds of applications have been made, no one has ever obtained it since, And the families who have settled in different parts of the Province out of this Colony are at the entire mercy of the Government with- out the least Security whatever that they will ever get lnnd or even be permitted to rem[ai]n in the peaceable possession of the places they have chosen,- the privilege therefore procured by my Father and perfected by me was difficult to get for no one had ever succeeded in getting it before him, nor since, And it has cost the life of my
Powered by FlippingBook