that without delay they furnish every information in their power on this subject, and that they be directed to correspond directly with your Majesty's Board of Trade for this purpose.
"Canada, Florida, and the newly acquired islands in the West Indies appear to us to be the places where planting perpetual settlements and cultivation ought to be encouraged, and consequently where regular forms of government must be immediately established.[1]
"Canada, as possessed and claimed by the French consisted of an immense tract of country, including as well the whole lands to the westward indefinitely, which was the subject of their Indian trade, as all that country from the southern bank of the River St. Lawrence, where they had carried on their encroachments.
"It is needless to state with any degree of precision the bounds and limits of this extensive country, for we should humbly propose to your Majesty that the new Government of Canada should be restricted so as to leave, on the one hand all the lands lying about the great lakes and the sources of the rivers which fall into the River St. Lawrence from the north to be thrown into the Indian country, and on the other hand all the lands from Cape Roziere to Lake Champlain along the heights where the sources of the river rise which fall into the Bay of Fundy and Atlantic Ocean to be annexed to Nova Scotia and New England, in such manner as upon any future directions after particular surveys have been made shall appear most proper. If this general idea shall be approved the future bounds of the new Colony of Canada will be as follows:
"On the south-east it will be bounded by the high lands which range across the continent from Cape Roziere in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to that point of Lake Champlain above St. John's which is in latitude 45° north, which high lands separate the heads of the rivers which fall into the great River St. Lawrence from those which fell into the Atlantic Ocean or Bay of Fundy.
"On the north-west it will be bounded by a line drawn southwest from the River St. John's, by the heads of those rivers which fall into the River St. Lawrence, as far as the east end of the Lake Nipissing upon the Ottawa River, and on the south-west by a line drawn due west to the River St. Lawrence, from that point- ↑ The main proposals in the above letter were embodied in a Proclamation issued in 1763, shortly after Shelburne's resignation of the Presidency of the Board of Trade, the text of which will be found in the Appendix. In regard to the form of Government it said: "As soon as the state and circumstances of the said colonies will admit thereof, they [the Governors] shall, with the advice and consent of the members of our Council, summon and call General Assemblies within the said Governments respectively in such manner and form as it is used and directed in those colonies and provinces in America which are under our immediate government."
