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agree to the bounds as understood by the Common Council or its committee.
Donaldson and Ansley claimed that by fixing Red Head near York Point the area of the first grant would very nearly agree with the 2,000 acres it was supposed to contain, instead of comprising upwards of 5,000 acres as was the case if the bounds were fixed at Red Head in Courtenay Bay. They further asserted that the Nova Scotia authorities had ample information on which to base the grants in the excellent map of the harbor of St. John made by Lieutenant R. G. Bruce in 1761 and the map of the St. John river made by Hon. Charles Morris in 1765; also that the government desired to be prudent and to exercise due care in the disposal of their lands and for that reason the grant was made for but 2,000 acres although Mr. Simonds has made application for 3,000.
In considering these arguments the fair minded reader must bear in mind that the report of Donaldson and Ansley is a strong ex parte statement of the case made in the interests of the citizens of St. John by their civic representatives. It must therefore be tested by the light of history. The argument they advance above to show the government acted prudently is somewhat weakened by the fact that at no period in our history were lands granted in so rash and prodigal a fashion as they were in the year 1765. That eminently judicial historian, Beamish Murdoch, in his well known history of Nova Scotia writes:—
"In closing the outline of 1765, and reflecting on the very large grants, sanctioned by Colonel Wilmot and his council, I cannot help thinking it an ugly year, and that the growth of the province was long retarded by the rashness of giving forest lands away from the power of the crown or the people in such large masses."
The grants made in the year 1765 were not issued with care and accuracy but in much haste and confusion,