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[IX]

and important object.

It is true, that purchasers of large tracts of land have many inducements to sell the same to actual settlers, especially after the most valuable timber upon them shall have been disposed of.

But from the large quantities that have recently been sold by the State, the market is at present supplied, and the expediency of checking the sale of large tracts of land to individual proprietors, and affording additional encouragement to actual settlers, is respectfully submitted to your consideration.

The unsettled state of the North· Eastern boundary, and also the tenure, by which these lands are held by this State, in common with Massachusetts, cannot fail of proving disadvantageous and perplexing to the interests of both States.

The improvement of the lands by making roads, clearing the obstructions in the rivers and by other means, thus enhancing their value and promoting their settlement, is impeded by the necessity of requiring the co-operation of another State, which inconvenience is but partially remedied by the divisions into townships, as heretofore practiced, to be held by the two States in severalty.

In some respects it would be more beneficial to both States that partition should be made of all the undivided lands into two entire parts, each of which would then be more exclusively under the control of the, State to which it belonged.

Still, I am persuaded, that in any plan that could be devised, difficulties and objections might reasonably be apprehended, which a prudent foresight would require, if possible, to be guarded against and avoided.

That Massachusetts should continue to possess within the limits of this State so great a portion of the territory, which is thus placed beyond our control, and over which our jurisdiction can be but partially extended, in an anomaly, which the public feeling, the interest, and