[coynE | THE TALBOT PAPERS 37 
explanation appears in the archives. The bare fact remains. As his 
compensation he received grants in these townships exceeding in all 
70,000 acres. 
XVI.—EXTENSION OF TALBOT’S SETTLEMENT. 
In addition to these two townships, the control and regulation of 
settlement in the greater part of the London and Western Districts, 
some twenty-two townships in all, had been entrusted to him in 1811 
by the Provincial Government. He performed this work ostensibly 
without compensation. It enabled him, however, to procure the com- 
pletion of the Talbot Road, extending from Delhi in the Long Point 
Settlement to Sandwich, with a branch from Port Talbot to London. 
This was effected through the conditions of settlement imposed and 
enforced by him. For sales of School Lands and Crown and Clergy 
Reserves situated in the London District, he succeeded afterward in 
getting an allowance of 3 per cent. From ist January, 1826, under 
- orders from the Colonial Secretary, in addition to his percentage, a 
pension of £400 per annum was directed to be paid to him from funds 
to be placed at the disposal of the Imperial Government by the Canada 
Company. This was received by him annually until his death. 
At this time Talbot claimed a population of 20,000 for his settle- 
ment, and declared that he had expended £20,000 in rendering them 
comfortable. In 1831 he puts the population at nearly 40,000 souls, 
and in 1837 at 50,000. In a letter to Sir John Colborne, Lieutenant- 
Governor in 1831, he asserts, “J was the first person who exacted the 
performance of settlement duties and actual residence on the land 
located, which at that time was considered as most arbitrary on my part, 
but the consequence is now that the settlers that I found to com- 
ply with my system are most grateful and sensible of the advantage 
they could not otherwise have for a length of time derived by the 
accomplishment of good roads, and I have not any hesitation in stating 
that there is no other settlement in North America, which can for tts 
age and extent exhibit as compact and profitably settled a portion of 
the new world as the Talbot Settlement.” 
In all, 540,443 acres of land, spread over twenty-eight townships, 
were at various times down to the year 1824 placed in Talbot’s hands 
for settlement by orders-in-council or personal orders from the Lieuten- 
ant-Governor. 
These townships include the most westerly townships of Norfolk, 
and, speaking generally, all those between the latter and the Detroit 
River. A range north of the Thames from Zone in Kent to London 
Township inclusive, are also comprised in the list. 
