[RaAyMonD] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 89 
accord with the King’s Instructions and they were themselves likely to 
be censured. 
At this stage Colonel McNutt again found himself at loggerheads 
with the Governor and Council. He charges them with partiality in 
distributing the choicest locations to their friends, to officers of the 
army and navy and others in official positions, and with allowing them 
ten years in which to effect the settlement of their grants while he him- 
self was allowed only four. McNutt boldly asserts that the only method 
contemplated by the favored class for the settlement of their lands was 
that of encouraging him to bring in as many settlers as he could, and 
when they arrived to throw all the obstacles they could in his way, so 
as to prevent his obtaining lands for them. The people then finding 
themselves disappointed in obtaining the lands that had been promised 
them would conclude that they had no other resource than to become 
tenants. “They cannot in that case” McNutt says, “properly be called 
by any other name than slaves, and will only continue with them until 
they are able to obtain better terms elsewhere.” 
MeNutt further states that ever since the death of Governor Law- 
rence he had been so unhappy as to meet with every obstruction that 
had been in the power of the rulers of Nova Scotia to interpose to 
prevent his fulfilling his engagements. He asserts that lands had 
been granted in tracts said to be of 20,000 acres each, but really con- 
taining much more, to a number of persons who had never been in 
Nova Scotia and probably never intended to go there. He insinuates 
that the Governor and his Council are men of “sinister and selfish views” 
and that such men seldom hesitate which to sacrifice when their own 
and the public interest come in competition. This and a good deal 
more of like tenor is embodied in his memorial presented to the Lords 
of Trade in April, 1766. He closes his memorial by desirmg that 
measures may be taken that his plans may not be frustrated by the 
caprice or self-interest of those in power in Nova Scotia. He is still 
ready and willing to introduce any number of settlers that may be 
desired for the well peopling of the province. He asks that positive 
orders and instructions be sent to Nova Scotia that neither the Governor 
nor the Council shall in future obstruct his plans of colonization. This 
proposition, if agreed to, would have enabled McNutt to assume an 
attitude of defiance to the provincial rulers; naturally they were irri- 
tated at such a proposal. Another request made by the Colonel to the 
Lords of Trade was that he should be allowed 1,000 acres of land for 
each family he should be able to introduce in the course of the next 
twelve years. He claimed to have upwards of 12,000 persons ready 
to settle upon lands on the terms agreed to by the Lords of Trade and 
confirmed by His Majesty in 1763, provided that they should be allowed 
