Whitehall May 6th 1761
To the King's most Excellent Majesty
May it please your Majesty
In obedience to your Majesty's Order in Council, dated the 27th of February last, we have prepared Draughts of general Instructions
and of those which relate to the Observance of the Acts of Parliament for the encouragement and regulation of Trade and Navigation for Arthur Dobbs Esqre, whom your Majesty has been pleased by your Royal Appointment to continue Captain General and Governor in Chief of your Majesty's Province of North Carolina; in which Draughts we have made no Alterations from the Instructions given by His late Majesty to the said Governor except only in the following particulars.In the first Article of the present Draught of general Instructions, We have in obedience to your Majesty's Order in Council, dated the 30th of April last, inserted the name of John Rutherford Esqre in his place and rank amongst the members of your Majesty's Council and we have left a vacancy for James Murray Esqre until further enquiry can be made into his past Conduct and behaviour and to the seven other persons formerly appointed by his late Majesty, we have added the name of John Sampson Esqre whom your Majesty was pleased to appoint in December last and Alexander McCullock and Henry Eustace McCullock who have been recommended to Us, as persons well qualified to serve your Majesty in the Council of North Carolina.
At the end of the 33d Article of the present Draught, we have added the same words as we inserted in the like Article of the Instructions lately prepared for the Governor of the Massachusets Bay, requiring the Governor to discourage and restrain any Attempts, which may be made to set up any such Manufactures or Trades as are or may be prejudicial to this Kingdom.
We have omitted the 13th Article of the former General Instructions, where by the number of Representatives to be chosen by each County and Town in the Province was fixed and declared because several new Counties and Towns have since been erected and old ones divided of which Mr. Dobbs has not yet transmitted us any such Account as might enable us to know with precision, what is the present number of Representatives or of Counties and Towns, which are represented in the Assembly. In lieu therefore of this Article, we have inserted some words in the 12th Article of the present Draught directing the Governor to issue Writs to the proper Officer in the several Counties, Towns, or Districts which have been authorized by his late Majesty's Instructions or are otherwise qualified to send Representatives to the General Assembly.
We have omitted so much of the 16th Article of the former Instructions as required the Governor to confirm by Charters of Incorporation,
all the Rights and Privileges derived to certain Towns and Counties, by certain Acts, which were repeated by His late Majesty's Order in Council of the 8th of April 1754 that direction having at the humble request of the Assembly been revoked by an additional Instruction given by their Excellencies the Lords Justices in June 1755.We have also for the reasons set forth, in Our humble Reprentation on the Draught of General Instructions for your Majesty's Governor of the Massachusets Bay, omitted the 23rd Article of the former Instructions to Mr. Dobbs directing a Revisal of the Laws and all such other Articles as appeared to Us to have become useless unnecessary or improper Vizt the 41st directing the Governor to establish Courts of Justice the 44th concerning the speedy administration of Justice the 45th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54th containing directions relative to the Habeas Corpus the 55th for securing the Life Limb, and Property of the Subject, the 56th requiring proof to be transmitted with Criminals to this Kingdom, the 57th respecting the qualification of Jurors, the 58th for restraining inhuman severities towards servants and slaves, the 66th concerning Grants of Offices made by the late Lords Proprietors of Carolina and the 118th relating to the observance of the 5th and 6th Articles of the Treaty of neutrality.
In the 74th Article of the present Draught of general Instructions which relates to the grants made in the [year] 1746 of 1,200,000 acres of land to Murray, Crimble and James Huey and their associates, in pursuance of His late Majesty's Orders in Council of the 19th of May 1737, as the term of Ten years, limited for the settlement of those lands by the said Orders and also the further Term of three years granted by his late Majesty's Order in Council dated the 13th of October 1756 are now both expired. We have inserted words authorizing and requiring the Governor without further Delay to seize and take possession in His Majesty's name and right, of all such parts of the said Lands as shall not have been actually settled, according to ther Terms of the said grants.
The Draught of Instructions which relate to the observance of the Acts of Parliament for the encouragement and regulation of Trade and Navigation is exactly conformable to the Instructions given by his late Majesty, for the like purposes, to the Governor of
this and other your Majesty's Plantations on the continent of North America