508 Appendix.

Calvert
Paper

No. 295 1/2

judge deserving of my Encouragem^t for any Services on the Borders
or elsewhere in my province & I expect an annual Ace* of the par-
ticulars of such Applications.

p. 66
(Vide
Calvert
Paper No.
278, p. 12)

Farther Instructions to our Agent Benjamin Tasker Esq^re which
must be Enter'd & kept in a Book on Purpose together with the for-
mer Instructions delivered my late agent M. T. Ward Esq^re by my
Private Secretary M^r William Janssen when in Maryland; a Copy
of this Book I wou'd have sent me to England, & another Copy trans-
mitted to your Successor.
I. My Quit-Rents & Alienation-Fines being payable in mony-
Sterling, & almost all the Specie in the Province being Foreign-
Gold (great part of which is cut into small pieces for the Conveniency
of Change) & Reckoned according to the common computation not
warranted by any Law the ounce at. £4:2:6
Whereas gold intrinsically is worth no more than £3:18:4
So that at this rate my Loss wou'd be in every ounce of gold £0:4:2
This wou'd not be all, for the paper currency has already (tho' not
in circulation) raised the value of Bills of Exchange which is not
doubted will reach to 40 p^r O or more, so th^l I must either have the
mony Remitted in Specie with the Loss above mention'd, & pay
Freight & Insurance, or lose by converting this mony in the Country
into Bills of Exchange, per cent at least. £6:13:4.
To Avoid these Disadvantages, my Agent must give positive
orders to the Receivers of every Branch of my Revenue pay^e in
Sterling mony, th^t when they Receive Foreign Gold, no more be
allow'd for it than the Intrinsick Value w^ch is per ounce of such as is
cut into small Bitts ..... £3: 10: — Because great Frauds have
been discover'd by passing Bitts of Brass &^ca for gold, whereby
very cautious people have been much Imposed on
2. A great number of people having obtain'd Escheat- Warrants,
special & common-warrants, out of my Land-Office, & made Sur-

p. 67

veys which have been Return'd, & Lain some 5, some 10, & not a
few 20, nay 30 years in the Office, without taking out any Patent, or
paying me one Penny, tho the Lands have been always held by Vertue
of the Surveys made in pursuance of these warrants, & wou'd were it
not for these Surveys, have been taken up by others & paid for. In
all these cases my Agent must Insist upon the common Interest of
the mony, w^ch I have been thus kept out of, & take the Interest
accordingly, as he must also for Surplus-Lands, as within the same
Reason of Equity.
3. Having given Instructions to give the preemption, & One Third
part of the Value of Escheat-Lands to Discoverer for their Incour-
agem* whenever therefore any such Discoverys shall be made, w^ch
undoubtedly will be frequent, the Agent must Enter Reserves for
me, in order to save the mony which a Discover wou'd be Intituled
to; & this must be punctually observ'd by all future Agents.