surprized with an Action brought against him by the said Daniel Bayne and William Brymer in his Majesty's Court of King's Bench at Westminster, for your petitioners having as they alledged, amoved or caused the said William Lead and Francis Carpenter their Servants to amove with their Effects from the said post or place on the Labradore Coast, which they alledged to have been granted to them by the Governor of Quebec, and Alledged that by the said amoval they had sustained great Loss and Damage, which they sued Your petitioner to answer and make Satisfaction for, To which Action your petitioner appeared and pleaded in his Defence his Majesty's s^d Commission and Instructions to your petitioner as Governor of Newfoundland and the Coast of Labrador as aforesaid, And that what he did was as Governor as aforesaid and in Obedience to his Majesty's said Commission and Instructions, and set forth the ffacts of the Case to be as herein before stated, and insisted that the plaintiffs had no right to the said post or place on the Labradore Coast, & therefore hoped that the said Action should be dismissed.
      That before any further proceedings were had in the said Suit, the Season for the said Newfoundland Fishery coming on again, Your petitioner was under the necessity of leaving England to go to his said Government, and which he did without receiving any Additional Instructions from the Crown, for want thereof Your petitioner was left exposed to wicked Combinations and vexatious Suits at Law upon matters altogether new and of an unsettled nature, in a newly Ceded Country, and which had taken their rise from the mistaken proceedings of another person viz^t the Governor of Quebec who had not the least power or Authority for what he did, and who was so mislead by those Companys of Clandestine Traders, that they first obtained from him those illegal Grants and Afterwards in resentment for your petitioner's having detected and defeated their pernicious projects, they further obtained his Authority for the most extraordinary proceedings of the Council of the province of Quebec in the year 1765, apparently for supporting those Grants and propagating Clamour and grounding thereon prosecutions against your petitioner by each of the Grantees, and with whom your petitioner has reason to believe several of the Members of that Council were connected and concerned in those Grants.
      That in the year 1768, your petitioner being returned to England did before he set out again for Newfoundland, as well for the Encouragement of the Adventurers in the Fishery as for your petitioner's Security in future and for obviating all Doubts about the Invalidity of the Governor of Quebec's Grants and the Fishing Laws extending to the Labradore ffisheries, make application for an Act of Parliament to be passed explaining the said former Act or Statute relating to the Newfoundland Fishery, and to extend the same to the Seas Islands and Coasts of Labradore which is Adjacent to Newfoundland and separated therefrom by a Streight of only four Leagues and an half broad in some places, and (the obtaining of which Act of Parliament was approved of by the Lords of his Majesty's Privy Council and a Bill was brought into the House for that purpose, but which was afterwards dropt and your petitioner proceeded to Newfoundland in that Year without any new Instructions.

      That your petitioner returning again to England in the latter End of the said Year 1768 the said Action at Law was on the 15^th day of December last brought on for Tryal before the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield and a special Jury at Guildhall London, when it was proposed by the Court, That the proceeding to the said Trial should be put off as a matter very improper to be canvassed in an Action at Law in that Court, and that instead thereof the parties should lay the whole Case before your Lordships as the most proper Judges and for putting it into a Channel to be settled, and also for giving what Instructions were necessary to future Governors in regard thereto.
      Your Petitioner has therefore troubled your Lordships with this State of the Case, and humbly hopes it will appear to Your Lordships, that he has acted in this matter agreeable to the Statute, for regulating the Fisheries or at least as that Act has always been understood, and likewise agreeable to his Majesty's Instructions and his Royal proclamation and in obedience and Conformity thereto, and that he shall stand justified and be indemnified by Government against all Damages and Expences.

      N.B.—For better explaining the nature situation and extravagant Extent of the several Grants made by the Governor of Quebec, a Chart is annexed* upon which the Extent of each Grant is distinguished by different Colours with an Explanation thereof.

Endorsed:
      Petition of Hugh Pallisser Esq^r.

[1927lab]