Lancaster March 24th. 1755 Dear Eunice,

I have recd. many of yr. Epistles wh. I esteem as real favrs. & as serviceable ones. I learn more of the transactions of Boston by yr. accts. than by half the world beside. I should have sent perticular Answers to yr. Letters, but I never can get Time to write till just as the Post goes, & then can only offer my bare say-so to prove my mindfulness of you. This is the Case at present, & therefore you must not expect anything more than hints at things: and by the same Rule I should judge the case to be the same with you, for you give me only hints. I have lived so recluse a Life that I know but little more abt. Lancaster, than if I had been at Boston. I never stirr any where but once a Week to Shirley, upon whose broad backs I vent the Ill Nature & morosity collected by a recluse Pedantic Employmt. However it agrees best wth. their Natural Constitutions, (Some things must be softned wth. Oyl, others must be broke wth. a Beetle) & they talk as if they did not begrutch their Money. My Texts in course have been these. Lev: 19. 30 vs, all day: Prov: 18. 10: Rom. 6. 22 Prov. 23. 7: 2 Cor. 5. 15. By this Time I equall'd in the opinion of all, & excelld with most, one Mr. Worcester1 a New Light Lay Precher that has been among them. Psa: 97: I the 1st clause: I Cor: 7.31: 1st. clause: & yesterday AM. Ps: 51. 6. & PM from I Cron. I.I. I proved & applied the Doctrine of Adam, Sheth, Enos. Worcester stands no chance. It hapned to be a Rainy day, but I did not want Auditors, tho' my subject was unknown. The next Sabbath will be the last agreed for, but I was desired by the chief Men not to preach a farewell discourse. However I purpose to see Boston before I undertake any more, for my Divinity is nearly exhausted. I begin to think of some Employmt. for the Summer, but when, where, or how, I know not; as for Freind Cranch, I dispise his unmindfullness tho' I regard his Ingenuity. It shows us the uncertainty of Earthly Enjoymt. in a lively Picture, for if the Wise the Virtuous the learned, & the Freindly can't be trusted, What must we expect from the upstart productions of Honor, Fame or Wealth. I fancy by your hint there are some People take more Notice of me than my avow'd Freinds. I wish he had heard yesterdays A.M. He might have heard his Picture. I shall251spare writing many things proposing to visit you next week. Remember me to all enquiring Freinds, & if there be any Letters in Town for me, Remitt them, as likewise if it be genrally known, that I have ascended Rostrum. I hope you are all well as at present I am. Yr. Loving Brother,

ROBERT TREAT PAINE

RC ; endorsed.

1.

Not identified.

Lancaster. March 24th. 1755 Sr.,

Upon reading the first Chapt. in Heineccius,1 the following Queries (whether connected with that Subject, or not) occurr'd. Viz.

I. Whether the Aboriginals of this Country were not by Virtue of Prior Possession, the Lawful Proprietors of it, when the Europeans first arriv'd among them?

II. Whether the Posterity of those Europeans can be suppos'd to have a good Title to any more of the Country, than they have either acquired by Compact of the Natives, or won from them in a just war?

III. Whether the Natives have not a legal Right of introducing either English or French to the Possession of such Lands, as the other have not obtain'd of them by Compact, or won from them in a just War?

If therefore

IV. The English have neither acquir'd a Title to the Ohio by Compact, nor by Conquest in a just War: And the Natives are disposed to put the French in Possession of it---

In such a Case

Are the French obliged, by the Treaty of Utrecht, to refuse such a Possession? Suppose they are.

Yet the Natives are not obliged by the Treaty of Utrecht, but are vested with a Right of conveying their Lands to whom they please, and securing the Possession to them?

Is it not therefore inconsistent with the Law of Nature & of Nations for the English to interpose by the Sword in that Affair?

Your Solutions will be acceptable to your Friend and Servant,

T. HARRINGTON2

RC ; addressed: "To Robert Treat Paine M.A. In Lancaster"; endorsed: "Political Queres, wth. limo. Harrington."

1.

Johann Gottlieb Heineccius (1681–1740, German jurist whose writings ''are sound and practical, and are more commonly referred to in England and the United States than any of the Continental writers" (Marvin, Legal Bibliography, 380). The work discussed here is probably his Elemento Juris Naturæ et Gentium (Hale, 1742), translated into English in 1763 as A methodical System of Universal Law; or, the Law of Nature and Nations, deduced from certain Principles, and applied to proper cases.

2.

Timothy Harrington (1716–1795), minister of the First Congregational Church of Lancaster (Sibley's Harvard Graduates, 10:188–195).