concurred in not permitting grants of lands or settlements in these regions, which should be ‘for the present left unsettled, for the Indian tribes to hunt in, but open to a free trade for all the colonies’. The Lords of Trade were not convinced. They deprecated annexing this western territory to any colony, and particularly to Canada, on three grounds: The first was that annexation to Canada might imply that the British title to these lands was the result of the late treaty and of the cession of Canada, whereas it rested on antecedent rights, and it was important not to let the Indians form a wrong impression on this head by being brought under the government of the old French province. The second ground was that, if the Indian territory was annexed to one particular province and subjected to its laws, that province would have an undue advantage over the other provinces or colonies in respect to the Indian trade, which it was the intention of the Crown to leave open as far as possible to all British subjects. The third objection to annexing the territory to Canada was that the laws of the province could not be enforced except by means of garrisons established at different posts throughout the area, which would necessitate either that the Governor of Canada should always be commander-in-chief of the forces in North America, or that there should be constant friction between the civil governor and the military commanders. This reasoning prevailed, and the lands which it was contemplated to reserve for the use of the Indians were not annexed to any particular colony or assigned to any one colonial government. [Sidenote: Provisions for the protection of the Indians.]