But they could not desert Dinwiddie entirely since the issue involved the royal prerogative. The King rejected the address of the Burgesses, and the Board confirmed the Governor's right to the fee. But they hedged it about with several restrictions. There must be no fee for grants of less than one hundred acres, or for lands granted for importing settlers, or for lands west of the mountains. They reproved Dinwiddie for proposing that the fee be established by act of Assembly, in violation of the King's rights. The making out of surveys for land and neglecting to pass patents was clearly "in the Governor's power to prevent." "We expect you to do your duty ... even though no pecuniary advantage should arise from it." And they recommended that he reinstate Randolph as Attorney General. "This may quiet the minds of the people and stop this unjust clamor."[14] Dinwiddie was far from happy about this report. The proposal to establish the fee by act of Assembly had come from the Council, not from him, he wrote in reply. As for not taking a fee for patents west of the mountains, he wanted to know which mountains. He had taken no fee for lands beyond the Alleghenies. The suggestion to reinstate the Attorney General was especially displeasing. However, when Randolph arrived at Williamsburg with many letters of recommendation from men of influence in England, denying that he had written the attacks on the Governor in the press, and promising "to conduct himself more regularly in future and with more regard to his Majesty's service," he reinstated him.[15] One wonders just how many pistoles Dinwiddie pocketed for the use of the seal in the six and a half years of his administration. A few months after he had left Virginia for good there were no less than 1,360 applications for patents waiting to be sealed. Governor Fauquier, Dinwiddie's successor, stated that this was costing the Crown L1,000 a year in quit rents. It would seem to indicate that Dinwiddie, ignoring the positive orders of the Board of Trade, had appeased the people by permitting 1,000,000 acres of occupied land to remain unpatented. Thus the Governor's victory was a hollow one, and the Burgesses, without acquiescing in the decision of the Board, were content to let the matter drop so long as the fee was not collected. Fauquier, on his part, handled this hot potato with care. "Being extremely desirous to keep peace and harmony in this country," he wrote the Lords of Trade, "and that his Majesty's revenue should not suffer ... I have made a declaration in Council that I would be willing to acquiesce in anything that should be thought reasonable to procure both these advantages. This affair has formerly raised a great flame in this country which is not yet quite subsided, and ... I am endeavoring to quench it entirely that the Assemblies may the easier be prevailed upon to give what is necessary."[16]