"According to my ideas of the military, which I offer with all possible deference and submission, they are the least qualified, from their occupation as soldiers, of any men living to establish new countries, where they must encounter difficulties with which they are altogether unacquainted; and I am the rather convinced of it, as every soldier that has come into this province since the establishment of Halifax, has either quitted it or become a dramseller." Soon after the treaty of Paris, a proclamation of George III. (dated at the Court of St. James, Oct. 7, 1763) signified the royal sense and approbation of the conduct of the officers and soldiers of the army, and directed the governors of the several provinces to grant, without fee or reward, to disbanded officers and soldiers who had served in North America during the late war and were actually residing there, lands in the following proportions:-- To every field officer, 5,000 acres. To every captain, 3,000 acres. To every subaltern or staff officer, 2,000 acres. To every non-commissioned officer, 200 acres. To every private man, 50 acres. Like grants of land were to be made to retired officers of the navy who had served on board a ship of war at the reduction of Louisbourg and Quebec. Petitions and memorials of retired officers of the army and navy who were desirous of obtaining lands in Nova Scotia as a reward for their services, now flowed in upon the provincial and imperial authorities. The desire to obtain land on the River St. John became so general that government officials, merchants and professional men joined in the general scramble. The result was not only detrimental to the best interests of the country, but in many cases disastrous to the speculators themselves. The ideas of some of the memorialists were by no means small. For example, in 1762, Sir Allan McLean applied for 200,000 acres on the River St. John to enable him to plant a colony; and in the same year Captains Alexander Hay,[50] John Sinclair, Hugh Debbeig,[51] Alex. Baillie, Robert G. Bruce and J. F. W. DesBarres applied for another immense tract on behalf of themselves and 54 other officers. [50] Capt. Alex. Hay is said to have saved the life of the Duke of Cumberland, during the rebellion of 1745. [51] In Des Barres' splendid chart of St. John harbor, published according to act of parliament in 1780, the well-known Reed's Point is called "Point-Debbeig." War with the French and Indians had been so constant previous to the peace of 1763, that a large proportion of the young men of New England had seen service in the "provincial regiments." To those who had held commissions the inducements contained in Lawrence's proclamations were especially attractive.