In connection with free grants of land, and a certain degree of indifference as to the value, there must necessarily arise more or less speculation or land-jobbing. Sir William Pullency has been called the first land-jobber in Canada. In 1791, he bought up 1,500,000, at one shilling per acre, and soon after sold 700,000 at an average of eight shillings per acre. But land-jobbing is not peculiar to Canada, nor has its practice militated against the public character of eminent men, either here or abroad. General Washington was not only a Surveyor, but an extensive land-jobber, and thereby increased immensely his private fortune. We have seen elsewhere, that a few private individuals were wont to buy the location tickets of all who desired to part with them, or whom they could induce to sell. In this way a few individuals came to own large quantities of land, even from the first. Afterward, there was often conferred by the authorities, quantities of land upon those connected with influential persons, or upon favorites. Subsequently the mode of reserving Crown and Clergy lands increased the evil. And it was an evil, a serious drawback; not alone that, but favorites procured land without any particular claim or right. The land thus held in reserve, being distributed among the settled lots in the several townships, was waste land, and a barrier to advancement. Each settler had to clear a road across his lot; but the Government lots, and those held by non-residents, remained without any road across them, except such paths as the absolute requirements of the settlers had caused them to make. In this way, the interests of the inhabitants were much retarded, and the welfare of the Province seriously damaged. The existence of the Family Compact prevented the removal of this evil, for many a year, while favorites enjoyed choice advantages. In 1817, “The House of Assembly in Upper Canada took into consideration the state of the Province, and among other topics, the injury arising from the reserve lands of the Crown and the Clergy.” In laying out the townships in later years, “The Government reserved in the first concession, the 5th, 15th, and 20th lots; and the Clergy the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 22nd. In the second concession, the Crown reserved the 4th, 11th, 21st, and 23rd; and the Clergy, the 2nd, 9th, and 16th. And thus in every two concessions, the Crown would have three lots in one, and four in the other, or seven in all; and the Clergy the same; or 14 lots reserved in every 48, or nearly one-third of the land in each concession, and in each township. The object of the reservation was to increase the value of such land by the improvements of the settlers around it. The object was selfish, as the reserve lands injured all those who did them good. It was difficulty enough to clear up the forests; but to leave so many lots in this forest state, was a difficulty added by the Crown. To have one-third of a