“I should propose that a part of this ground should be laid out in small lots, say twenty feet by sixty, contiguous to each other, and appropriated to as many individuals as the Board might contemplate the discharge of. Upon each lot a small house should be built by the black artificers themselves, to whom two days in the week should be given up for that purpose. The stone and the clay are on the spot; the roofing would be the only expensive part, which being furnished out of the refuse wood in the yard, useless for any other purpose, might be paid for by the smallest annual sum by the occupant, say one rix dollar[21] per month. “As soon as six of these houses are finished, as many of the most deserving men should be put into possession of them; not discharged altogether from the service, but bound to work in the yard whenever called upon; and of the expediency of this the Commissioner should be the judge. The Commissioner would make this of course dependent entirely upon their good conduct, in their new situation. When he found them persevering and industrious, he would naturally leave them in the uninterrupted exercise of their employment; those on the contrary who were disposed to be idle, he would call more frequently to the task work in the yard, and to such as proved incorrigible, he would revoke the indulgence altogether, putting the more deserving into their room. “The days on which they were permitted to work for themselves they would of course receive neither pay nor provisions from the yard. Thus by degrees a most useful and industrious body of men may be comfortably settled beyond the reach of want, in the exercise of habits of industry, immediately under the protection as well as the control of their officers. The ground-rent of these buildings would be a retaining fee, by which their services could be called for upon any emergency, such as a fire, or ships driving on shore, and for which they might receive a stipulated sum. They would continue to receive the same religious instruction from the chaplain of the yard, and from the schoolmaster, as when actually belonging to His Majesty’s service. “I have, &c. “J. BRENTON.” “NAVY BOARD.” The Navy Board expressed their approbation of the plan above proposed in the following letter, dated 10th January, 1818. “SIR,