sed to create them. I am entirely satisfied with the course
which the Committee took in relation to the parsonage; and the
circumstance that questions are now agitated in relation to it, show
that in one particular, at least, the Committee acted judiciously.
We left the parsonage precisely as we found it; leaving to another
branch of the government the appropriate responsibility of settling
all questions growing out of the grant of 1783, the confirmation of
1809, and the settlement of Mr. Fish. Could we by legislation settle
those questions, it might have been our duty to do so, for the
sake of the harmony of the District. But it seems to me that any
such attempt would have had a tendency to create new difficulties,
rather than to diminish old ones.

A word in regard to my advice to Mr. Fish. I received a letter
from Mr. Fish some time since, in which he expressed some
apprehensions that an attempt would be made by the natives
to take possession of the Meeting-house, parsonage, &c. His
letter enclosed rather a singular communication, signed by the
Selectmen of Marshpee. I did not keep a copy of my answer
to Mr. Fish, but recollect distinctly the substance of it. I
alluded to the authority of the Legislature in the premises
as I have above. That they intended to leave the parsonage
as they found it, without undertaking to limit or modify
the effect of former acts. That the appropriate mode for the
natives to ascertain their rights to, or to obtain possession
of, the parsonage, &c. was by resorting to the courts.
That any forcible attempt by single individuals to obtain
possession of the Meeting-house, &c. would be a trespass; that
if numbers combined for that purpose, it would constitute
a riot. I take it I hazarded no professional reputation by
giving these opinions. For you very well know, that they would
be correct, Mr. Fish being in peaceable possession of the
premises, whether he were so by seisin or disseisin, by right
or by wrong. I hope, my dear sir, that our experiment in
regard to the affairs of our Marshpee friends may yet succeed.
If not, I think we may console ourselves as one of old did:
that if Rome must fall, we are innocent.

I am, very respectfully yours,
J. BARTON.

The Legislature having thus left the question, to be decided by the
Courts, if Mr.