and the bounden duty of government, to provide for the instruc tion of all youth. That, which is elsewhere left to chance, or to charity, we secure by law. For the purpose of public instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation in proportion to his property, and we look not to the question whether he himself have or have not children to be benefited by the education, for which he pays. We regard it as a wise and liberal system of police, by which property and life and the peace of society are secured. We seek to prevent, in some measure, the extension of the penal code, by inspiring a salutary and conservative principle of virtue and of knowledge in an early age. We hope to excite a feeling of respectability and a sense of character, by enlarging the capacity and increasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By general instruction, we seek, as far as possible, to purify the whole moral atmosphere, to keep good sentiments uppermost, and to turn the strong current of feeling and opinion, as well as the censures of the law and the denunciations of religion, against immorality and crime. We hope for a security beyond the law and above the law, in the prevalence of enlightened and well principled moral sentiment. We hope to continue and prolong the time, when, in the villages and farm houses of New England, there may be undisturbed sleep within unbarred doors. And knowing that our government rests directly on the public will, that we may preserve it, we endeavour to give a safe and proper direction to that public will. We do not, indeed, expect all men to be philosophers or statesmen; but we confidently trust, and our expectation of the duration of our system of government rests on that trust, that by the diffusion of general knowledge and good and virtuous sentiments, the political fabric may be secure, as well against open violence and overthrow, as against the slow but sure undermining of licentiousness.'

We did intend, when we set out, to make some farther extracts from this discourse; and Mr Webster's ardent denunciation of the slave trade, which we well remember to have produced an effect on his audience like electricity, furnishes an inviting topic for remarks, which we are deterred from pursuing, through apprehension, lest this article should be drawn out to an unreasonable length; for which reason we must content ourselves with merely copying the conclusion of the discourse.

The hours of this day are rapidly flying, and the occasion will soon be passed. Neither we nor our children can expect to behold its return. They are in the distant regions of futurity, they exist

only in the all-creating power of God, who shall stand here, a hundred years hence, to trace, through us, their descent from the Pilgrims, and to survey, as we have now surveyed, the progress of their country during the lapse of a century. We would anticipate their concurrence with us in our sentiments of deep regard for our common ancestors. We would anticipate and partake the pleasure with which they will then recount the steps of New England's advancement. On the morning of that day, although it will not disturb us in our repose, the voice of acclamation and gratitude, commencing on the Rock of Plymouth, shall be transmitted through millions of the sons of the Pilgrims, till it lose itself in the murmurs of the Pacific seas.

Advance, then, ye future generations! We would hail you, as you rise in your long succession to fill the places which we now fill, and to taste the blessings of existence, where we are passing, and soon shall have passed, our own human duration. We bid you welcome to this pleasant land of the Fathers. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and verdant fields of New England. We greet your accession to the great inheritance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings of good government, and religious liberty. We welcome you to the treasures of science and the delights of learning. We welcome you to the transcendent sweets of domestic life, to the happiness of kindred and parents and children. We welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of rational existence, the immortal hope of Christianity, and the light of everlasting Truth!"

Having made these observations concerning Mr Webster's discourse, not so much because we flattered ourselves that our tribute of praise would increase his celebrity, as that we could not suffer one of the finest pieces of the day to pass unnoticed in our journal,-we now proceed to describe, according to the intimation already given, a period in our history, which is very closely and directly associated with this discourse, namely, a period of more than a century and a half, which elapsed between the discovery of America and the settlement at Plymouth ;-embracing the early intercourse of Europeans with our country, their voyages of discovery, commercial enterprises, and unsuccessful attempts to establish colonies in this quarter of the new world. The events, which happened during this interval, although by no means wanting in interest or importance, have been passed over in silence by some of the ordinary compilations connected with this subject, touched upon but cursorily and slightly by most

of those compilations, and presented to us by none of them in a clear, distinct, concise, and authentic narration. We will therefore, without any farther preface, give some account of our ante-colonial history,* a knowledge of which is necessary to the full understanding of many obscure points, in the antiquities of the eastern colonies.

What European it was that first approached this part of the continent, is a matter of doubt and uncertainty. Norway, whose hardy seamen were the earliest, and most adventurous navigators of the northern waters of the Atlantic, claims the distinction for Biron, a Norwegian, who is affirmed by Crantz, Pontoppidan, Torfæus, and others to have discovered, about the year 1001, an island, which he called Winland, from the profusion of grapes found growing spontaneously upon it, and which some late writers suppose to have been Newfoundland. A more questionable account of the discovery of the same island in the fourteenth century by a fisherman of Friesland, as related by Zeno, a Venetian navigator, may be read in Hakluyt or Purchas.-France, also, puts in her claim to the honor of the discovery, although her writers produce no satisfactory testimonials in support of her pretensions. The inhabitants of her maritime provinces habitually frequented the Grand Banks, sailed up the great river of Canada, and even published a chart of the neighboring seas, in the very beginning of the sixteenth century:--from which her historians argue, though with little plausibility, that her intercourse with America should be traced back to some obscure and unrecorded era in the darkness of the middle ages. Still more uncertain are the well-known pretensions of the Welch, who, to this day, piously seek for the descendants of Madoc among the savages beyond the Mississippi. But, without stopping to

The history of New-England may be distinguished into five periods or epochs, namely, the aboriginal; the ante-colonial, as used in the text; the colonial; the provincial, extending from the forfeiture of the first charters to the revolution; and the constitutional.

The truth or falsehood of these pretended voyages is a curious subject of controversy, for which, however, this is not the proper place. Those, who feel disposed to enter into it, will find ample gratification in many books, that could be mentioned, especially Pontoppidan's History of Norway; Torfæi Historia Vinlandiæ Antiquæ (a rare tract in the Ebeling Library;) Southey's Madoc; Williams' Inquiry into the truth of the Voyage of Madoc; Encyclopédie Méthodique, Géographie, art. Canada; Purchas' Pilgrimage, p. 617; Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, tom. i; Gomara, Historia de las Indias, c. 37; and Belknap's American Biography.

consider these conflicting claims and apocryphal voyages, all which are proved by very slender evidence, we will come directly to the first voyage of discovery to this region, of which we possess any certain intelligence, that undertaken by the Cabots under the auspices of Henry VII of England.

While Spain was pushing her discoveries in the south, guided by the skill of Columbus and Vespucci, the king of England, animated with the hope of wealth and empire, planned an expedition for the purpose of exploring the ocean towards the north-west, where he was induced to believe there was a passage to the Indies. With this object in view, the same which has been so frequently resumed and as frequently relinquished by his successors, and which is pursued so zealously at the present day,-with this object in view, Henry VII granted a royal commission to John Cabot, a Venetian pilot, residing at Bristol, and to his three sons, authorizing them to make discoveries in countries unknown to christians, assume the sovereignty of the countries discovered, and enjoy exclusive trade with the inhabitants. By virtue of this commission a small fleet was afterwards equipped, partly at the king's expense, partly at that of private individuals, in which Cabot and his son Sebastian embarked, with a company of three hundred mariners, in May 1497. Our knowledge of this voyage is collected from many detached and imperfect notices of it in different authors, who, while they establish the general facts in the most unquestionable manner, differ in many particular circumstances. The most probable account seems to be, that Cabot sailed north-west a few weeks, until his progress was arrested by floating icebergs, when he shaped his course to the south-west, and soon came in sight of a shore named by him Prima Vista, and generally believed to be some part of Labrador or Newfoundland. Thence he steered northward again to the sixtyseventh degree of latitude, where he was obliged to turn back by the discontent of his crew. He sailed along the coast in search of an outlet as far as the neighbourhood of the gulf of Mexico, when a mutiny broke out in the ship's company, in consequence of which the farther prosecution of the voyage was abandoned.-Cabot reached England with several savages and a valuable cargo, although some writers deny that he ever landed, and it is certain that he did not attempt

of islets, named by him Elizabeth's Islands. After building a house, however, and making arrangements for a settlement, he found the provisions of the company insufficient to support them till they could obtain another supply from home; and the savages beginning to assume a hostile appearance, he was obliged to abandon his undertaking. Accordingly he re-embarked; and, arriving in England, after an absence of about four months, with a rich lading of sassafras and furs, quickly diffused the reputation of his new discoveries.

The consequences of this voyage were more important than its seeming insignificance would lead us to anticipate; for it revived among the English that ambition to acquire colonial possessions, which the inadequacy of former attempts had rendered unsuccessful. The length of the voyage from England to Virginia was diminished, as we should judge from inspecting the map, nearly one half by Gosnold's judicious innovation;—at least Capt. Smith, the hero and the historian of the colony of Virginia, whom we shall mention more particularly hereafter, states that it was lessened more than five hundred leagues ;-and, in those days, an addition to a voyage of twenty-five or thirty degrees, in the open sea, was looked upon as greatly enhancing the risk of it. Besides, a new region had been discovered by Gosnold, which was represented as being in the highest degree delightful, nay, in the words of the original journalist of the voyage, as absolutely ravishing. The people of England could now perceive a vast continent spread out before them, of which they considered themselves the rightful and exclusive lords. Its interior provinces, indeed, were yet unexplored; and their knowledge, even of its seacoasts, was superficial; but, as mankind are always prone to magnify what is uncertain, this very doubtfulness of the character of the country was perverted into a presumption of its excellence. They felt assured that, if they were industrious and persevering, the produce of the soil would liberally reward their exertions, and they hoped, without having occasion for either industry or perseverance, to start up into sudden opulence, fondly cherishing the belief that this continent, like its sister in the south, would yield them gold and silver in inexhaustible abundance.

Schemes for transporting colonies to North Virginia, as this part of America was then called, again became popular; and, while these were in agitation, two vessels were despatched