emigration from Old to New England in a great measure ceased.

Maryland was the third English colony A. D. settled in North America; but the first 1633. which from its beginning was erected into a province of the empire. The first emigration to this place consisted of about 200 gentlemen, chiefly of the Roman catholic religion. Calvert, their leader, purchased the right of the aborigines, and with their consent took possession of the town, which he called St. Mary's. He continued carefully to cultivate their friendship, and lived with them on terms of perfect amity. The lands which had thus been ceded were planted with facility, because they had already undergone the discipline of Indian tillage. Food was therefore easily procured. The Roman catholics, unhappy in their native land, and desirous of a peaceful asylum, went over in great numbers to Maryland. Lord Baltimore, to whom the province had been granted, laid the foundation of its future prosperity on the broad basis of security to property, and of freedom in religion. While Virginia persecuted the Puritans, numbers of them passed over to this new province, the assembly of which had enacted, " that no persons, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, should be molested in respect of their religion, or in the free exercise thereof." The prudence of one colony acquired what the folly of the other had thrown away. Thus in Massachusetts the Puritans persecuted various sects, and the church of England in Virginia harassed those who dissented from the established religion; while the Roman catholics of Maryland tolerated and protected the professors of all denominations.

The distractions which convulsed England for

1662.

twenty-five years left no leisure for colonizing; but as soon as Charles II. was restored to the throne of his ancestors, it was resumed with greater spirit than ever. By charters granted by this sovereign, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, A. D. and Providence plantations, were rendered pure democracies. Every power, legislative, judicial, and executive, was invested in the freemen of the corporation, or their delegates; and the colony was under no obligation to communicate its legislative acts to the national sovereign.

In the succeeding year a patent was granted to lord Clarendon and others, comprehending that -extent of country which now forms the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, A. D. and Georgia. In the following year king Charles gave to his brother James, duke of York, a patent which included New-York and New-Jersey.

1663.

A. D.

1681.

At this period Charles gave to William Penn a patent for Pennsylvania ; and some time after he obtained a farther grant of the land on the western side of the Delaware, and south of Pennsylvania, which was formed into a separate government, and is now the state of De-laware. Notwithstanding these charters, Mr. Penn did not think himself invested with the right of the soil till he had purchased it from the native proprietors.

In this manner was the English North American continent parcelled out into distinct governments. Little did the founders foresee of the consequences both good and evil that were to result to the Old World from discovering and colonizing the New. When we consider the immense quantities of gold and silver which have flowed from it

into Europe; the subsequent increase of industry and population; the prodigious extension of commerce, manufactures, and navigation; and the influence of the whole on manners and arts; we see such an accumulation of good, as leads us to rank Columbus among the greatest benefactors of the human race. But when we consider the injustice done to the natives; the extirpation of many of their numerous nations, whose names are now not even known; the havoc made among the first settlers; the slavery of the Africans, to which America has furnished the temptation; and the many wars which it has occasioned; we contemplate such a mass of misery as may lead one to doubt whether the evil has not outweighed the good.

The advantage which the emigrants to America expected from the protection of their native sovereign, and the prospect of aggrandizement which the monarch anticipated from the extension of his empire, made the former very solicitous for charters, and the latter very ready to grant them. Neither reasoned clearly on their nature, or well understood their extent. In less than eight years 1500 miles of sea-coast were granted away; and so little did they who gave or they who accepted of charters understand their own transactions, that in several cases the same ground was covered by contradictory grants, some of which extended to the South-Sea, over a country whose breadth is yet unknown, and which to this day is unexplored.

Ideal as these charters were, they answered. a temporary purpose. The colonists reposed confidence in them, and were excited to industry on their credit. And it is worthy of observation, that of the thirteen colonies, no one, Georgia

excepted, was settled at the expense of government. Towards the settlement of that southern frontier, considerable sums have at different times been granted by parliament; but the twelve more northern provinces had been wholly settled by private adventurers. Nor does it appear that any compensation for their lands was ever made to the aborigines of America by the crown or par liament of England. But policy as well as justice led the colonists to purchase and pay for what they occupied. This was done in almost every settlement; and they prospered most, who by justice and kindness took the greatest pains to conciliate the good will of the natives.

The legal and constitutional history of the colonies, in their early periods, affords but little instruction*. It is sufficient to observe, that in less than eighty years from the first permanent English settlement in North America, the two original patents granted to the Plymouth and London companies were divided and subdivided into twelve distinct and unconnected provinces; and in fifty years more a thirteenth, by the name of Georgia, was added to the southern extreme of the other establishments. To each of these there was ultimately granted a form of government, resembling, in its most essential parts, that which was established in the parent state; and agreeably to the spirit of the British constitution, ample provision was made for the liberties of the inhabitants. In some of the provinces the inhabitants chose their governors and other public officers, and their legislatures were under little or no control. In others, the crown delegated most of its

*See Table II. at the end of the volume.

power to particular persons, who were also invested with the property of the soil. In those which were most immediately dependent on the king, he exercised no higher prerogatives over the colonists than he did over their fellow subjects in England; and his power over the provin cial legislative assemblies was not greater than what he was constitutionally vested with over the house of commons in the mother country.

It is remarkable, that though the English possessions in America were far inferior in natural riches to those which fell to the lot of other Europeans, yet the security of property and of liberty derived from the English constitution, gave them a consequence to which the colonies of other powers have never attained. The wise and liberal policy of England towards her colonies, during the first century and a half after their settlement, had a considerable influence in exalting them to this pre-eminence. She gave them full liberty to govern themselves, and to pursue their respective interests in such manner as they thought proper. Their trade was open to every individual in the British dominions: they participated in that excellent form of government with which the parent isle was blessed, and which has raised it to an admirable height of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures; and trial by jury was established among them.

From the operation of these general principles, the American settlements increased in number, wealth, and resources, with a rapidity which surpassed all previous calculation. Neither ancient nor modern history can produce an example of colonies governed with equal wisdom, or flourishing with equal rapidity. In the short space of one