hundred and fifty years their numbers had increased to three millions, and their commerce to such a degree as to be more than a third of that of Great-Britain. They also extended their settlements fifteen hundred miles on the sea.coast, and three hundred miles to the westward.

The good effects of a wise policy and equal government were not only discernible in raising the colonies of England to a pre-eminence over those of other European nations, but in raising some among themselves to greater importance than others. Their relative population and wealth were by no means correspondent to their respective advantages of soil and climate. The NewEngland provinces, though possessed of comparatively a barren country, improved much faster than others which were blessed with a superior soil and milder climate. Their first settlers were animated with a high degree of that religious fervour which excites to great undertakings. They also granted their vacant lands to individuals, who personally cultivated them. In their towns they extended the benefits of education and religious instruction. By these means industry and morality were propagated, and useful knowledge generally diffused; so that, in proportion to their respective numbers, it is probable that no other country in the world contained more sober, orderly citizens, and fewer who were profligate and abandoned. Luxury was estranged from their borders. Enervating wealth and pinching poverty were both equally rare. Early marriages, and a numerous offspring, were common; hence population increased, and the inhabitants generally possessed that happy state of mediocrity which favours the improvement both of mind and body.

New-York joined New-England. Pennsylva nia, which was chiefly settled with quakers, and which gave perfect liberty of conscience, and an exact equality to all sects, was equally flourishing with New-England. The progressive improvement of Pennsylvania may be estimated from the increase of its trade. In the year 1704 that province imported goods from the mother country, amounting in value only to 11,4991.; but in 1772 to the value of more than half a million sterling : -an increase of nearly fifty to one.

In Maryland and Virginia a policy less favourable to population took place. The church of England was incorporated with the first settlement of Virginia; and in the lapse of time it also became the established religion of Maryland. In both these provinces that church possessed a legal pre-eminence, and was maintained at the expense not only of its own members, but of those of all other denominations: which deterred great numbers, especially the presbyterians who had emigrated from Ireland, from settling within the li mits of these governments, and fomented a spirit of discord between those who belonged to, and those who dissented from, the established church. In these and the other southern provinces domestic slavery was common. Though it was not by law forbidden any where, yet there were comparatively very few slaves to the north of Maryland. The religion of the quakers produced their united opposition to all traffic in the human race. Many individuals of other sects discountenanced it; but the principal ground of difference on this head, between the northern and southern provinces, arose less from religious principles than from climate and local circumstances. Slavery is,

however, at all times attended with mischievous consequences. It is inimical to the proper education of youth. Industry and temperance, virtues essential to the health and vigour of both mind and body, are with difficulty practised where the labour of slaves procures an abundance not only of the necessaries but of the delicacies of life, and where perpetual opportunities occur for early, excessive, and enervating indulgences. Besides, in settlements where the soil is cultivated by slaves, it soon becomes unfashionable for freemen to labour; than which no greater evil can befal a country. Idleness is the parent of vice, while labour of all kinds favours and facilitates the practice of virtue.

By the influence of these causes, the southern provinces, though possessed of the most fruitful soil and the mildest climate, were far inferior to their neighbours in strength, population, industry. and wealth; and this inferiority increased or diminished with the number of slaves in each pro. vince compared with the number of freemen.

The first emigrants from England for colonizing America, left the mother country at a time when the dread of arbitrary power was the predominant passion of the nation. Except the charter of Georgia in the year 1732, all the English colonies obtained their charters, and their greatest number of European settlers, between the years 1603 and 1688. During the whole of this period was that great struggle between preroga tive and privilege carried on in England, till it terminated in a revolution highly favourable to the liberties of the people. A variety of concurring causes led the inhabitants of the colonies to cherish an ardent love of independence, and a VOL. XXIV. U

desire to maintain all those rights and privileges which they conceived to be inherent to their situation. They had not only the image but the substance of the English constitution. They chose most of their magistrates, and paid them all. They had, in effect, the sole direction of their internal government. The chief mark of their subordination, consisted in making no laws repugnant to the laws of their mother country; in their submitting to have such laws, as they did make, repealed by the king; and in obeying those restrictions that were laid on their trade by parlia

ment.

Under such favourable circumstances, the colonies in the New World had advanced nearly to the magnitude of a nation, while the greater part of Europe was almost wholly ignorant of their progress. And, indeed, they themselves, though gradually rising higher in the scale of political im. portance, did not appear sensible of their own consequence. One of the first events which drew on

1745.

the colonies a share of public attention, A. D. was the taking Louisburg from France, while that country was at war with GreatBritain. This war was scarcely ended when an. other began in which the colonies were distinguished parties. It was commenced in the following manner: A grant of six hundred thousand A. D. acres of land in the neighbourhood of the Ohio was made out in favour of certain persons in Westminster, London, and Virginia, who had associated under the title of the Ohio company. At this time France was in possession of the country on both sides of the mouth of the Missisippi, as well as of Canada, and wished to form a communication between the two extremi

1749.

A. D.

1753.

ties of her territories in North America. She was therefore alarmed at the scheme in agitation by the Ohio company, as the land granted to them lay between the northern and southern settlements. Remonstrances against British encroachments, as they were called, having been made in vain by the governor of Canada, the French at length seized some British subjects; and, persisting in their claims to the country on the Ohio as part of Canada, strengthened themselves by erecting new forts in its vicinity, and at length began to seize and plunder every British trader found on any part of the river. This, at first, produced retaliation; but upon the violences being repeated, the governor of Virginia determined to send a suitable person to the French commandant, to demand the reason of his hostile proceedings, and to insist on his evacuating a fort he had lately built. Major Washington was the person pitched on for this service.He was only twenty-one years of age when he set out on an expedition which was more than four hundred miles distant, and one half of the route led through a wilderness inhabited only by Indians. He proceeded on foot, attended by a single companion, with his provisions on his back. He arrived, and delivered his message to the French commandant; but it made no impression. It was, therefore, resolved to oppose with arms the encroachments of the French on the British territories. Virginia raised three hundred men, put them under the command of Washington, now a colonel, and sent them towards the Ohio. An engagement took place, in which the French were defeated. With nine hundred men, besides Indians, they returned to the charge: against these