science, ingenuity, and much practical intelligence. He had applied him. self assiduously during his adverse residence on the new continent in philo. sophical researches, and making observations on the soil, the climate, the productions of the country, and the manners, customs, and extent of its na tive population. The result of his labors was given to the public on his return to England, was sought after and read with avidity, and increased the already glowing desire of the nation for its settlement. Tobacco was the principal production extensively cultivated by the natives, and was at this date first introduced to the acquaintance and use of the polished world. Its introduction gave a complexion to the character of society; for, says the historian of those times," it was fondly adopted by Raleigh and some young men of fashion."

The gallant and resolute spirit of Sir Walter Raleigh was not discouraged by the failure of these efforts at effecting a settlement. He fitted out another expedition early in the ensuing year, (1588,) under Captain John White, who was accompanied with a larger number of adventurers. These, however, it seems, had not gathered wisdom from the experience and fate of previous settlers, and were apparently surprised to find themselves landed on a shore covered with thick and interminable forests, inhabited by naked savage tribes; and found out, too late to remedy the evils of their condition, that they were but poorly provided with the means of sustenance, or with the implements necessary for their settlement, safety, and comfort, in so wild a region. A request was at once and unanimously made that Captain White would return to England, and solicit from the parent country such supplies as were required for the maintenance and preservation of the colony. His appearance in England with this view happened at a most unfavorable juncture, just as the famous Armada of the 2d Philip of Spain was threatening the kingdom, Raleigh and his coadjutors were now occupied in the more momentous and thrilling interests of their own country. The few and enfeebled adventurers who languished on a distant coast were forgotten or neglected, and left to perish without sympathy or consolation.

And thus terminated the last attempt made during the reign of Elizabeth to settle Virginia. Sir Walter Raleigh, whose splendid accomplishments and commanding genius gave dignity and energy to whatever enterprise he turned himself, by an incomprehensible waywardness of character, had conceived a new project of settling and peopling a large district in Ireland, of which he had received a grant from the queen. Other projects, equally fascinating, and rendered the more attractive to his restless spirit because of the difficulty of their accomplishment, at the same time occupied his attention, and supplanted the late favorite idea of settling Virginia. He parted with all his claims to the territory of this colony, assigning them to one Sir Thomas Smith and a company of merchants, who made no praiseworthy attempts to ameliorate the condition of the country. And it is a remarkable fact that in the year 1603, notwithstanding all the enterprise that had been lavished, the lives that had been sacrificed, and the wealth that had been expended, there was not one white man living in Virginia. Various, as we have already seen, were the causes which had operated to prevent any permanent settlement. The fact is one which addresses itself with a singular interest to the reflective mind. We can hardly avoid the conviction that this conti. nent was marked out by the Ruler of Nations for a spot where should be witnessed the origin of a nation, and the development of principles in the human character, and in human government, such as the world had never

yet recorded. These shores did not, like those lands discovered by the Spanish and Portuguese, abound in mines of gold or of silver ore. They presented only an extended, a luxurious, and fertile soil. They opened no fountains from which the possessors might draw instant wealth, without labor or industry. But their value was to be known, and their profit gathered, only in the fulfilment of that anathema, "by the sweat of thy brow shalt thou earn thy bread." No votary of pleasure; no lover of indolence or of luxury; no effeminate scion of royalty, could find a place convenient for him on these wild and inhospitable shores. They were destined to become the abode of a mighty, magnanimous, and influential people, and must be planted by hardy and well-bred adventurers.

It is not till after the accession of the first James to the throne that we find recorded any further attempts at a settlement of this continent; and the first permanent one was made under his auspices. He divided that part of it which lies between the 34th and 45th deg. of north latitude into two parts, nearly equal. The one he denominated the north, the other the south colony of Virginia. He made a grant of the southern division to Sir Thomas Gates and others, mostly residents in London, authorizing them to settle any part of it they might choose. This portion was comprehended between 34° and 41° north latitude, and extended along the coast fifty miles north and south of the spot where they should first locate, and back into the interior one hundred miles. (April 10, 1606.) This division at length received the name of "The Colony of Virginia," while the northern division was known as "The Colony of Plymouth."

The associations to which the respective colonies were granted, were organized into a company with a charter of incorporation for the purposes of trade, with power to have a common seal and to act as a political body. There was, however, something new in the design of their organization, and the plan appointed for their regulation was not then an ordinary one. The supreme government of the colony was to be vested in a council, resident in England, and appointed by the crown, and the colony to be regulated by such laws as this council and the crown should direct. Subordinate jurisdiction was committed to another council, resident in America, which was also to be appointed by, and subject to, regulations prepared by the crown. Emigrants were to enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities of free-born subjects of England, and to hold their lands by free and common socage. Exports necessary for the colonies were to be sent free of duty for the space of seven years; trade was allowed them with foreign nations, and duties on foreign commodities imported into the colonies, were to be appropriated for the special and sole benefit of the colony for the space of twenty-one years.

In conformity with this charter, the crown took frequent occasion to prepare such regulations as in its wisdom were deemed proper and expedient for the discipline and government of the colony. The superintending council, to be resident in England, was created. Legislative and executive pow. ers were vested in the president and council in the colony, but were not to extend to life or limb; all their enactments must be in conformity with the laws of England, and were only in force till made void by the council and crown in England. High crimes were to be punished in the parent state and lesser offences by the president and council at their discretion. Allegiance to the crown was insisted on, and the church of England established The power of the crown was in all cases paramount.

Looking back to this period of our history, upon these charter regula. tions, we discover readily the origin of those principles of government in the colonies which afterwards became so obnoxious to the colonists, and so fatal to the power of the crown in America. They seem wholly to disregard the actual political rights of the settlers; and that they should have met with so ready an acquiescence among them may be ascribed to the cares, perplexities, and embarrassments incident to a new settlement, and the seeming advantages with which these exceptionable features were accompanied. "Thus," says an eminent historian, "without hesitation or reluctance, the proprietors of both colonies (Virginia and Plymouth) prepared to execute their respective plans, and under the authority of a charter which would now be rejected with disdain, as a violent invasion of the sacred and inalienable rights of liberty, the first permanent settlements of the English in America were established. From this period the progress of the two provinces of Virginia and New England form a regular and connected story. The former in the south, and the latter in the north, may be considered as the original and parent colonies, in imitation of which and under whose shelter all others have been successively planted and reared." Yet, as the settlements made in Virginia were of an earlier date, it will better serve our present purpose to trace their history separately, and then proceed to that of New England. These settlements, as we have before observed, were made under peculiar and great disadvantages. Many and severe were the trials, the difficulties, the dangers and sufferings with which the colonies in their infancy had to contend. And it will be neither a tedious nor unprofitable task to trace particularly their advancement, and mark their progress through all these perils, till we find them attaining a rank and consideration, which, from its more intimate bearing on our own gov. ernmental history, deserves our more interested attention. "It will exhibit a spectacle no less striking than instructive, and presents an opportunity which rarely occurs of contemplating a society in the first moment of its political existence, and of observing how its spirit forms in its infant state, how its principles begin to unfold as it advances, and how those character. istic qualities which distinguish its maturer age are successively acquired." So says one who was equally illustrious as a philosopher, an historian, and a scholar. And in each of these points of observation there is much to be learned, and much to be treasured up by every citizen of America.

Various causes from time to time transpired to change the condition of the colonists in their relations to the mother country, and which gave a complexion and a shape to their political destiny. To trace these in their minute details through all the progress of their history, would be a tedious and perchance an ungrateful task, and would not exactly accord with our present purpose; a brief reference to their results will accomplish our aim, and compensate our toil.

The original charter, whose general provisions we have already referred to, received occasional alterations, but these were of a nature rather to abridge, than to enlarge the liberties of the colonists, and to strengthen the odious prerogatives of the crown and council in England; and the very first act of authority exercised by the council in America, was arbitrary and oppressive. One of its most valuable and efficient members was excluded from his seat in the board, and the more ambitious and unprincipled conspired to concentrate all power in their hands. Thus, in the very outset, showing how ill-adapted was the plan of government devised, to promote or

to secure the interests of the colonists. The very individual, however, whom they had contrived to put down, soon after became the most promi. nent and influential man among them. Thus early evincing as it were, that this was the land where reason should triumph over passion, justice over prejudice, and liberty over oppression. In one of those periods so frequent in our early history, which "try mens' souls," which draw out all the energy and the worth of the individual, the talents of Captain Smith alone were equal to the task of accomplishing the preservation of the colony. The settlers were at this time jaded by repeated disasters, without provisions, scarcely clothed, victims to all the maladies incident to new coun tries, enfeebled, wasted, lessened, and superadded to all these trials, were daily threatened by the fierce, the merciless, the unrelenting savage. They were alarmed by the dismal war-yell; and the tomahawk and scalp. ing-knife were whetted for their destruction. In this emergency, Captain Smith was chosen to superintend the affairs of the colony. By his skill and exertions, the natives were driven back and discomfited; a small town was erected of raw materials for their defence, and the sinking colony was re. stored again to life and vigor. Fortunately, may we not say providentially, to give greater efficiency to his noble exertions at this crisis, a ship arrived with supplies from the mother country, and the uninterrupted remittance of these saved that germ of a future nation from final and complete desolation. It continued to prosper under the beneficial administration of Captain Smith till 1609, when he returned to England. He left it with a population of about five hundred inhabitants, sixty comfortable and convenient dwellings, various implements of husbandry, and other requisites for its growth and preservation. The life and vigor which he had infused, however, seem to have departed with Captain Smith. For no sooner had he left it, than the colony relapsed into a disorderly state of faction and misrule. Every pfinciple of self-preservation seemed to have been lost, and it was fast verging towards destruction. Being divided among themselves, they became a more easy prey to the wiles of the natives, and must inevitably have perished, but for the timely arrival of Lord De La War and others, who recruited their diminished number to six hundred, supplied their necessi. ties, and restored among them union, harmony, and good government.

Lord De La War was appointed successor to Captain Smith in the office of president, and entered upon the discharge of his official duties with ener. gy, firmness, and decision-1610.

From this period we may date the permanent and prosperous settlement of the colony. Under the auspices of a benign policy of government, for which they were indebted to the benevolent and liberal dispositions of their president, rather than to any change in their charter regulations, property became more extensively distributed, and individual enterprise consequently awakened. Being more at leisure from the necessities which attended their earlier history, individuals found time to devote themselves more carefully to the concerns of the colony generally. Turning their attention to their charter regulations, they began to discover the injustice and injury of many of its provisions, and gradually to emerge from that quiet spirit of acquiescence in which they had long rested. Many popular orators arose in their assemblies, whose denunciations of the policy of the crown and council in England were bold, manly, and energetic. The spirit of liberty soon swelled beyond the measure of the shackles which had been imposed upon them, and from this, her very cradle, went forth loud and incessant cries

that to them should be extended, all and unqualified, the privileges of free natives and denizens of the mother country. In 1621, Sir George Yeardley, then governor of the colony, called a general assembly, composed of delegates from the several plantations in the colony, and permitted them to assume and to exercise the high and proud prerogatives of legislators. Eleven towns or corporations were represented in this convention. Its enactments were not many, or of much importance, except an act dissolving martial law, which had been exercised over them with great rigor and severity. The principal aim of this convention was, and it had the effect, to soothe the spirit and the feelings of the colonists, who rejoiced at beholding among themselves the exercise of the privileges and functions of English freemen. This was the first representative assembly ever held in America, and it was truly an important and interesting era in our governmental history. It gave the colonists a taste for liberty, which could never thereafter be offended with impunity, and resulted in the procuring of a new charter, which established the government of the colony in a more constitutional and enduring form. The legislative powers were vested in the governor, who represented the king; and jointly in council named by the company, which was supposed to answer to the peerage; and partly by delegates to the assembly, chosen from among the colonists, by themselves, answering to the house of commons. At least such is the analogy fondly traced by English historians, always exulting to make their own "glorious and unrivalled constitution of government" the origin and source of all free principles. But if we trace the governmental history of the colonies with an observant eye and an unbiased observation, we may discover far more interesting and important developments of free republican principles, and a more noble and generous regard for the rights of man, in their departures from, than in their assimilation to, the constitution of the mother country. Under this new organization, either branch of the general assembly was controlled by a majority of votes, and a negative on their enactments was reserved in the governor. But no law could be carried into effect, or was binding on the people, until ratified by the general council of the company in England, and returned to the colony with the sanction of its seal; and it was also provided that the general assembly should "imitate and follow the policy of the form of government, laws, customs, and manner of trial, and other administration of justice used in the realm of England, as near as may be."

Under a policy of government so much more favorable to the interests of the colonists, though in many important provisions very objectionable, the colony continued to flourish. Numerous and frequent accessions were made to their settlements, by the arrival of new adventurers, which also increased the number composing their representative assemblies. The growth and deliberations of these bodies led to a still further exposition of the odious features inherent in their form of government, made them more tenacious for their rights, and emboldened them to a noble daring in asserting and defending them. James and his ministers looked with jealousy and apprehension on all these symptoms of strength and independence, and various efforts were made to check the freedom of their discussions, and bring them back again to their original state of quiescence and submission. But these efforts tended only to unite the colonists more firmly to each other. The king finally had recourse to his prerogative, and in its unjust and arbitrary exercise, issued a commission appointing and empowering