fiament, in which they had no reprefentation, as a grievance. It is alfo worthy of being noted, that of the thirteen colonies, formed into ftates at the end of the war, no one (Georgia excepted) was fettled at the expence of government. Towards the fettlement of that fouthern frontier, confiderable fums had at different times been granted by par liament, but the twelve more northern provinces had been wholly fet tled by private adventurers, without any advances from the national treafury. It does not appear, from existing records, that any compenfation for their lands was ever made to the Aborigines of America by the crown or parliament of England; but policy, as well as juftice, led the colonists to purchase and pay for what they occupied. This was done in almost every fettlement, and they profpered moft, who by juftice and kindness took the greateft pains to conciliate the good-will of the natives.

It is in vain to look for well-balanced conftitutions in the early pe riods of colonial hiftory. Till the revolution in the year 1688, a period fubsequent to the fettlement of the colonies, England herself can scarcely be faid to have had a fixed constitution. At that eventful æra the line was first drawn between the privileges of fubjects, and the prerogativ of fovereigns. The legal and conftitutional history of the colonies, in their early periods, therefore, affords but little inftruction. It is fufficient in general to obferve, that in lefs than eighty years from the firft permament English fettlement in North America; the two original patents granted to the Plymouth and London Companies were divided, and fubdivided, into twelve diftinct and unconnected provinces, and in fifty years more a thirteenth, by the name of Georgia, was added to the fouthern extreme of previous establishments.

To each of these, after various changes, there was ultimately granted a form of government refembling, in its most essential parts, as far as local circumftances would permit, that which was established in the parent ftate. A minute description of conftitutions, which no longer exist, would be both tedious and unprofitable. In general, it may be observed, that agreeably to the fpirit of the British conftitution, ample provifion was made for the liberties of the inhabitants. The prerogatives of royalty and dependence on the mother country, were but feebly im preffed on the colonial forms of government. In fome of the provinces the inhabitants chose their governors, and all other public officers, and their legislatures were under little or no controul. In others, the crown delegated most of its power to particular perfons, who were also invefted with the property of the foil. In those which were most immediately dependent on the king, he exercifed no higher prerogatives over the

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colonists than over their fellow fubjects in England, and his power over the provincial legislative affemblies was not greater than what he was conftitutionally vefted with, over the Houfe of Commons in the mother country. From the acquiefcence of the parent ftate, the fpirit of her conftitution, and daily experience, the colonifts grew up in a belief, that their local affemblies ftood in the fame relation to them, as the parliament of Great Britain to the inhabitants of that ifland. The benefits of legislation were conferred on both, only through these conftitutional channels.

It is remarkable, that though the English poffeffions in America were far inferior in natural riches to thofe which fell to the lot of other Europeans, yet the fecurity of property and of liberty, derived from the English conftitution, gave them a confequence to which the colonies of other powers, though fettled at an earlier day, have not yet attained. The wife and liberal policy of England towards her colonies, during the first century and half, after their fettlement, had a confiderable inAuence in exalting them to this pre-eminence. She gave them full liberty to govern themselves by fuch laws as the local legislatures thought neceffary, and left their trade open to every individual in her dominions. She alfo gave them the ampleft permiffion to purfue their respective interests in fuch manner as they thought proper, and reserved little for herself, but the benefit of their trade, and that of a political union. under the fame head. The colonies, founded by other powers, experienced no fuch indulgencies. Portugal and Spain burdened theirs with many vexatious regulations, gave encouragement only to what was for their own intereft, and punished whatever had a contrary tendency. France and Holland did not adopt fuch oppreffive maxims, but were, in fact, not much lefs rigorous and coercive. They parted, as it were, with the propriety of their colonies to mercantile afsociations, which fold to the colonists the commodities of Europe, at an enormous advance, and took the produce of their lands at a low price, and, at the fame time, difcouraged the growth of any more than they could difpofe of, at exceffive profits. Thefe oppreffive regulations were followed with their natural confequence: the fettlements thus reftricted advanced but flowly in population and in wealth.

The English Colonies participated in that excellent form of government with which their parent ifle was bleffed, and which has raised it to an admirable height of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. After many ftruggles, it had been acknowledged to be effential to the conftitution of Great Britain, that the people could not be compelled to pay any taxes, nor be bound by any laws, but fuch as had been granted or VOL. I. enacted

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enacted with the confent of themselves, or of their representatives. It was alfo one of their privileges, that they could not be affected either in their property, their liberties, or their perfons, but by the unanimous confent of twelve of their peers.

From the operation of thefe general principles of liberty, and the wife policy of Great Britain, her American settlements increased in number, wealth and refources, with a rapidity which surpassed all previous calculations. Neither ancient nor modern hiftory can produce an example of Colonies governed with equal wifdom, or flourishing with equal rapidi. ty. In the fhort space of one hundred and fifty years their numbers increafed to three millions, and their commerce to fuch a degree, as to be more than a third of that of Great Britain. They also extended their fettlements fifteen hundred miles on the fea coaft, and three hundred to the weftward. Their rapid population, though partly accelerated by the influx of ftrangers, was principally owing to internal caufes. In confequence of the equality of fortune and fimplicity of manners, which prevailed among them, their inhabitants multiplied far beyond the pro portion of old nations, corrupted and weakened by the vices of wealth, and above all, of vanity, than which, perhaps, there is no greater enemy to the increase of the human fpecies.

The good effects of a wife policy and equal government were not only difcernible in raifing the Colonies of England to a pre-eminence over thofe of other European powers, but in railing fome among themfelves to greater importance than others. Their relative population and wealth were by no means correfpondent to their respective advantages of foil and climate. From the common difproportion between the natural and artificial wealth of different countries, it feems to be a general rule, that the more nature does for any body of men, the lefs they are difpofed to do for themselves.

The New-England provinces, though poffeffed of comparatively a barren country, were improved much fafter than others, which were bleffed with a fuperior foil and milder climate. Their first fettlers were animated with a high degree of that religious fervor which excites to great undertakings: they alfo fettled their vacant lands on principles of the wifeft policy. Inftead of granting large tracts to individuals, they fold the foil in fmall farms, to thofe who perfonally cultivated the fame. Inftead of diffeminating their inhabitants over an extenfive country, they formed fucceffive fettlements, in townfhips of fix miles fquare. They alfo made fuch arrangements, in thefe townfhips, as co-extended the bleffings of education and of religious inftruction with their fettlements.

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By these means industry and morality were propagated, and knowledge was generally diffufed.

In proportion to their refpective members, it is probable that no other country in the world contained more fober orderly citizens, and fewer who were profligate and abandoned. Thofe high crimes which are ufually punished with death, were fo rare in New-England, that many years have elapfed, in large populous fettlements, without a fingle execution. Their lefs fertile foil difpofed them to a fpirit of adventure, and their victorious industry rofe fuperior to every obftacle. In carrying on the whale fishery, they not only penetrated the deepest frozen recefies of Hudfon's Bay, and Davis' Straits; but pierced into the oppofite regions of polar cold. While fome of them were ftriking the harpoon on the coaft of Africa, others, purfued their gigantic game near the fhores of Brafil.. While they were yet in their infancy as a political fociety, they carried on this perilous bufinefs to an extent exceeding all that the perfeverance of Holland, the activity of France, or the vigour of English enterprize, had ever accomplished. A fpirit of liberty prompted their industry, and a free conftitution guarded their civil rights. The country was fettled with yeomanry, who were both proprietors, and culti vators, of the foil. Luxury was eftranged from their borders. Enervating wealth and pinching poverty were both equally rare. Early mar tiages, and a numerous offspring, were common---thence population was rapid, and the inhabitants generally poffeffed that happy ftate of mediocrity, which favours the improvment both of mind and body.

New-York joined New-England, but did not increafe with equal tapidity. A few, by monopolizing large tracts of lands, reduced many to the neceffity of being tenants, or of removing to other provinces, where land could be obtained on more favourable terms. The increase of population, in this province, was nevertheless great, when compared with that of old countries. This appears from the following statement of their numbers at different periods. In 1756, the province of NewYork contained eighty-three thousand two hundred and thirty-three whites, and in 1971, one hundred and forty-eight thousand one hundred and twenty-four, an increase of nearly two for one, in the space of fifteen

years.

Pennfylvania was at firft fettled under the aufpices of the celebrated William Penn, who introduced a number of induftrious inhabitants, chiefly of the fect of Quakers. The population of this country advanced equally with that of the New-England provinces. Among the inducements operating on foreigners to fettle in Pennsylvania was a most excellent form of provincial government, which fecured the religious ast

well as the civil rights of its inhabitants. While the Mother Country laboured under an oppreffive ecclefiaftical establishment, and while partialities of the fame kind were fanctioned by law, in fome of the American provinces, perfect liberty of confcience, and an exact equality of all fects was, in every period, a part of the conftitution of Pennfylvania.

Quaker fimplicity, induftry, and frugality, contributed, in like manner, to the flourishing of that province. The habits of that plain people correfpond, admirably, with a new country, and with republican conftitutions. Oppofed to idleness and extravagance, they combined the whole force of religion, with customs and laws, to exile these vices from their fociety. The firft quaker fettlers were foon followed by Germans, whofe industry was not inferior to their own. The emigrants from other countries who settled in Pennsylvania, followed these good examples, and industry and frugality became predominant virtues over the whole province.

The policy of a Loan-Office was also eminently beneficial. The proprietaries of Pennsylvania fold their lands in small tracts, and on long credit. The purchafers were indulged with the liberty of borrowing, on intereft, paper bills of credit, out of the Loan-Office, on the mortgage of their lands. Perhaps there never was an institution which contributed more to the happiness of the people, or to the flourishing of a new country, than this land Loan-Office scheme. The province being enriched by the clear intereft of its loaned paper, was thereby enabled to defray the expences of government with moderate taxes. The induftrious farmer was furnished with the means of cultivating and stocking his farm. Thefe improvements, by increafing the value of the land, not only established the credit of the paper, but enabled the borrower, in a few years, to pay off the original loan with the productions of the foil. The progreffive improvement of Pennsylvania may be eftimated from the increase of its trade. In the year 1704, that province imported goods from the Mother Country, amounting in value only to eleven thousand four hundred and ninety-nine pounds fterling, but in 1772, to the value of five hundred and seven thousand nine hundred and nine pounds, an increase of nearly fifty for one, in little more than half a century.

In Maryland and Virginia, a policy lefs favourable to population, and fomewhat different from that of Pennsylvania, took place. The church of England was incorporated with the first fettlement of Virginia, and in the lapse of time, it alfo became the established religion of Maryland. In both these provinces, long before the American revolution, that church poffeffed a legal pre-eminence, and was maintained at the expence, not only of its own members, but of all other denominations.