laware; 11. North Carolina; 12. South Carolina; and,

13. Georgia.

These were all English colonies, though some of them, as New York and New Jersey, were begun by,* but taken from, the Dutch. Emigrants came to them from various parts of Europe; but still their institutions are English; and, with very slight exceptions, their people all eventually spoke the English language. We may say, with accuracy, that this is an English example.

This great scheme of colonization began in the year 1606 with the foundation of Virginia. It was terminated in 1776; when the thirteen colonies (the last of which, Georgia, was founded in 1732) declared themselves independent, and thus put an end to their colonial existence. Between these two years of 1606 and 1776, thirteen communities were called into existence; and they contained, at the last mentioned period, a population of about three millions of souls.

2nd. The second example is that of the United States of America, when, being a sovereign people, they established many new states, and added them to the great federal union. All these new communities, which thus became members of the republic, were originally colonies, planted and maintained by the United States.

This second instance has seldom been considered in the light in which I now place it. The new states of the union have not hitherto been deemed colonies; yet such they truly were; and the system according to which

* Sweden, also, had a share in this attempt.

TWO SYSTEMS OF COLONIZATION.

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they have all been planted and governed is the only regular and predetermined plan for such a purpose which any government has laid down for its guidance; and as might have been expected, the plan being a wise one, the result is the most successful example of colonization ever yet afforded by mankind.

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CHAPTER II.

ENGLISH COLONIZATION IN AMERICA VIRGINIA, 1606— MARYLAND, 1632-NEW ENGLAND, 1620-MASSACHUSETTS CONNECTICUT-RHODE ISLAND—CAROLINA, 1663-PENNSYLVANIA, 1681-GEORGIA, 1732.

THE first of these thirteen American colonies, Virginia,

was begun in the year 1606; the last, Georgia, in the year 1732. From the beginning to the end of this period nothing like a system—a regular plan with predetermined rules of action, can be found in the conduct of the government. Some of the colonies were planted, in the hope of gain, by associations of rich and powerful proprietors in England; such was, for example, Virginia : some were established by men who fled from religious persecution to the wilds of America, intending there to found an empire in which true religion should be the ruler, and the Bible their code of laws. The pilgrims who laid the first foundations of New England were the most remarkable of this class of settlers; and New England still exists and flourishes, a monument to their many great qualities, and some mistaken views.

The early settlements of Virginia were formed in consequence, and by means of powers granted in charters from the crown. The object was immediate gain to the projectors; the means by which this gain was sought to be botained were the mines of gold and silver, which in

those days every adventurer fancied were to be found throughout all the regions of America. But there was in that age something of grandeur and magnificence pervading men's minds, and ennobling even their meaner thoughts, and feelings. Their conceptions were large, though their aims were sordid. They intended and expected to found empires even while seeking for gold. Their cupidity was thus hidden by the brave garb in which it was clothed. By the charter, under which the first successful settlement was established in Virginia, "a belt of twelve degrees on the American coast, embracing the soil from Cape Fear to Halifax, excepting, perhaps, the little spot in Acadia, then actually possessed by the French, was set apart to be colonized by two rival companies. Of these, the first was composed of noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants in and about London; the second of knights, gentlemen, and merchants in the west.* The London adventurers, who alone succeeded, had an exclusive right to occupy the regions from thirty-four to thirty-eight degrees of north latitude —that is, from Cape Fear to the southern limit of Maryland. The western men had equally an exclusive right to plant between forty-one and forty-five degrees. The intermediate district, from thirty-eight to forty-one degrees, was open to the competition of both companies. Yet collision was not possible; for each was to possess the soil extending fifty miles north and south of its first

Virginia was planted by the London Company; New England was, in part, the fruit of the powers granted to the Western, or Plymouth, Association. See below, page 49.

settlement, so that neither could plant within one hundred miles of a colony of its rival.* The conditions of tenure were homage and rent; the rent was no more than one-fifth of the net produce of gold and silver, and one-fifteenth of copper. The right of coining money was conceded, perhaps, to facilitate commerce with the natives, who, it was hoped, would receive Christianity and the arts of civilized life. The superintendence of the whole colonial system was confided to a council in England; the local administration of each colony was intrusted to a council residing within its limits. The members of the superior council in England were appointed exclusively by the king, and the tenure of their office was his good pleasure. Over the colonial councils the king likewise preserved a control, for the leaders of them were from time to time to be ordained, made, and removed according to royal instructions. Supreme legislative authority over the colonies, extending alike to their general condition and the most minute regulations, was likewise expressly reserved to the monarch. A hope was also cherished of an ultimate revenue to be derived

* Yet the western limits of these colonies were never accurately defined. The terms permitted the colonists to take the whole breadth of the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between the degrees mentioned. So much for the precision of the grant. "Several of the old or original states claimed large tracts of wild lands in the west and northwest parts of the country, before the war of the Revolution, on the supposition that their respective territories extended to the farthest lakes, and the Mississippi, if not to the Pacific ocean, for their patents were limited only by the Western ocean."-History of the Federal Government, p. 42, by A. Bradford, LL.D.