George II. granted a charter to certain persons, who were constituted a corporation, and to them Georgia was given for twenty-one years "in trust for the poor." The date of this charter was June 9th, 1732. By it, the country lying between the Savannah and the Alatamaha, and from the head springs of those rivers due west to the Pacific, was erected into the Colony of Georgia. This last of our royal charters granted within the territories of the United States, was nearly as wild in certain of its provisions, as the first which our English King (Henry VII.) conferred respecting those regions. Without the slightest reference to the claims of other nations, two lines were drawn across the whole continent of America, from points utterly uncertain, and probably impossible of discovery or determination. This is the mode from which we were destined never to depart. Our blunders stuck by us to the last day of our dominion.

The whole powers of government were for twentyone years given to the trustees under the charter, and to their assigns, and to such persons as they might appoint. They began by excluding papists. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was exceedingly anxious to aid the colony, and caused this intolerant rule to be adopted; and parliament conferred on it at one time the sum of ten thousand pounds. Oglethorpe gave himself to the colony, and laboured in his benevolent scheme-which was, to take out poor people, and establish them in a new and happy home with an activity and perseverance deserving of

*Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 419.

our highest admiration. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel invited over certain poor Moravians, Protestants who had been persecuted in Germany, and sent them to Georgia, where papists in turn were persecuted. The personal exertions of Oglethorpe were of infinite service, for he was really interested in his work, and devoted himself entirely to it; but the trustees and their legislative authority were only mischievous in as far as the prosperity of the colony was concerned; and no trace remains of them in the legislation of Georgia. Oglethorpe had no thought of gain; he reserved nothing for himself; he never looked to making a property, as Penn and Lord Baltimore had done. He held the colony in trust, and when he gave up that trust, he gave up everything with it, not having one acre of land, and having spent his own substance in assisting the colonists. The trustees attempted three things, and in all they failed: two of these were mischievous; one a great good. In the evil and the good they failed alike. They desired to introduce a feudal tenure for the holding of land: the people resisted this proposal, and were successful in their opposition. The trustees desired to exclude ardent spirits from Georgia, and were so unwise as to prohibit their existence in the province: smuggling throve, and ardent spirits were drank in Georgia, in spite of all the legislative provisions of the trustees. And lastly, they desired to prevent the introduction of slavery; the good Moravians resisted temptation for a long time, and obeyed the wishes of their masters by resisting slavery. But the torrent was too powerful to be resisted. Slavery was introduced, and now Georgia stands, in the union,

pre-eminently a slave state. Thus we see that, for good or for evil, they were alike impotent. But they were not impotent for evil in another sense. They retarded the political education of the colonists; and they created dissensions, by attempting to exercise arbitrary power. This government of Georgia was among certainly the least mischievous forms of a proprietary, because its power was limited to so short a period; and, fortunately, a more virtuous creature never existed than Oglethorpe. He would, however, have led a happier life, and would have proved a more successful colonizer, had he made his colonists take care of themselves, in place of forcing them to receive him as their lawgiver.

From Gordon we learn that the Bank of England aided this colony, and that parliament gave money to it three several times; so that, besides private benevolence, the nation paid through parliament, for this colony, £56,000; which large sum was exclusive of what it received from the Bank of England, and other private sources of benevolence. The remarks of Gordon, when summing up his account of the formation of the several colonies, deserve consideration:

"On the review of what you have read, you will note that the colonists were very early in declaring that they ought not to be taxed, but by their own general courts; and that they considered subjection to the acts of a parliament in which they had no representatives from themselves as a hardship; that, like true-born Englishmen, when grievously oppressed by governors or others, they resisted, deposed, and banished; and would not be quieted, till grievances complained of were redressed;

and that not a colony, Georgia excepted, was settled at the expense of government. Towards the settlement of the last, parliament granted £56,000 at three different periods."

From this history, it is plain that the government could take no credit for any aid rendered, except in the case of Georgia: it meddled, however, at different times, with all of these colonies, and always mischievously. The inherent vigour of the people, however, and the spirit of independence, then strong among them, enabled them to overcome the difficulties of nature, and to withstand the evil influence of the government. The time at length arrived when there was no alternative between submitting to the constant supervision and unjust exactions of the English government, and resisting and throwing off its authority. The colonies took the great but dangerous resolution, and rebelled. Fortunately for themselves-fortunately for mankind—the government blundered as grossly when dealing with rebels, as when they sought to govern obedient subjects. The colonists achieved their independence, and in their turn afforded an example of a colonizing and mother country. To that example let us next apply ourselves.

* Gordon, History of American Revolution, vol. i. p. 95.

CHAPTER III.

AMERICAN COLONIES- -GENERAL DESCRIPTION-COMPARISON -BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1783.

BOUNDARIES IN 1849-AMERICAN SYSTEM-SOME RE

SULTS-POWER OF CONGRESS AS TO WASTE LANDS.
AN ORDINANCE QUOTED

TERRITORIES

STATES

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

H

AVING thus rapidly described the one scheme of colonization to which at the outset I alluded, I now proceed to the exposition of the second scheme, from which I wish to derive instruction.

This second scheme of colonization is that which the United States have adopted and acted upon, since they became an independent and sovereign people. The colonies which they have planted are the new states, which, since 1783, have been added to the union, and the territories which are now in progress towards that position.

These new states, though while in the condition of colonies (which they are while they continue TERRITORIES) they look to the United States as their metropolis, yet receive, as did the colonies, while subject to our sway, emigrants from other nations. The leading mind has, almost in every instance, been furnished by the New England States, the greater part, perhaps, of the population, by the British Isles.