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excepted, was settled at the expense of government. Towards the settlement of that southern frontier, considerable sums have at different times been granted by parliament; but the twelve more northern provinces had been wholly settled by private adventurers. Nor does it appear that any compensation for their lands was ever made to the aborigines of America by the crown or parliament of England. But policy as well as justice led the colonists to purchase and pay for what they occupied. This was done in almost every settlement; and they prospered most, who by justice and kindness took the greatest pains to conciliate the good-will of the natives.

The legal and constitutional history of the colonies, in their early periods, affords but little instruction*. It is sufficient to observe, that in less than eighty years from the first permanent English settlernent in North America, the two original patents granted to the Plymouth and London companies were divided and subdivided into twelve distinct and unconnected provinces; and in fifty years more a thirteenth, by the name of Georgia, was added to the southern extreme of the other establishments. To each of these there was ultimately granted a form of government, resembling, in its most essential parts, that which was established in the parent state; and agreeably to the spirit of the British constitution, ample provition was made for the liberties of the inhabitants. In some of the provinces the inhabitants chose their governors and other public officers, and their legislatures were under little or no control. In others, the crown delegated most of its power to

See Table II. at the end of the volume.

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particular persons, who were also invested with the property of the soil. In those which were most immediately dependent on the king, he exercised no higher prerogatives over the colonists than he did over their fellow subjects in England; and his power over the provincial legislative assemblies was not greater than what he was constitu tionally vested with over the house of commons in the mother country.

It is remarkable, that though the English pos sessions in America were far inferior in natural riches to those which fell to the lot of other Europeans, yet the security of property and of liberty derived from the English constitution gave them a consequence to which the colonies of other powers have never attained. The wise and liberal policy of England towards her colonies, during the first century and a half after their settlement, had a considerable influence in exalting them to this preeminence. She gave them full liberty to govern themselves, and to pursue their respective interests in such manner as they thought proper. Their trade was open to every individual in the British dominions: they participated in that excellent form of government with which the parent isle was blessed, and which has raised it to an admirable height of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures; and trial by jury was established among them.

From the operation of these general principles, the American settlements increased in number. wealth and resources, with a rapidity which surpassed all previous calculation. Neither antient nor modern history can produce an example of colonies governed with equal wisdom, or flourishing with equal rapidity. In the short space of one

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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 preeminence 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 New England 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 fayours the improvement both of mind and bodv.

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New York joined New England. Pennsylvania, 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 preeminence, 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 limits 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 cli

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