chiefly occasioned by the sloth and indolence of the church clergy.

The studies and reading of the inhabitants were likewise favorable to liberty. Many of the first setters in New England were men of liberal education; and during the great contest between the king and the parliament, divinity and law were the fashionable studies of private gentlemen. The numberless disputes in a new country made the profession of the law lucrative, and increased its followers. Lawyers, in every age, and in every country, have been the greatest friends of liberty, when independent, and not won over to the side of tyranny. Their profession leads them to watch the encroachments of power; and enables them to deteet hidden mischiefs, in measures, which the body of the people seldom perceive until they feel the banefol effects.

In an uncultivated country, where the impulse of necessity daily called for every exertion, there could be little leisure for speculation. Large libraries were uncommon. Their books were generally small 128 size, and few in number; and these consisted mostly of such writings as defended the cause of liberty, or treated of the sufferings of their fore fathers. But those who had ability, and inclination, to give their children a liberal education, had that advantage, particularly in the northern colonies, very early. Harvard college, in Massachusetts, was founded in 1638; the college of William and Mary, in Virginia, in the reign of king William and queen Mary; Yale college, in Connecticut, in the year 1700; and before the year 1775, colleges or academies were established in every province : where the sciences flourished under able teachers.

The great body of the people were hardy, indepen. dent freeholders; and their manners, congenial to their employment, plain, frugal, andfunpolished. They were all of one rank; and were impressed with the opinion that all men are born entitled to equal rights. An American is unaccustomed to the idea of distinction of anks, and hereditary titles, which the feudal system has established in Europe. The present European governments were founded on the ruins of Gothic institutions, at a time when the bulk of the people were slaves attached to the soil; so that it became necessary, unfortunately for society in more advanced periods, to establish different orders of men, superior to the commonalty. But the sons of America had the singular happiness to form, deliberately, their political regulations, with all the advantages of European experience, which had been gained by the blood of millions, through a series of ages.

In America every town may be called a republic, When the inhabitants assemble at a town meeting, each individual citizen has an equal liberty of delivering his opinion, without being liable to be silenced or brow beaten by a richer or greater townsman than himself, In these assemblies they deliberate on municipal affairs; such as the reparation of the highways; the maintenance of the poor; the choice of selectmen, collectors of taxes, and other officers; but above all the election of the representatives in the legislature; and here they sometimes give them instructions for their public conduct. It is in this school, that the Americans acquire, from their infancy, the habit of discussing, deliberating, and judging of public affairs; and where those sentiments are first formed, which influence their political conduct through life.

1638.

1643.

The New England colonies were sensible of the advantages of a union at a very early period. The commissioners from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven, held both stated and occasional meetings, and kept regular journals of their proceedings, which acquired the name of the Records of the United Colonies of New England. It may not be amiss to observe here, that although this union was interrupted by the vacation of their charters during the arbitrary reign of James II. the diffusion of political knowledge continued without abatement, and showed its effects in resisting, upon every occasion, the invasion of their rights.

Periodical publications have had a great share in 11luminating the minds of the people. And these vehicles of intelligence were become numerous long before the American Revolution, in effecting which they bore no small share. "In the year 1720 or 1721, there was only one newspaper published in North America, and that was the Boston News-Letter. In 1771 there were twenty five."

The colonists were not less solicitous to attain skill and ability to defend their rights and possessions, than in forming regulations for the acquirement and diffu sion of knowledge. The near neighborhood of the Indians and French quickly taught them the necessity of having a well regulated militia. They learned to be good marksmen, from their infancy; being daily led by inclination or necessity to follow the chace. All male inhabitants between 16 and 60 years of age were comprehended in the militia. Thus every man was bound to march for the defence of the country at the first signal. The companies and regiments were obliged likewise to assemble at stated times, in order to re

view their arms and accoutrements, and to perform their manœuvres.*

Although the English possessions in America were unequal in natural riches to those of Spain and Portugal, yet they attained a degree of consequence, before the revolutionary war, to which the colonies of these and other powers had not yet reached. The great privileges of the English constitution, the wise and lib. eral policy of government, in general, for 150 years after the settlement of the colonies, raised them to this exalted rank. They endured considerable hardships, during the reign of the Stuarts; but these stretches of power had not any lasting effect, to retard the growth of their trade and prosperity. England, in most cases, allowed them to govern themselves by such laws as their assemblies thought necessary; especially after the revolution in 1688. She reserved little for herself but the exclusive right to their trade, and that an union under the same sovereign. "Some arbitrary proceedings of governors, proprietary partialities, or democratic jealousies, now and then interrupted the political calm, which generally prevailed among them; but these occasional impediments, for the most part, soon sub'sided." Portugal and Spain burdened their's with many arbitrary regulations, and punished with severity whatever had the least tendency to infringe upon their interests. France and Holland, were less oppressive only in their measures, but were almost equally coercive. They established companies which sold European commodities to their colonists at an enormous advance, and took the produce of their lands at a low price. They discouraged the produce of more than they could dispose of at excessive profits. A slow advance in wealth and population was the natural effect of such arbitrary measures.

The principal cause of the rapid progress which the British colonies made in wealth and population, under the advantages already mentioned, was, their vigorous and persevering attention to agriculture. They had but few manufactures; those coarser and household ones excepted, necessarily accompanying the progress

*A regular militia was not introduced into Pennsylvania, until after Braddock's defeat. The prevalence of the Quaker interest prevented the adoption of any system of defence which would compel the citizens to bear arms. However, Dr. Franklin introduced a bill for organizing a militia; by which every man was allowed to take up arms or not as to him would appear fit. In consequence, a very respectable militia was formed.Franklin's Life.

of agriculture, which were the work of the women and children in every private family. The merchants, mechanics, and manufacturers did not amount to one fifteenth of the whole number of inhabitants; and the bulk of the people employed their capitals in cultivating the soil. Even an artificer, who had acquired a little more stock than was necessary for carrying on his own business in supplying the neighboring country, did not attempt to establish, with it, a manufacture for more distant sale, but employed it in the purchase and improvement of uncultivated lands. He felt that an artificer is the servant of his customers; but, that the cultivator of his own lands is really a master, and more independent of all the world, than any other occupation can make him.

These circumstances, happily for the morals of the people, encouraged early marriages; and it has been found, that, in North America, the number of inhabitants doubled in twenty five years, or less; nor was this increase owing principally to immigration of new settlers; but to the great multiplication of the species; and that to a degree, far beyond the proportion of old nations, corrupted and weakened by the vices attending wealth, or depressed by poverty and hard living. Some who lived to old age saw, it is said, from fifty to an hnndred, or more, descendants from their own bodies; and labor was so well rewarded, that a numerous family of children, instead of being a burden, became a source of opulence to their parents. The la bour of each child upon a farm, before it left the family, was computed to be worth one hundred pounds clear gain to the parents. The value of children being so great an encouragement to marriage, it is no wonder that the people should marry so young. The demand for laborers, and the funds destined for maintaining them, increased, it seems, still faster than they could find laborers to employ.

The northern and southern provinces differed widely in their customs, manners, climate, produce, and in the general face of the country. The middle provinces preserve a medium in all these respects; they are neither so level and hot as the provinces south, nor so hilly and cold as those north and east. The inhabitants of the north were hardy, industrious, frugal, and, in general, intelligent; those of the south were more luxurious, indolent, and uninformed. But, this general character of the people of the different provinces, like all general views, admits of great limitation, and many exceptions. If the northern colonists were distinguished for sobriety lainness of manners, the southern colonists were no

less distinguished for hospitality, affability and politeness. The fisheries and commerce were the sinews of the north; tobacco, rice and indigo, the productions of the south. The northern provinces were commodiously situated for trade and manufactures; the southern, to furnish provisions and raw materials.

In Maryland, Virginia, and the other southern colonies, domestic slavery was common. There were, comparatively, few slaves any where to the northward of Maryland; although there was no positive law forbidding it. Probably, the raising of corn and the other productions of the middle and eastern colonies could not support the expense of slave cultivation. In Pennsylvania, the slaves were treated with more kindness than in any of the other colonies.

The origin of the African slave trade is traced back to the year 1482, when the Portuguese began to bring slaves from that coast; and after the year 1563, the English followed their example. The Spaniards, on the discovery of America, degraded the native inhabitants to slavery, for no other reason than that they had the power to do it; and as an apology to the world, they maintained that they were not true men, but a species of the brute creation. The kings of Spain afterwards made laws in favor of the liberties of the natives; but the yoke was only shifted from the Americans to the Africans. "It may be noted as an instance of the inConsistency natural to men," says Robertson, "that when Las Casas zealously contended for the liberty of the native Americans, he pronounced it to be lawful and expedient to impose slavery upon the Africans. Cardinal Zimenes, however, when solicted to encourage this commerce, peremptorily rejected the proposi tion, because he perceived the iniquity of reducing one race of men to slavery, whilst he was consulting about the means of restoring liberty to another. Unfortunately for the Africans, Las Casas' plan was adopted; and a patent was granted, in 1517, for the importation of negroes into America. Some few had been sent fourteen years before."

Some of the first settlers in Georgia were so sensible of the evils of slavery, that they made the most pathetic remonstrances against the introduction of negroes into that colony, but without effect, as the majority of the colonists were in favour of the measure.

In settlements where the soil is cultivated by slaves, it soon becomes unfashionable for freemen to labor; than which a greater curse cannot befal a free country, were it possible that such a country could for any time remain free.