a patroon; in other words, at the place selected by him, he obtained the right to extend the limits of his estate sixteen miles along one bank of a navigable river, or eight miles on both sides, and as far into the interior as other occupation did not forbid. Within the territory thus marked out, the patroon became in many respects a sovereign. He had the power to administer justice, civil and criminal, in person or by deputy, and to appoint local officers and magistrates. He enjoyed the exclusive right of fishing, fowling, and grinding within his jurisdiction. He held his colony subject to testamentary disposition, with all the privileges, the monopoly of mines and minerals, and water-courses, the rights of preëmption and of fines on the transfer of estates, and of succession in the case of intestates, which the Roman law would have secured to him in his own country. In other words, any man might found a sort of feudal principality in the colony of New Netherland, who had a mind to hazard the adventure. After this fashion grew the manor of Rensselaerwyck, of which many people have lately heard so much in connection with the anti-rent troubles of the State of New York. This was colonized by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, who does not, however, appear to have himself come out to look after it. The present work of Mr. O'Callaghan contains much information upon this peculiar feature of the early colony, and it has many original documents relating to that particular manor, which have not before seen the light, so far as we know. From these it would appear, that the aforesaid patroon set off farms, built the necessary buildings, furnished the stock and agricultural implements to the farmer, in exchange for which he received one tenth of the produce of the farm, and one half the increase of the stock, in addition to the rent agreed upon, which was payable in grain, beaver-skins, or wampum. He had also a right of preemption of the annual return of grain and stock, as well as of all lands sold within his jurisdiction. He had a monopoly of mill-sites, and consequently every tenant was bound to get his grain ground at his mills. But it should not be inferred from this enumeration of the ancient rights of patroons, that they have existed of late in any similar extent. The grants of land under which all the existing difficulties in the counties of Albany and Rensselaer have arisen bear date since the year 1785. The mode of tenure is evidently founded upon the old system, but it has - No. 131. VOL. LXII. 40 been varied to meet the changes of the times. A low annual rent is charged, payable in kind, four fowls, a fixed quantity of wheat, and a day's work by a man and team. The same reservations are made of mines and water rights, of preëmption rights on the sale, and of fines on the transfer of estates, equal to one quarter part of the gross amount for which they sold, which were originally established. All the other and greater privileges of special jurisdiction and of monopoly have vanished. Even those which really exist have not for a long time been seriously exercised; yet such is the contrast between the opinions of men in the first days of the colony and at the present time, that several counties of the great State of New York are even now in a condition little short of rebellion against the law, on account of the existence of the mere shadow of these ancient tenures. In order, then, fully to comprehend the principles upon which this colony of New Netherland was founded, it will be necessary to bear in mind that the system of settlement was two-fold. By the one, the manors were created, and a mutual feudal relation of patroon and vassal established, as we have endeavoured to show; by the other, certain privileges were accorded to the inhabitants of separate hamlets, villages, or cities, the principal of which was that of recommending for local magistrates a certain number of persons out of whom the Director could make selections to please himself. The administration of justice between man and man was thus, in some measure, retained within the hands of the people whom it most interested. This is the nearest approach we can discover in this history to the idea of popular freedom. The law was administered according to the prescriptions of the civil code, a system, it should be observed, which, however perfect in some of its features, is not based upon that wholesome jealousy of authority which has been the safeguard of human liberty with the Anglo-Saxon race. Town-meetings were utterly prohibited, as contrary to the spirit of the new institutions. The Director and his council, as the representative of the sovereign power, were the proper fountain of all laws for the redress of existing evils. As Mr. Bancroft very justly observes, "The schoolmaster and the minister were praised as desirable, but no provision was made for their maintenance.' What was the consequence? Churches were commenced, and schools opened, but the funds intended for the completion of the one, and the support of the other, were embezzled, or applied to other purposes. Every avenue to enterprise was choked by restrictions. The colony languished and decayed. Intemperance and poverty went hand in hand. "A fourth part of the city of New Amsterdam consisted of grog-shops, and houses where nothing could be got but tobacco and beer." Such are the frank admissions of Mr. O'Callaghan himself. And yet he finds fault with Mr. Bancroft for saying, that "the emigrations from New England engrafted on New Netherland the Puritan idea of popular freedom." To us nothing seems more perfectly demonstrable. Our author, on the other hand, claims for the Dutch proprietary system the cherishing of that idea. "It was, then," he says, "to the wise and beneficent modifications of the feudal code which obtained there, and not to the Puritan idea of popular freedom,' introduced by emigrants from Connecticut, as some incorrectly claim, that New Nether land and the several towns within its confines were indebted for whatever municipal privileges they enjoyed. The charters under which they were planted, the immunities which they obtained, were essentially of Dutch and not of Connecticut origin, and those who look to New England as the source of popular privileges in New Netherland fall, therefore, into an error, sanctioned neither by law nor by history. Strange as it may seem, while every colony, and almost every hamlet, had its local magistracy, the citizens of New Amsterdam, the capital of the whole province, continued, greatly to their discontent, without a voice in the management of their municipal affairs. The government of that city still remained in the hands of the Director-general and his council." p. 393. In this statement our author may be correct, but we scarcely know how it can be maintained against the evidence furnished by his own work. In the very next paragraph to the one we have quoted, he admits that Kieft was perfectly absolute in his government, and that the only check to which the colonists could look for protection, the right of appeal from the Director's judgment to the court of Holland, was totally cut off by him in 1643. Furthermore, when, in the year 1653, the first popular assemblage that ever took place ventured, under the direction of George Baxter, the man who had been Kieft's English secretary, to ask for some participation in the government, the immediate reply of hon est Peter Stuyvesant, the last and best of the Dutch governors, was, "Will you set your names to the visionary notions of the New England man?" And he dispersed the meeting at last with the summary declaration, that "he derived his authority from God and the West India Company, not from the pleasure of a few ignorant subjects." Surely, this doctrine could not have been safely uttered in a community acknowledging any idea of popular freedom. "Had we been under a king, we could not have been worse treated," murmured the people, when Kieft was exercising unchecked as much absolute power in his degree as ordinarily falls to the lot of any king. But though we are not able to see the Dutch colony of New Netherland in quite so favorable a light as our author, we very cheerfully accord to him all praise for his industry and zeal in its behalf. Although the outward aspect of the settlement is not promising, owing to the radical defect in its origin, we yet know very well that a great deal of the best of human nature lay quietly under the surface. If the government was indiscreet, or selfish, or vicious, many of the people were quiet and substantial and moral, living in the fear of God and with good-will to man. We hope that Mr. O'Callaghan will continue his labors, and give to the public the remaining and most interesting part of the history, namely, that which embraces the administration of the worthy General Stuyvesant. And if he still find it in his heart to complain of the encroachments of the Puritan race, which ultimately overturned the domination of the Hollander, let him console himself with the reflection, that the colony throve greatly under the infliction. Even at this day, New York will be found to owe a considerable share of its extraordinary prosperity to the spirit of descendants of New England's Pilgrims, who constitute no inconsiderable proportion of the three millions of her population. ART. VIII. Explanations:-a Sequel to the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. By the Author of New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1846. that Work. THE author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, having, in successive editions, explained and more or less modified particular statements, has at length thought proper to publish this little volume, for the purpose of obviating alleged misapprehensions, and of reinforcing the general argument, of endeavouring to make good what is deficient, and reasserting and confirming whatever has been unjustly challenged," in his book. We have read this new volume with attention, and are prepared to offer some remarks upon it. 66 We must in justice say, that our author preserves an invincible good-temper, equal to his implicit faith. He writes more clearly and soberly than he reasons. Seldom have such extravagant theories been set forth in language so calm and considerate. Seldom has a very winning style been made to cover such a multitude of logical sins. We feel sure that he is thoroughly convinced of the cogency of all his arguments, even where his reasonings are so loose, the special pleading so transparent, and the hypothesis defended so grossly improbable, that we might suspect any other writer of a course of bold experiments upon the credulity of his readers. The author has also made some palpable hits against his various reviewers. His original survey embraced almost all the physical and metaphysical sciences, with none of which does he seem to have more than a general acquaintance; and he thus exposed himself on all sides. to hostile attack, with a fearlessness which nothing but an extraordinary confidence in the strength of his position can explain. Some of his reviewers appear to have committed similar faults. Not content with merely repelling the enemy from the ground which they were, from their special knowledge, so well able to defend, they have sometimes, in the eager onslaught, carried the war too far into the enemy's country and from their own; affording our author opportunities which he is quick and skilful in turning to advantage. Yet, however he may thus have rebutted particular |