The wealth of seas-the spoils of war? The Rev. Cotton Mather, an evangelical minister of Boston, in his Ecclesiastical History of New England, * "There was in the principles of the Puritans nothing of philosophy, either in the good sense of the word or the bad. And it is also most unjust to charge them with irreverence or want of humility. They received the scriptures as God's word, and they followed them implicitly. Neither do they seem chargeable with establishing nice distinctions, in order to evade their obvious meaning; their fault seems rather to have lain in the other extreme; they acquiesced in the obvious and literal meaning too unhesitatingly. Nor yet were they wanting in respect for all human authority, as trusting in their own wisdom and piety only. On the contrary, the decisions of the earlier church with respect to the great Christian doctrines, they received without questioning; they by no means took the scriptures into their hands, and sat down to make a new creed of their own out of them. They disregarded the church only where the church departed from the obvious sense of scripture; I do not say the true sense, but the obvious one. The difference as to their moral character is considerable: because he who maintains another than the obvious sense of scripture against other men, may indeed be perfectly right, but he is liable to the charge, whether grave or frivolous as it may be, of preferring his own interpretation to that of the church. But maintaining the obvious sense, even if it be the wrong one, he can hardly be charged himself with arrogance; he may with greater plausibility retort the charge on his opponents, that they are substituting the devices of their own ingenuity for the plain sense of the word of God....... The Puritans wished to alter the existing church system for one which they believed to be freer and better; and so far they resembled a common popular party: but inasmuch as in this and all other matters their great principle was conformity to scripture, and they pushed this to an extravagant excess, because their interpretation of scripture was continually faulty, there was, together with their free political spirit, a narrow spirit in things religious which shocked not only the popular party of the succeeding age, but many even in their own day, who politically entertained opinions far narrower than theirs."Dr. ARNOLD'S Introductory Lectures on Modern History. published in 1698, says:- "There were more than a few attempts of the English to people and improve the parts of New England which were to the northward of New Plymouth; but the designs of those attempts being aimed no higher than the advancement of some worldly interests, a constant series of disasters has confounded them, until there was a plantation erected upon the nobler designs of Christianity; and that plantation, though it has had more adversaries than perhaps any upon earth, yet having obtained help from God, it continues to this day." The emigrants were about one hundred and fifty in number; and after an unfavourable and tempestuous voyage, they were compelled to land on that part of the New England coast, where the town of Plymouth is now built. The rock on which they landed is an object of great curiosity and veneration in the United States. As soon as they had landed they passed the following act:-"In the name of God, ainen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid," &c. This social contract was drawn up in 1620, and the emigrants who founded other settlements in New England, soon afterwards acted in a similar manner. Never was a colony planted with less apparent prospect of success, but with higher and holier aims; and the result is a glorious and instructive lesson to nations: for may not the words of the inspired prophet be applied historically to that people, "A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I the Lord will hasten it in his time." Let an American statesman, Mr. Everett, the present ambassador to England from the United States, eloquently describe the humble origin and future greatness of his country:-" Shut now the volume of history, and tell me on any principle of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers? Tell me, man of military science, in how many months were they all swept off by the thirty savage tribes enumerated within the early limits of New England? Tell me, politician, how long did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had not smiled, languish on the distant coast? Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventures of other times, and find the parallel of this. Was it the winter's storm, beating upon the houseless heads of women and children? was it hard labour and spare meals? was it disease? was it the tomahawk? was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined enterprize, and a broken heart, aching in its last moments at the recollection of the loved and left beyond the sea? was it some, or all of these united, that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate? And is it possible that neither of these causes-that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope? Is it possible that, from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy not so much of admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, a reality so important, a promise yet to be fulfilled so glorious?" The number of settlers increased by arrivals from Europe almost every year. Rhode Island was purchased from the Indians about the year 1638. Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine were founded soon afterwards. Hume the historian, in narrating the events of Charles the First's reign, in the year 1637, states that, "the Puritans, restrained in England, shipped themselves off for America, and laid there the foundations of a government, which possessed all the liberty, both civil and religious, of which they found themselves bereaved in their native country. But their enemies, unwilling that they should any where enjoy ease and contentment, and dreading perhaps the dangerous consequences of so disaffected a colony, prevailed on the king to issue a proclamation, debarring these devotees access even into those inhospitable deserts. Eight ships lying in the Thames, and ready to sail, were detained by order of council, and in these were: Sir Arthur Hazelrig, John Hambden, John Pym, and Oliver Cromwell, who had resolved for ever to abandon their native country." Hume quaintly observes, "The king had afterwards full leisure to repent this exercise of his authority." But the fact deserves more serious consideration, as one of those remarkable passages in history, which prove on what apparently trivial circumstances the most momentous results depend. The detention of those vessels by an arbitrary mandate, ultimately led to civil war and rebellion,-to the execution of the king himself,-to the overthrow of the monarchy, to Cromwell's usurpation,—and to the manifold and important consequences which arose out of those memorable events. The progress of emigration was not effectually checked by the order in council, for in the following year three thousand persons embarked for New England. The British government allowed the New England colonies to enjoy a large share of political independence, either under governors or chartered companies, or laws framed in general conformity with those of England, administered by themselves, under the protection of the mother country. The rights of personal liberty, trial by jury, the voting of taxes by the people, and their intervention in public affairs, were recognized by the laws of New England. The great uniformity in opinions, and the near approach to equality in condition, which existed in those colonies, prepared them for democratic institutions. Their governors and other public functionaries were chosen by the people, and the elective franchise was given in some of the states to the whole of the citizens, and in all of them it was very extensively conferred. Each town was a little republic, although the supremacy of the mother country and the authority of the British sovereign were acknowledged. But the colonists were accustomed to believe that their local assemblies stood in the same relation to them as the British parliament did to the parent state. In several branches of useful legislation, those colonies were in advance of all the states of Europe at that day. Their regulations for the relief of the poor, for public registers, for the maintenance of roads, and above all for education, were excellent. Schools were established in every township, and in the more populous districts; and the inhabitants were required, under a penalty, to support them. The language of their enactments denotes the serious and devout spirit in which they were framed; with reference to which M. De Tocqueville remarks: "In America religion was the road to knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws led man to civil freedom." New York, originally a Dutch settlement and founded about the year 1614, was afterwards taken and established by the English. New Jersey was founded about fifty years later. South Carolina was founded in 1669, by Governor Sayle; Pennsylvania in 1682, by Wm. Penn, and other members of the Society of Friends ; North Carolina, about the year 1728; Georgia, in |