single in the exccutive part of the government, and had liberty to restrain the legislative, by refusing his assent to their bills. The assembly, on the other hand, acquired the important privilege of propounding laws, as well as of amending or rejecting them; but though this new constitution was thankfully accepted by the province, it was unanimously rejected by the territories; and affairs stood in this untoward state when the proprietary sailed for England. The representatives of the province and those of the territories divided, and acted as two distinct bodies; and the attempts to unite them proved ineffectual. The territories consisted of the three counties, Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on the Delaware, and are commonly known by the name of the three Lower Counties on the Delaware. Notwithstanding Mr. Penn is celebrated as the wisest of legislators, the assembly, about the year 1704, unanimously came to nine resolutions, in which they complain with great grief of him, "for undermining his own foundations; and by a subtle contrivance, laid deeper than the capacities of some could fathom, finding a way to lay aside the act of settlement, and dissove his second charter." He was likewise charged with having extorted from the province great sums of money. They complained also of the abuses of surveyors, the clerks of the courts, and justices of the peace, who, they said, were all put in by the proprietary, so that he became his own judge in his own cause.-These and other matters were the heads of a representation, or rather remonstrance, drawn up and sent to Mr. Penn, then in England, in which he is represented as an oppressor, and as falsifying his word in almost every respect, with the provincials.+ The disputes which subsisted in Pennsylvania were greatly augmented by the intemperance of the quakers themselves, who, notwithstanding all their zeal for liberty of conscience, persecuted about or soon after 1694, George Keith (who had been one of their most famous preachers) upon his conforming to the church. of England; and went so far as to throw him into prison. They apoligized for their conduct by pleading, that they did not punish him for his religious principles, but for having insulted the civil government. If this was a good plea, the New-Englanders. might gain great advantages from it, in vindicating themselves. as to many of the severities they practised upon the quakers, who. insulted their civil governments, beyond what will be easily credited by those who have not had the opportunity of knowing the Chalmers's Annals, p. 654. The Modern Univerfal Hiftory, vol. xli. p. 19. 1764. transactions transactions of that period, or are not acquainted with the abusive Janguage of some of the then leaders of that denomination-language which the body of modern quakers will not vindicate. It only remains to give a concise account of the settlement of Georgia. In 1732 a number of gentlemen, considering the vast benefit that might arise from the tract of land lying between the Savannah and the river Altamahat petitioned the king for a charter, which was accordingly granted on the ninth of June. They meant that the country should be made a bulwark for the southern colonies against the Spaniards; and should give employment to numbers of people who were burthensome at home to their friends and parishes. The charter constituted them a corporation, by the name of trustees for establishing a colony, by the name of Georgia, including the country from the most northern stream of the Savannah, to the most southern stream of the Altamaha. The corporation was to subsist for 21 years; and after the expiration of that term, the governor and all officers were to be appointed by the crown. Toward the end of August, Sir William Heathcote recommended in the strongest terms, to the directors of the bank, the interests of the colony. His speech had the desired effect, and the members of the court, after his example, contributed largely toward the undertaking, as did great numbers of the nobility, gentry, clergy, and others; and the parliament granted £.10,000. By the beginning of November, about a hundred and sixteen colonists presented themselves, most of them labouring people; and were furnished with working tools of all kinds, stores, and small arms. Mr. Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, generously attended the first set of emigrants to Carolina, where they arrived in good health on the 15th of January, 1733. The Carolinians. made them a present of 100 breeding cattle, besides hogs, and twenty barrels of rice; and furnished them with a party of horse and with scout boats, by the help of which they reached the Savannah, where Mr. Oglethorpe, ten miles up the river, pitched upon a spot for a town; and on February the 9th, the building of the first house commenced. The colonists were most generously assisted by the Carolinians and their governor, cololonel Bull, not only with their purses, but their labour, in raising the new town, named Savannah, from the river. Mr. Oglethorpe was waited upon by a numerous deputation from the Lower Creek Nation, with whom he concluded a treaty; and soon after set out for Charles-Town, on his return to England, where he arrived in 1734, bringing with him several Indian chiefs and a war captain. But before the end of March this year, more emigrants, to the amount of six hundred, were either sent over by charity, or went at their own expence. On the 30th of October the Indians embarked for their own country, having had an allowance while in London of £. 20 a week, of which they spent little, as they commonly ate and drank at the tables of persons of the highest distinction. They moreover received presents to a very considerable amount. They embarked at Gravesend, in a ship which carried over a number of Saltzburghers, being German protestants, who, with others of their countrymen that followed, settled on the Savannah, a town they called Ebenezer, and which by their habits of industry and sobriety soon became considerable." The Georgians made a surprising progress in clearing their lands and building their houses: and, as an encouragement, the British parliament granted them a supply of £.26,000 which, with very great private donations, was expended upon strengthening the south part of Georgia. This being a necessary service for the colony, the trustees pitched upon the highlanders of Scotland, 160 of whom went over in 1735, settled themselves upon Altamaha river, and gave the name of Darien to a fort they built there, to which they afterwards added a small town called New Inverness. In February, 1736, Mr. Oglethorpe, with about 300 passengers on board two ships, anchored in the road of Savannah. He soon began building another town, named Frederica. [1737.] A misunderstanding subsisting between the courts of London and Madrid, and advice being sent from South-Carolina to Britain, that the Spaniards at St. Augustine and the Havannah, were making preparations for attacking Georgia, the government, at the request of the trustees, sent thither a regiment of 600 men, any of whom at the end of seven years might have a regular discharge, and be entitled to a grant of twenty acres of land. The parliament this year granted the colony another supply of £.20,000 which enabled the trustees to send over a fresh embarkation of persecuted protestants. On the breaking out of the war between England and Spain, Mr. Oglethorpe, being invested with a general's command, proceeded with a body of troops to attack St. Augustine in 1740, but the expedition proved unfortunate. In 1742 Georgia was invaded by about 5000 Spaniards and Indians from St. Augustine, in about fifty vessels of various kinds, who were repulsed by the general at the head of the English forces, and a small body of Indians. Had the Spanish descent proved successful, the Carolinians must have been in imminent danger: but the general's good conduct secured them, and and he received congratulatory letters of thanks from several of the American governors, for his great and important services.* 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 quicted till grievances complained of were redressed-and that not a colony, Georgia excepted, was settled at the expence of government. Toward the settlement of the last, parliament granted £.56,000 at three different periods. LETTER TER II. Roxbury, July 9, 1772. THE present letter begins with some special colonial transac tions subsequent to the glorious revolution. Upon information of the accession of William and Mary, the fort at NewYork was seized by the rabble, while the lieutenant governor Nicholson and the council, waited with anxiety for orders to proclaim their new sovereign. On this occasion, Jacob Leisler placed himself at the head of the insurgents; and notwithstanding the protest of the council, possessed himself by force of a letter transmitted by king William to the licutenant governor, or to such as for the time executed the law, and instantly assumed the name and exerted the authority of governor. He convened two sessions of assembly in 1690, which passed various laws. But colonel Sloughter, who had been appointed governor in August, 1689, arriving in March, 1691, Leisler was made prisoner, and, with others, condemned for treason and murder; he and his principal adviser were executed. A legal general assembly was now convened. The precaution taken in the declaration and bill of rights, by the convention and parliament, to state the claims of Englishmen, might naturally induce the Yorkers to * Modern Univerfal Hiftory, vol. xl. p. 453-463. 1763. propose propose somewhat similar for themselves, had there been no prior propensity to that business. But the prevailing opinion of the colonists naturally dictated to them the seizing of the present fovorable opportunity. The New-York general assembly passed an act, declaring what are the rights and privileges of their majesty's subjects within the province." The law enacts, "That the supreme legislative power and authority under their majestics, shall for ever be, and reside in a governor and council, appointed by their majesties, their heirs and successors; and the people by their representatives met and convened in general assembly.” It further enacts, "That no aid, tax, tallage, &c. whatsoever, shall be laid, assessed, levied, or required, of or on any their majesties subjects within the province, &c. or their estates, upon any manner of colour or pretence whatsoever, but by the act and consent of the governor and council, and representatives of the people in general assembly met and convened." This memorable actwas a virtual declaration, that the inhabitants of the colony had a right to be represented in assembly, and enjoyed it not as a privilege, through the grace of the crown.* Six years after, in 1697, a negative was put upon the act, probably by the cy, while the king was absent, which was from April the 26th, to the middle of November, when he returned after the peace of Ryswick was settled. regen The Massachusetts petitioned for a renewal of their former charter, but it could not be obtained; and many reasons were assigned for not granting it, among the rest, its giving them no power to lay taxes and raise money, especially on inhabitants not being of the company, and on strangers coming to or trading with them. One of the chief acts of delinquency alleged in the writ of scire facias, issued against their former charter, was, their having levied money of the inhabitants. [1691.] King William and queen Mary granted a new char ter, in which Plymouth, the Main, Acadia or Nova-Scotia, and the tract lying between Nova-Scotia and the Main, were annexed to and made a part of the Massachusetts. It was complained of, as being not much more than a shadow of the old; seeing that the appointment of the governor, licutenant-governor, secretary, and all the officers of the admiralty, was vested in the crown; that the power of the militia was wholly in the hands of his majesty's governor as captain general; that all judges, justices, and sheriffs, were to be nominated by the governor, with the advice of the council; that the governor had a negative upon the choice of counsellors; that all laws enacted by the general assembly, were to be sent *William Smith's Hiftory of New-York, p. 75. VOL. I. K home |