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Thus to men cast in that heroic mould
Came Empire, such as Spaniard never knew-
Such Empire, as beseems the just and true;
And at the last, almost unsought, came Gold.

But He, who rules both calm and stormy days,
Can guard that people's heart, that nation's health,
Safe on the perilous heighths of power and wealth,
As in the straitness of the ancient ways.

The Hall, Bawtry.

May 30th, 1854.

RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES.

THE FOUNDERS OF

NEW PLYMOUTH.

L

THE FOUNDERS OF

NEW PLYMOUTH.

IT does not often happen to those who are intent

on historical investigation of the minuter kind, and who are willing to devote themselves to the study of writings usually deemed uninviting and uninstructive, such as monumental inscriptions, parish registers, account rolls, wills, visitation books; to recover facts important not only in the history of any one family or nation, but in the history of the migration of Nations, which is, in fact, a main topic in the history of the Human Race: yet this seems to have been for once my good fortune.

The settlement of colonies, which often issues in

the establishment of new and independent

communities, is usually the work of Govern

ments; and the transaction is duly chro

nicled with other public events.

Colonization effected by Governments, or

private enter

prise.

But it is not always

So. It was private commercial enterprise which led

to the settlement of Barbadoes, and subsequently of

2

THE FOUNDERS OF

the other West India Islands belonging to Great Britain. It was the working in a few private men of an overstrained spirit of opposition to the established order of ecclesiastical affairs in Protestant England, which led to the colonization of New England, and, in the event, to the establishment of the United States of America as one of the great communities of the civilized world. If we desire to know the particulars of movements such as these, we must not therefore expect to find them in public histories, or floating on the surface of human knowledge, but we must look to the circumstances of private families, of which it is hard to collect the particulars, and dive deep into those evidences, whatever they may be, in which anything is to be found respecting them. In many

In the latter cases it happens that nothing can be recase difficulty

of recovering covered, because all evidence has perished.

satisfactory

information. England is, perhaps, in this respect not in a worse condition than other countries, but all who have made the experiment know that the difficulty is very great of recovering facts respecting private people who lived even no longer ago than thereigns of Elizabeth and James the First. And even in the more favoured cases, when the people about

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