pre-eminently a slave state. Thus we see that, for good or for evil, they were alike impotent. But they were not impotent for evil in another sense. They retarded the political education of the colonists; and they created dissensions, by attempting to exercise arbitrary power. This government of Georgia was among certainly the least mischievous forms of a proprietary, because its power was limited to so short a period; and, fortunately, a more virtuous creature never existed than Oglethorpe. He would, however, have led a happier life, and would have proved a more successful colonizer, had he made his colonists take care of themselves, in place of forcing them to receive him as their lawgiver.

From Gordon we learn that the Bank of England aided this colony, and that parliament gave money to it three several times; so that, besides private benevolence, the nation paid through parliament, for this colony, £56,000; which large sum was exclusive of what it received from the Bank of England, and other private sources of benevolence. The remarks of Gordon, when summing up his account of the formation of the several colonies, deserve consideration :—

"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 quieted, till grievances complained of were redressed;

and that not a colony, Georgia excepted, was settled at the expense of government. Towards the settlement of the last, parliament granted £56,000 at three different periods."

From this history, it is plain that the government could take no credit for any aid rendered, except in the case of Georgia: it meddled, however, at different times, with all of these colonies, and always mischievously. The inherent vigour of the people, however, and the spirit of independence, then strong among them, enabled them to overcome the difficulties of nature, and to withstand the evil influence of the government. The time at length arrived when there was no alternative between submitting to the constant supervision and unjust exactions of the English government, and resisting and throwing off its authority. The colonies took the great but dangerous resolution, and rebelled. Fortunately for themselves-fortunately for mankind-the government blundered as grossly when dealing with rebels, as when they sought to govern obedient subjects. The colonists achieved their independence, and in their turn afforded an example of a colonizing and mother country. To that example let us next apply ourselves.

*Gordon, History of American Revolution, vol. i. p. 95.

CHAPTER III.

AMERICAN COLONIES-GENERAL DESCRIPTION-COMPARISON —BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1783 BOUNDARIES IN 1849-AMERICAN SYSTEM-SOME RESULTS POWER OF CONGRESS AS TO WASTE LANDS. AN ORDINANCE QUOTED

TERRITORIES

STATES

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

AVING thus rapidly described the one scheme of

colonization to which at the outset I alluded, I now proceed to the exposition of the second scheme, from which I wish to derive instruction.

This second scheme of colonization is that which the United States have adopted and acted upon, since they became an independent and sovereign people. The colonies which they have planted are the new states, which, since 1783, have been added to the union, and the territories which are now in progress towards that position.

These new states, though while in the condition of colonies (which they are while they continue TERRITORIES) they look to the United States as their metropolis, yet receive, as did the colonies, while subject to our sway, emigrants from other nations. The leading mind has, almost in every instance, been furnished by the New England States, the greater part, perhaps, of the population, by the British Isles.

The constitution of the United States contemplates distinctly, and provides for the colonization of the immense unpeopled wastes which belong to the nation called the United States; and contemplates not only the colonization of these wild regions, but also the change of the communities so formed, from the condition of colonies into that of sovereign states, and the reception of them into the great Federal Union, when they become integral portions of the great Empire, known to foreign powers as the United States of America.

So soon as the United States became in fact independent, and were so acknowledged by England in the year 1783, two great questions arose, which are intimately connected with our present subject. The one was, what were the boundaries of the several states? and the second, those having been determined, what was to be done with the immense territory which lay beyond the boundaries of the several states-territories which belonged to no one of them, but was the property of the political entity styled the United States.*

GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISON.

The result of the determinations of the statesmen of the United States, and the comparison of that result with that brought about by the doings of English states

* I am not required on the present occasion to enter into any description of the disputes which arose among the separate States on the subject of these wild lands, nor of the intricate questions to which the complication of state interests gave rise. Those disputes are hardly yet arranged, and constitute a part, and no inconsiderable or insignificant part, of the difficulties which lay in the way of congress, when forming their colonial systems—a difficulty which England has escaped hitherto.

men on the same continent, with respect precisely to the same matters, and within precisely the same period, constitute one of the most instructive, though to us the most humiliating parallels which our annals afford. If such another could be discovered, we might indeed tremble for the future destiny of England.*

A line drawn across the continent, from the Atlantic on the one side to the Pacific on the other—a line which for a large portion of the whole distance, takes the course of the great waters which form the chain of the great lakes, divides the whole of what may be termed North America into two parts; one of whichviz., the portion of the continent lying south of this line, belongs to the United States; while the other-viz., that lying to the north, is the property of England. The first or southern portion is certainly, in almost every particular, superior to the northern portion of this vast continent. The great advantages derived from this superiority of climate, soil, and means of communication, have undoubtedly much aided the American statesmen, and in no small degree contributed to the success which they have obtained in this mighty strife. Making, however, every allowance for the advantage conferred by the natural superiority of the territory itself, still there is much to be accounted for, which can only have resulted from the difference of the system adopted on the two sides of this long boundary line.

* I am not now speaking of what England achieved before 1783, butsince. Leaving the consideration of our old colonies, as colonies, I now proceed to speak of British North America, as at present existing, and of our doings there since 1783, by way of contrast to the American colonies formed since the same year.