destinies, it is proposed to trace in his life and writings the history of the origin and early policy of this GREAT REPUBLIC.

In this view it is of especial interest to advert to the peculiar state and character of the colony of New York -the scene of his first and latest efforts-where the idea of an effective Union earliest took a definite shape.

Of all British America, this province had the greatest natural advantages. Situate between those parallels of latitude which comprise its most habitable portion-Its interior a part of that vast intervale which embraces the great lakes that, with their cataract, form the most remarkable feature of this continent-an extensive shore line accessible throughout the year, yet protected by an island that breasts the ocean, and with head lands of commanding defence.-Its seaport proudly seated at the mouth of a noble river, which, bursting its mountain barrier, glides gently onward, ere long to be connected by the hand of art with the far distant gulfs of Mexico and of the St. Lawrence-with a genial climate and a fruitful soil,— New York only required the exertions of unfettered industry to render it equal to all that nature intended.

Of the English colonies, which subsequently united, this alone was first peopled by persons not of English descent.

*

Six years after the settlement of Virginia, a grant was made by the States General to "The United New Netherland Company," on the plea of its discovery, of the territory lying on the coast of North America, between the rivers Connecticut and Delaware, by them designated as the "New Netherlands." This grant conferred the exclusive right of visiting and trading with this distant region. The sole object of this colonization was trade with the

Indians, to protect which, an earthen fort was erected. at New Amsterdam, now the city of New York; * and another of pine logs at Fort Orange, now Albany, where the traffic in furs and peltry was conducted. In the beginning, a close monopoly, it was ere long opened to private merchants paying to the company fixed duties of import and export.

Soon after the organization of this company, its interests were transferred to a more numerous association, called the "Dutch West India Company," composed of wealthy and enterprising merchants.

Of these, a few purchased lands from the Indians; and obtained renewable patents † from the company, whose managers were termed "Lords Directors." These patentees were known as "Patroons;" at whose expense some of the first settlers were transferred hither, and others at the joint expense of the company.

"The colony was planted, at this time, on the Manhates, where a fort was staked out. * The counting-house there is kept in a stone building, thatched with reed; the other houses are of the bark of trees. Each has his own house. The Director and Koopman live together; there are thirty ordinary houses on the east side of the river, which runs nearly north and south. The Hon. Peter Minuit is director there at present; Jan Lempo Schout (Sheriff), Sebastien Janz Cral, and Jan Huyck, Comforters of the Sick, who, whilst awaiting a clergyman, read to the commonalty on Sundays, from texts of Scripture with the Comment. Francois Molemaccher is busy building a horse mill, over which shall be constructed a spacious room, sufficient to accommodate a large congregation, and then a tower is to be erected, where the bells brought from Porto Rico will be hung."-Wassenaer's Historie Van Europa, 1621-1632. In Doc. Hist. of New York, iii. 27.

The condition of renewal was the payment within a year "of one pair
This feudal acknowledgment is thus

of iron gauntlets, and twenty guilders."
referred to by Prior:

"The funeral of some valiant knight
May give this thing its proper light,
View his two gauntlets that declare
That both his hands were used to war."

These settlers were from the frontiers of Flanders and France, lying between the Scheldt and the Lys, "the head-quarters of the Calvinists," chiefly peasants and handicraftsmen, bound to service for a term of years to remunerate the first outlay. Though poor, their poverty was that of exiles banished for their devotion to the rights of conscience. With them came a few freemen.

Over these colonists the Patroons were vested with the administration of civil and criminal justice; with power to establish towns; to erect courts; appoint the local magistrates. Their laws were the civil code, the enactments of the States-General, and the ordinances of the company in Holland; to whose supreme court an appeal was secured. Of these settlements, some were Manors, similar to those in Holland, exercising within themselves a limited civil and criminal jurisdiction, and enjoying other Dutch manorial rights; and smaller "Boweries." The professed religion was that of the Dutch Reformed Church.

In this simple state, this colony, though with frequent small arrivals from the Low Countries, remained feeble and unattractive. In the town of New Amsterdam was the chief increase.

Such was the policy observed, that forty years elapsed before permission was granted to it, as a boon, to nominate persons, from whom nine men were selected, by the Director and Council, to confer, as "Tribunes," on questions of the welfare of the commonalty and of the country-three merchants, three citizens, three farmers. Their successors were to be chosen by the director, without consulting the commonalty. This was in imitation of a tribunal of some antiquity in Holland. Two years after, the first application was made to the States-General for a

* History of Philip the Second, by William H. Prescott, ii. 22.

local government, the colony being invigorated by accessions of a higher class of emigrants from other parts of the Low Countries-who had passed through the furnace of persecution, had triumphed over the long-continued tyranny of Spain,* and brought with them the invaluable consciousness of their virtue and their power to resist.

Events were, meanwhile, preparing for a change that soon followed. The western limits of the colony were curtailed by settlements upon the Delaware. New England was pressing on the east, two-thirds of the island of Nassau, or Long Island, being occupied by emigrants from Connecticut, called "the New England Intrusions." The interior was trembling before the warlike Indian tribes, who, as the Six Nations, gave to the colonists the example of a Federal Republic, and, by their successes, taught the benefits of union.t The townspeople became discontented with a governor true to the duties of his situation, and, in the midst of local broils, England asserted her colonial claims. In sixteen hundred sixty-four, the Dutch capitulated to a force they were unable to resist. This capitulation secured to them freedom of conscience, their own church worship and discipline, the titles to their lands, and "their own customs concerning their inheritances."

The policy of the first English governor was equally wise. To encourage new planters, their purchases were to be made of the sachems, and to be recorded without license of the governor; they were to be joint and contiguous, forming townships; and to remain for ever free lands at the disposal of the owners. Each township to make its own laws, and to decide its small cases; to pay

By the treaty of Westphalia, 1648, the independence of the Netherlands was acknowledged.

Colden, ii. 113.

Richard Nicolls.

its own minister, who was to be elected by the majority of the householders, the compensation stipulated; and to have the free choice of its officers, civil and military. New Amsterdam, now called New York, was incorporated. Not long after, the colony was recovered by the Dutch, but ere a twelvemonth was restored to England.*

Three years after the revolution in England, the first assembly of this province was convened. The English common law, and all existing statutes, not local, were declared to be in force, together with such colonial laws as should be passed by the assembly and council, and approved by the governor and by the crown-the government being composed of this assembly chosen by the people, and of the council and governor appointed by the king. A judiciary system was established, analogous, in many respects, to that of England, which continued more than an hundred years, being, in all its parts, the most complete that has existed in America.

Soon after the establishment of the English supremacy, began an exhibition of that independent spirit which resulted from the presence of different races, with different laws and customs, and differing religious creeds, under a government hated by the majority because of previous national contests, and now, a subjugated people.

An early, and for a time, an unsuccessful attempt to establish the supremacy of the Church of England, was among the first sources of discord. It was resisted by the Dutch population with all the earnestness of their sincere convictions and determined spirit, as a violation of the terms of their capitulation, claiming that a legal provision for the clergy equally contemplated Protestant dis

senters.

* 1674.