was in 1672 reduced by the Dutch; but, in 1674, it was restored to the English. In the same year, the Duke of York received a new patent for the same country, and again divided it between the assigns of Lord Berkley, and Sir George Carteret. The government of New Jersey continued to be proprietary, till it was divided into portions so small, and the number of proprietors had become so great, that the functions of government were continually impeded. The Proprietors, influenced by this and other inconveniences, at last, in 1702, surrendered their au thority to the British Government, in consequence of which New Jersey continued till the revolution to be a Royal Government.

The history of the colony of PENNSYLVANIA consists not, like that of many others, of a detail of religious dissensions; for such dissensions were prevented by a universal toleration in religion, from the first commencement of the settlement. Pennsylvania continued a proprietary government till the revolution. William Penn, a celebrated Quaker, in return for his father's services to the crown, and a large sum due from the crown to himself, obtained, in 1681, a grant of the country which, from his own name, was called Pennsylvania. In 1682, a settlement was made, and a form of government established. In the year following, Penn prevailed on the colonists to accept a form of government different from that which had been first adopted. Penn's presence in England becoming necessary, on account of a dispute with Lord Baltimore, concerning the bounds of their respective American possessions, he delegated the powers of government, in his absence, to five Commissioners. In a short time, the Proprietary superseded his five Commissioners, and sent deputies to govern in his name. While Markham was Governor, in 1696, another change in the administration was effected. Penn, once more, visited the colony in 1699, and during his stay the political institutions were for the last time revised, and that frame of government established which remained unaltered till the revolution. The Pennsylvanians, at an early period began to show that they both understood and valued freedom; and in spite of the efforts of deputies, instigated by the arbitrary disposition of Proprietaries, they maintained that freedom, and preserved the charter of privileges which they had originally maintained. It deserves to be specially recorded, that the Pennsylvanians always treated the Indians in a kind and just manner. They purchased from them the lands which they occupied, with what the Indians accounted equivalent, and observed with punctuality the articles of every truce; and thus won from the natives that esteem and good-will which proved the best preservative of the peace and safety of the settlement.

The Dutch, in consequence of the purchase of the banks of Hudson's River, imagined that they had acquired some right to all the unsettled countries in their neighborhood, They accordingly, in 1623, planted a colony on the river Delaware. This colony was, in a short time, supplanted by one from Sweden; and the country was alternately possessed by the Swedes and Dutch, till, at length, both parties were subjected to the English. In 1674, Charles II. granted this district, as forming a part of the Dutch New Netherlands, to his brother the Duke of York, who, in 1683, sold it to Penn; from that time till the revolution it made

part of Pennsylvania. The Assemblies were different, but the same Governor presided in both.

Many of the States of North America owe their first settlement to religious disputes. We have seen how the persecution of the Puritans peopled the States of New-England; and MARYLAND, we are informed, owed its first settlement to a persecution little less severe, which, in Britain, was carried on against the Roman Catholics. About two hundred gentlemen of fortune and considerable respectability, with their followers, embarked for Maryland, hoping to enjoy that peace and that liberty of conscience, which their native country did not afford them. This colony arrived in Maryland in 1633, and Leonard Calvert, brother to Lord Baltimore, was appointed the first Governor. Lands were purchased of the Indians; and, in a short time, the colony had increased in numbers and in importance. In 1638, the first Assembly was appointed. The grand Convention of England, in 1689, took the government from Lord Baltimore, and made it a Royal Government; and the dread of Popery, which had so much influence in producing the revolution in Britain, procured, in 1692, the establishment of the Protestant religion in Maryland. Lord Baltimore, however, recovered the property of this government in 1716; and retained it till the American revolution, during which his property in lands was confiscated. The petition of his heir, at the close of the war, for the recovery of his right, was rejected by the Legislature of this State.

3

THE FRENCH WARS.

BEING in possession of the inland seas of Canada, as they are justly termed, and of the mouths of the grand receiver of most of the principal rivers of North America, the French conceived the bold idea of uniting their northern and southern possessions by a chain of forts along the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi; and by that means also to confine the English colonists to the eastern side of the Alleghanies. In their northern colonies their military strength was considerable; Quebec and Montreal were strongly fortified; and at other points, Louisburg, Cape Breton, and the forts of Lake Champlain, Niagara, Crown Point, Frontignac, Ticonderoga, and several others, defended the frontiers. They had also erected a considerable fort at the junction of the Alleghany with the Monongahela, then called Du Quesne, but now forming the site of Pittsburg, the Birmingham of America.

Early in the spring of 1755, the British government dispatched General Braddock to America, with a respectable force to expel the French, and keep possession of the territory; and preparations having been made by France to dispatch a reinforcement to her armies in Canada, Admiral Boscawen was ordered to endeavor to intercept the French fleet before it should enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In April, General Braddock met the Governors of the several provinces to confer upon the plan of the ensuing campaign. Three expeditions were resolved upon; one against Du Quesne, to be commanded by General Braddock; one against forts Niagara and Frontignac, to be commanded by Governor Shirley; and one against Crown Point, to be commanded by General Johnson. This last originated with Massachusetts, and was to be executed by colonial troops raised in New England and New York.

While preparations were making for these expeditions, another, which had been previously concerted, was carried on against the French forts in Nova Scotia. This province was settled by the French, but was ceded to the English by the treaty of Utrecht. Its boundaries not having been defined, the French continued to occupy a portion of the territory claimed by the English, and had built forts for their defence. To gain possession of these was the object of the expedition. About two thousand militia, commanded by Colonel Winslow, embarked at Boston; and being joined on their passage by three hundred regulars, arrived in April at the place of their destination. The forts were invested, the resistance made was trifling and ineffectual, and in a short time the English gained entire possession of the province, according to their own definition of its boundaries. Three only of their men were killed.

Of the unfortunate issue of Braddock's expedition we have already given an account. The two northern expeditions, though not so disastrous, did not either of them succeed in attaining the object proposed. In that against Crown Point much delay was occasioned by the distracted cour cils of so many different governments; and it was not till the last of August, that General Johnson, with three thousand seven hundred men. arrived at the fort of Lake George, on his way to Ticonderoga. Meanwhile the French squadron had eluded Admiral Boscawen; and, as soon as it arrived at Quebec, Baron Dieskau, the commander, resolved to march against Oswego with his own twelve hundred regulars, and about six hundred Canadians and Indians. The news of General Johnson's movement determined Dieskau to change his plan, and to lead his forces directly against the American camp. General Johnson called for reinforcements eight hundred troops, raised as a corps of reserve by Massachusetts, were immediately ordered to his assistance; and the same colony undertook to raise an additional number of two thousand men. Colonel Williams was sent forward with one thousand men to amuse and reconnoitre the enemy. He met them four miles from the camp, offered battle, and was defeated. Another detachment shared the same fate; and the French were now within one hundred and fifty yards of the camp, when a halt for a short time enabled the Americans to recover their alarm, and to make good use of their artillery through the fallen trees, behind which they were posted. Dieskau advanced to the charge; but he was so firmly received, that the Indians and militia gave way and fled: he was obliged to order a retreat of the regulars; and, in the ardent pursuit which ensued, he was himself mortally wounded and made prisoner. A scouting party had, in the meantime, taken the enemy's baggage; and when the retreating army came up, they attacked it so successfully from behind the trees, that the panic-struck soldiers dropped all their accoutrements, and fled in the utmost confusion for their posts on the lakes. This victory revived the spirits of the colonists, depressed by the recent defeat of General Braddock, but the success was not improved in any proportion to their expectation. General Shirley, now the commander in chief, urged an attempt on Ticonderoga; but a council of war judging it unadvisable, Johnson employed the remainder of the campaign in fortifying his camp. On a meeting of Commissioners from Massachusetts and Connecticut with the Governor and Council of New York, in October, it was unanimously agreed, that the army under General Johnson should be discharged, excepting six hundred men, who should be engaged to garrison Fort Edward and Fort William Henry. The French retained possession of Ticonderoga and fortified it.

General Shirley, who was to conduct the expedition against Niagara and Fort Frontignac, experienced such delays, that he did not reach Oswego until the 21st of August. On his arrival, he made all necessary preparations for the expedition to Niagara; but, through the desertion of batteaux men, the scarcity of wagons on the Mohawk river, and the desertion of sledgemen at the great carrying place, the conveyance of provisions and stores was so much retarded, that nearly four weeks elapsed before he could commence any further operations; and from a