The Province of Pennsylvania.

A royal charter for Pennsylvania was granted, in 1681, to Wm. Penn, a Quaker, who planted in it a colony of Quakers or Friends and established a proprietary government. In accordance with the pacific and christian principles of his sect, Wm. Penn and his followers established the principles of religious liberty and equality in the province of Pennsylvania, for all sects of christians, except Roman Catholics, and invited settlers from the continent of Europe, as well as from Great Britain and Ireland. Under his mild dominion, and the liberal and just system of government established in the province, great numbers of refugees, flying from religious dissentions and persecutions in Europe, came to Pennsylvania as a place of refuge, and the province increased rapidly in population. Presbyterians from England, Scotland, and the North of Ireland; Lutherans, Calvinists, or the Reformed church, Moravians, Mennonites, and Dunkers from Germany; and Quakers from Great Britain, and also some from Holland and Germany. But the Quakers constituted a majority of all the inhabitants, and had the control of the government of the province for more than seventy years, and until about the year 1755.

The Colony of Georgia.

In 1732. letters patent were issued by the king to twenty-one persons, constituting them and their successors a corporation for settling and establishing colonies in the present state of Georgia. The avowed object was a charitable one-to aid in sending, as emigrants, poor and indigent people of Great Britain and Ireland, who were out of employment, to enable them to improve their condition in a new country. The company sent out within a few years, at a very large expense, several parties of emigrants, consisting of English, Scotch, Welsh, Irish, and some Germans, who formed the first settlements in that state. The trustees of the company established a proprietary government and encouraged emigration to the province of all Protestant sects of christians, and even Jews. Free toleration of all Protestant sects was thereby practically established from the first settlement of the province.

Charters of the Colonies.

All the Anglo-American colonies were settled under patents or charters from the kings or government of Great Britain, granted to distinguished persons-with power to establish and maintain governments therein, and to enact laws with the concurrence of the freeholders thereof. The settlements were generally made at a very heavy charge to the proprietors, incurred in defraying the expenses of sending over large numbers of poor emigrants, and giving them lands, or giving them leases of lands, on small quitrents, to be paid annually after a certain number of years—the proprietors expecting to indemnify themselves, eventually, out of those quit-rents, trade, and the sale of other lands, after the country should become considerably settled. The claims and doctrines of squatter's rights, and squatter sovereignty, were unknown in those days. Those doctrines were not developed until near the middle of the nineteenth century.

Religious toleration was first established in Virginia and the Puritan colonies of New England, after the English revolution, of 1688; it had been established, practically, long before that time, in all the other colonies then settled.

French settlers north and west of the Ohio river.

The French population north-west of the Ohio river, was not included in the census of 1790. They were then estimated at nearly 6,000-adding them, it would swell the white population of the United States to about 3,180,000; of whom probably about 2,800,000 were of British and Irish descent-200,000 German, and persons of German descent; 125,000 Low Dutch; 40,000 Huguenots and French Catholics; and 15,00 Swedes, Finns, Jews, and Italians.

German Settlers.

There were, in 1790, probably more than 100,000 Germans in Pennsylvania; large settlements of them in several counties on the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, in the state of New York, in Western Maryland, Western Virginia, and each of the states of North and South Carolina, and some in Georgia. Their descendants migrated from Pennsylvania westward, and settled central

Ohio, central Indiana, and made many settlements in Illinois and Missouri. They continue to this day a distinct people, and all over thirty or forty years of age, speak the German language; but the modern system of common schools and universal education is rapidly teaching the rising generation the English language, and Americanizing them. Their localities can be marked and the numbers estimated with reasonable accuracy, by the churches returned in the census of 1850. The German churches are Lutheran, German Reformed, Moravian, Mennonite, and Tunker or Dunker. The Mennonites are German Baptists; there are also some German Methodists. The Catholic German immigrants, who have come to our country during the last forty years, have settled in all the north-western states, in nearly all the northern states, and in some of the southern states.

Methodist Church.

The Methodists were first organized into societies, as a distinct church, in England, in the year 1739, and in the AngloAmerican colonies, in 1766. They were comparatively few in number, until after the revolutionary war, and hence they did not figure in our colonial history. The census of 1850 shows that they are now scattered throughout all the states, and are the most numerous denomination of christians in the United States-having about thirty-four per cent. in numbers of all the churches, and nearly one-third of all the church accommodations. There are some German Methodist churches, but the Methodists are mostly of English and Welsh descent.

French Settlements.

The French settled at Quebec, in 1608, established a missionary station among the Indians on the Island of Montreal, in 1642; made a settlement, and laid the foundation of the city of Montreal, in 1659; explored the St. Lawrence river, the great lakes, and the water courses connecting the chain of American lakes, which form the sources of the St. Lawrence river, and also the Mississippi river from near its source to its mouth; established several missionary stations among the Indians, in the basin of the great lakes; settled in Detroit in 1701, and soon afterwards established mis

sionary stations and made settlements at Gallipolis, in Ohio, Vincennes, in Indiana, Kaskaskia and Cohokia, in Illinois, and at several places in Wisconsin. They claimed the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi rivers, and their tributaries, and the basin of the great lakes, as New France.

In 1716, the French built a fort and called it Fort Rosalie, and made a settlement at the present site of the city of Natchez; which was the first settlement made in the Lower Mississippi. In 1718, the city of New Orleans was founded, and the first settlement made there by the French.

The English, with the aid of the Anglo-American colonists captured Quebec, in 1759, and Montreal, in 1760. The power of France, on the continent of America, being effectually overturned, the province of Louisiana, including all that part of the country west of the Mississippi river, and also that part south of the 31st degree of latitude, was ceded by the French king to Spain, in 1762; and the Canadas, with the whole country north of the 31st degree of latitude, and east of the Mississippi river, were ceded to Great Britain the following year.

The population of the province of Louisiana, at the time of its cession to Spain, in 1762, was estimated at 10,000. Spain held it forty years, during which period some Spanish settlements were made. In 1802, the province of Louisiana was ceded back by Spain to France, and in 1803, it was purchased by president Jefferson, and ceded by Napoleon Bonaparte to the United States. The census of 1810 indicates that the population, at the time of the cession, was in round numbers very nearly as follows: White inhabitants of French and Spanish descent, (mostly French), about 40,000; slaves, 30,000, and free colored persons, about 7,000 ; total, 77,000, all of whom, that had any religion, were Catholics. About two-thirds of them were within the limits of Louisiana, and one-third in Missouri and Arkansas.

Indented Servants.

It had been the custom in England, and many countries of Europe, for centuries prior the settlement of America, for boys to serve as apprentices for a series of years, before the laws allowed them to follow any trade or mechanical employment. They usu

That cus

ally served under articles of agreement, called indentures, and they were called indented apprentices. It was then, and is still, common in England, for agricultural and other laborers and female servants to be bound by indentures in like manner. They were bound for a certain number of years, and called indented servants. tom was transferred to the Anglo-American colonies; and during the period of their existence as colonies, great numbers of indented servants were sent over as laborers-consisting of young persons, and poor people, both males and females. Thousands were sent over under indentures, by which they bound themselves to labor a certain number of years, to pay for their passage; and thousands were brought over by ship-masters, under an engagement that on their arrival they should be sold to pay a certain sum for their passage.

That class of emigrants were deemed essential to the industry and success of the colonies; and great efforts were made, and large expenses incurred by the proprietors of the provincial grants and charters, to procure them and ship them to the colonies. Agents were kept in cities, and in some instances sent to Germany, to procure that class of persons as emigrants; and in many cases, convicts from the prisons of Europe were sent over as indented

servants.

That class of people were in a state of temporary servitude. They owed service and labor for a certain number of years to their masters, who were bound to provide for them, and furnish them necessary food, clothing, and lodging, in sickness, as well as in health. That class of persons were introduced into all the colonies, but were more numerous in the southern and middle colonies than they were in New England. Their numbers diminished as the African slave-trade became more active, and negro slaves more numerous.

Professer Tucker, in his life of Mr. Jefferson, says that, according to an official communication from the governor, Sir Wm. Berkly, made in 1671, the population of the colony of Virginia was then estimated at 40,000; of whom 2,000 were negro slaves, and 6,000 were white indented servants; that the importation of slaves did not exceed two or three cargoes in seven years; but the introduc-' tion of white servants he estimated at 1,500 annually, the most of whom were English, a few Scotch, and fewer Irish.