bold counteractions of some of those institutions necessarily resulting from the removal to a new country-from the intermixture of men of a different origin-from the predominance of peaceful religious principles, and similar considerations, all of which will suggest to the committee that the benefit of its accurate researches will not be confined to one profession nor to Pennsylvania.

They will enter into the history of general jurisprudence, and perhaps enable future Grotiuses and Montesquieus to correct some of the few errors into which they have occasionally fallen.

"The literary history of Pennsylvania" is consigned to another committee, and let no one smile at the mention of the literary history of Pennsylvania.

It is true, that in the outset the obligation of attending to the first necessities of life, cannot be supposed to have left much leisure for the decorations of polite learning; and that the press, (for a printing press was established here as early as 1686,) was probably occupied entirely with public proceedings, matters of mere business, or the polemical pamphlets ensuing from Keith's controversy with the friends.

But William Penn was himself a man of letters, and he had those about him who also possessed learning and delighted in books *

* An account of our early institutions for the instruction of youth, may also be expected from this committee. Of these, the first com.

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A most important branch of disquisition still remains which has also been assigned to a special committee. It is that which relates to the aboriginal inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and incidentally of all this vast country.

The true condition of the northern part of America before the discoveries of Columbus, cannot now be ascertained. In the islands he found an improved, an agricultural, and a numerous people. Hispaniola alone was computed to contain a million of inhabitants.* When Cortez boldly and unjustly penetrated into the heart of the Mexican empire, he discovered an organised power, pursuing in tranquillity and peace the arts of civilized life; and the subsequent invasion of Peru by Pizarro produced the same result. In respect to these parts of the great continent at that time, history is little at a loss. Only some obscure and remote tribes, scarcely recognized by the general government of the country, and in many cases be

menced under a liberal charter from William Penn, and is still in flourishing existence. It contributes to remove an erroneous opinion entertained by some, that the Society of Friends is generally opposed to much human learning. Their Barclay, their Logan, their Story, are proofs to the contrary. Whoever reads the book so highly and justly prized by them, entitled "No Cross No Crown," composed by William Penn, while immured in the Tower, will find a profusion of ancient learning. And the only general history of Pennsylvania that has yet been attempted, was by a man of great erudition, a member of this so ciety, and the principal teacher in the institution above mentioned.

* Robertson, vol. i. p. 227, he quotes Berrera.

yond the reach of their power, remained unvisited and unknown.

But of North America we have less certain knowledge. The first settlers, comparatively few, exploring less the interior of the country than its harbours and its streams, were acquainted only with the inhabitants in the vicinity of their own settlements. A knowledge of those remote from the coast was slowly and gradually obtained. The English power does not appear to have set on foot any expedition for mere inland discovery.

A Spaniard (De Soto,) and two Frenchman (De La Salle, and Hennepin,) were the only persons who in early times carried on expeditions through the interior, chiefly for purposes of discovery as well of its topography, as of the character, numbers and manners of its native inhabitants.

It is unaccountable that no such measure was undertaken by the active and enlightened William Penn.

If such inquiries had been made, if intelligent persons had explored the whole country from North to South, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi, we should probably be possessed of certain and valuable information in respect to the

names, the numbers, the habits, and the history" of many nations which have now wholly disappeared from the chart of human existence.

It is not, however, supposed that a much greater degree of what we term civilization, F

would at that time have been discovered among them. Whatever were their advances in moral improvement, and the arts of life, at, or before the times when those mounds and structures took place of which we are unable to discover the causes, or the agents, it is possible that their inquiries would not have yielded full satisfaction. Yet those travellers would have been considerably nearer to the times of their construction, and if, notwithstanding their efforts to be informed, doubt and obscurity still continued, it would have afforded further proof that the original settlement of this country, from whencesoever it proceeded, was of most remote antiquity.

The fate of nations is not always the same. They do not, perhaps they cannot, consistently with the character of man, always continue at the same point.

Knowledge and improvement advance slowlythe condition of society becomes more happy as they advance. When the point of extreme refinement is attained, the enervation of luxury generally invites foreign invasion. A yoke is imposed, sometimes lightened by the wisdom of civilized conquerors, sometimes rendered heavy In and oppressive by uncultivated barbarians.

either case the subjugated nation with its independence loses its ardour for a continuance and enjoyment of those arts and sciences which it had previously attained. In the latter case particularly, barbarism when it triumphs, delights to

overthrow and eradicate whatever has formed the ornament and felicity of those whom it subdues. Thus Egypt preserved under the domination of the Romans, a secondary, but still a valuable station in the world of letters. Its rude Arabian conquerors inflamed by bigotry and blinded by their own ignorance, overwhelmed and destroyed the remnants of their ancient civilization, and reduced them almost instantaneously to a barbarism beyond their own. There is scarcely a set of people now to be found more ignorant and degraded than the Fellahs and the Copts of Egypt.

The total subversion of knowledge and improvement is perhaps always the effect of external force. Nations do not spontaneously relapse into rudeness and ignorance.

During the long and absolute domination of the Romans in Britain, their literary cultivation and polished habits may have been partially communicated to the natives; of this however we can speak with no certainty, but we are fully apprised that on the final departure of the Romans, the Britons soon became, perhaps, as uninformed and unimproved as they were before, and certainly more timid, helpless, and inert. Learning soon decayed, or was confined to their priesthood, and the ardour of a national spirit, the only source of national excellence, was wholly extinguished.

If from any cause, there is reason to suppose that science and the arts were once more highly cultivated in this country; that civilization and im